Process
7 min read
Why we test every building with a card model and the sun
Software can simulate daylight to the lux. We still carry white card models into the garden at four in the afternoon. Here is why.
(Written by)
Tomás Ferraz
Project Architect
Every project in the studio passes through a white card model at 1:50 or 1:20. Before any client meeting, we take it outside and turn it slowly under the real sun.
Simulation tells you how much light arrives. A model tells you how it feels: the softness of an edge, the glow at the back of a deep window, the way a shadow slides across a floor.
What the model shows that the screen doesn’t
Glare and reflection. The colour of bounced light off a pale wall. The moment a room goes from bright to luminous. These are qualities, not quantities, and they are what people remember.
Turn the model until the room surprises you. Then build that room.
We photograph each model at fixed hours and pin the prints to the wall above the drawing table. By the end of design development, the wall becomes a calendar of the building’s light.
