Journal Note 3 of 6
The model is the argument
Clients do not read plans. They walk round a model, bend down and look through the door. That is when a project is decided.
About 150 words
Stelios has made about three hundred models since 2010. Every project has at least three: a rough one in grey card for us, a clean one for the client, and a large one of a single room or detail.
We make them by hand because the making is part of the thinking. Cutting a wall in card, you notice it is too long. Gluing a roof, you see that it will never drain. A computer model shows you what you drew; a card model shows you what you forgot.
And models persuade. At the village meeting in Anopoli, eleven families who had disagreed for years stood around the model of their hillside and agreed in forty minutes. At Kissamos the mayor bent down, looked through the vaults at the little figures, and said: yes, it will be cool under there.
On Friday afternoons the whole office makes models. It is the best part of the week.