Model Workshop: Building as a Common Process

Building with students and trades firms as an integrated didactic method in architectural training.

The Institute of Architecture and Planning at the University of Liechtenstein in Vaduz pursues highly innovative approaches in architectural education. A focus on practice and bringing students together with craftsmen and their businesses is a key part of this. Model Workshop documents one of these programs at the institute. Students are confronted with different aspects of construction at a scale of 1:1, ranging from experimental wood structures through assembly techniques to questions of manufacturing. Complementing theoretical groundwork, the students’ design ideas are produced by timber construction firms as prototypes at a scale of 1:1, tested for functionality, and further developed.

The book introduces this design work and direct transition into practice and analyzes the learning process of building at full scale. It also offers guidance through texts and images for an in-depth engagement with these didactic methods in close cooperation with local construction businesses.

Carmen Rist-Stadelmann is an architect and lecturer at the Liechtenstein School of Architecture, where she teaches and researches in the Craft & Structure Studio.

Urs Meister is a principal with Zurich-based firm Käferstein & Meister Architekten AG and professor at the Liechtenstein School of Architecture.