'Model Behavior' at The Cooper Union explores the influence of architectural modeling on human behavior

A new Cooper Union exhibition curated by the group Anyone Corporation will explore the role of architectural models as indicators of human behavior by using more than 70 works from 45 of the design industry’s leading names.

"We are at a critical juncture, a time when we need to examine the models that have long been in use," the show’s curator and Log editor Cynthia Davidson explains. "As Thomas Demand has said, 'without models, there would be chaos,'  but our current world models have led to the climate crisis, extreme poverty, and homelessness. We need to rewrite those models, especially now as architecture is questioning its methods and intentions."

The exhibition will feature the designs of Thomas Demand, Peter Eisenman, Isamu Noguchi, Olafur Eliasson, Greg Lynn, Forensic Architecture, Ensamble, and 38 other notable designers. Models will be shown side-by-side said to be displayed like "shop windows" filled with various objects and dioramas visible from the sidewalk. The exhibition will also include six diorama-like window installations commissioned specifically for the street-level colonnade of the Foundation Building. 

The exhibition entices viewers into examining what acting Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture Dean Hayley Eber stated, "Model making is central to all architectural education and practice, but our role as architects and educators is to consider the societal and environmental impact of design, and that starts with this foundational and iterative component of the design process."

Models include an all-nickel World Trade Center Constantin and Laurene Leon Boym’s Buildings of Disaster series, a plexiglass and paper model of painter Frederic Edwin Church’s historic Olana home, and others from Cooper Union alumni and faculty like Michael Young, Jürgen Mayer, David Gersten, and Nanako Umemoto. 

View the full list of Model Behavior contributors below:

• 2014 The Cooper Union Architectonics Studio taught by David Gersten 
• AGENCY Architecture (Eresla Kripa and Stephen Mueller) 
• Stan Allen Architect
• Autodesk (Building Information Modeling) 
• Bair Balliet (Kelly Bair and Kristy Balliet) 
• Besler & Sons (Erin Besler and Ian Besler) 
• Constantin Boym and Laurene Leon Boym 
• Caruso St John (Adam Caruso and Peter St John) 
• Certain Measures (Tobias Nolte and Andrew Witt) 
• d.esk (David Eskenazi) 
• Thomas Demand 
• Eisenman Architects (Peter Eisenman, Sam Anderson) 
• Olafur Eliasson
• Ensamble (Antón García-Abril and Débora Mesa) 
• Darell Wayne Fields 

• First Office (Anna Neimark and Andrew Atwood) 
• Gonzalo Fonseca 
• Forensic Architecture (Eyal Weizman) 
• FreelandBuck (Brennan Buck and David Freeland) 
• HECTOR (Jae Shin, Damon Rich) 
• Miriam Hillawi Abraham 
• Höweler + Yoon (Eric Höweler and Meejin Yoon) 
• J Mayer H (Jürgen Mayer) 
• Aleksandra Jaeschke 
• Jones, Partners (Wes Jones) 
• Keith Krumwiede 
• Greg Lynn FORM
• MALL (Jennifer Bonner) 
• MOS (Michael Meredith and Hilary Sample) 
• N H D M (Nahyun Hwang and David Eugin Moon) 

• Ekow Nimako 
• Isamu Noguchi 
• Office Kovacs (Andrew Kovacs) 
• OrreryArt (Gina Scioscia) 
• RUR (Jesse Reiser and Nanako Umemoto) 
• Ruy Klein (Karel Klein and David Ruy) 
• NEMESTUDIO (Neyran Turan) 
• Studio Sean Canty 
• su11 (Ferda Kolatan) 
• wa.k studio (Beom Jun Kim) 
• WOJR (William O’Brien Jr.) 
• Cameron Wu 
• Liam Young 
• Young & Ayata (Michael Young, Kutan Ayata)

Model Behavior kicks off today, October 4, and will run through November 18th. Admission is free to the public.

More information about the exhibition, including special lectures by architectural historian Annabel Wharton and architect Kiel Moe, can be found here.