Models

Something on models caught my eye at a conference inspired by the work of Lionel March Professor of Design at the OU 1976-1981. Several people from the OU past and present, Phil Steadman (UCL), George Stiny (MIT), Ramesh Krishnamurthi (CMU) and Iestyn Jowers, joined colleagues from around the world including his former students Helen Couclelis (UC Santa Barbara) and Thanos Economous (Georgia Tech).  It was a tremendous celebration of Lionel across, Painting, Aesthetics, Logic, Opera Sets, Computer Aided Design, Planning, Complexity, Architectural History.  A few of us followed up with a visit to the OU and the sights of Milton Keynes. Although a bit of a look back, this event was swiftly followed by a look forward at Georgia Tech in Atlanta two weeks later where new algorithms for shape generation were showcased by Thanos Economou. To finish,  and the point of this post, a picture from Lionel March’s “Modern Movement to Vitruvius” (RIBA Journal 1972) of a neat graphical summary of inherent pitfalls of design models.