Børre Skodvin,
Head of Institute of Architecture
The Full-scale Prototype
Børre Skodvin
After a long and important discussion at the Institute of
Architecture during the past two years, it has been decided to
adjust the balance of the curriculum by increasing the emphasis
on studios with a particular attention toward the more prac-
tical and professional aspects of the architectural education.
Phrased differently, we increase the number of master courses
that aim to bring the students closer to the process of building,
to enhance the understanding of the translation of the abstract
concept into a physical manifestation. Each semester we see
that these types of studios attract applicants far beyond their
capacity, and typically, less than 20% of the applicants will be
admitted to these studios.
At the same time there is increasing pressure to push the
Institute into externally funded research. This development
requires that we make a choice in where to place our priorities.
With the establishment of RCAT, Research Centre for Achitec-
ture and Tectonics, it is given that our main efforts will be in the
direction of research topics and questions that bear relevance
to the understanding of architecture as built object.
Together, these two recent developments have generated an
interest in the full-scale model as a vehicle for investigation.
The scaled model is the perfect tool for most of the standard
considerations that go into the planning of architectural space.
Together with drawings, the scaled model constitutes a plat-
form for a discourse which is essential to the development of
good architecture. But given that our main research interests
include the tectonic aspects of architecture, the scaled model
also has some insurmountable shortcomings. In this setting, the
full-scale prototype has a much better potential to reveal and
enable the objectives of our studies.
We have also realised that the full-scale prototype represents
a learning platform for master students of architecture that
supplements perfectly the more abstract, scaled exercises of
