Architecture, Interiors, Model Making & Furniture Design

24 Conceptual Architectural Models

Exploring architectural ideas through physical model making

Designed and made by Lee Anchor, 2024–2026

Twenty-four architectural ideas. Twenty-four individual interpretations. One continuing exploration of architecture through physical model making.

The collection

This collection of twenty-four conceptual architectural models began as a personal study, inspired by ideas explored in Philip Wilkinson's 50 Architecture Ideas You Really Need to Know.

Rather than reproducing the buildings or architectural forms discussed in the book, I used selected ideas and principles as starting points for my own exploration. Through physical model making, I translated these abstract architectural concepts into three-dimensional forms, spaces and structures.

Each model is an independent interpretation, exploring different relationships between form, geometry, structure, scale, solid and void, light and shadow, movement, landscape and spatial experience.

Some models respond to specific architectural movements, while others explore broader architectural principles such as repetition, rhythm, proportion, circulation, material expression, transparency, openings, and the relationship between architecture and its environment.

Although the twenty-four models are diverse in form and character, they are connected by a common process: thinking through architecture by making it physically.

For me, model making is not simply a way of representing architecture. It is a way of testing ideas, exploring possibilities, and discovering how an abstract concept can become form, space and experience.

The book provided the inspiration. The interpretation is mine.

The ideas explored

The models take their starting points from a wide range of architectural thinking. These examples show the breadth of the collection — they are not labels for particular models, and the models are not arranged in any numbered order within the photograph.

• Constructivism — dynamic geometry, movement and human symbolism
• International Style — lightness, cantilevering, ventilation and solar control
• Dymaxion — repetition, interconnected geometry, voids and spatial experience
• Brutalism — mass, repetition, angular geometry and material honesty
• Futurism — movement, elevation, technology, and the idea of architecture in flight
• Expressionism — flowing forms, emotion, freedom and openness
• Deconstructivism — fragmentation, distortion, folded planes and spatial discovery
• Arts and Crafts — natural materials, craftsmanship and expressed construction
• De Stijl — geometric purity, horizontal and vertical relationships, abstraction
• Neorationalism — solid and void, openings, light and shadow
• Industrial architecture — sawtooth roofs, structure, glazing, light and wayfinding
• Contemporary Classicism — proportion, scale, craftsmanship, light, landscape and contemporary Queensland living

Twenty-four brought together

The models are arranged six across and four down, and photographed together as a single composition. Seen at an angle rather than straight on, they hold their depth: blades and folded planes throw shadows across their neighbours, and the relationships between one investigation and the next become part of what there is to look at.

They are not twenty-four variations of one project. They are twenty-four different architectural ideas, each explored through interpretation and physical making, brought together into one collective body of work — and together they set out a continuing interest in architecture, spatial thinking, form, structure, light, shadow, materiality, landscape and human experience.

Open the photograph full size ↗  —  to look at the models individually