Network Architecture
The first chapter introduces the different talents who jointly created the Miniature Boom. In her 1958 article on model making, Jane Jacobs had mentioned that it was both the architects and the model makers who contributed to the postwar boom in architectural models. The former requesting an increasing amount of models, while the latter employed more and more sophisticated modeling techniques to supply the demand. Not acknowledged by Jacobs explicitly, there is a third profession, the photographer, who must be considered as part of the network due to the importance of transforming models into images. Retracing the circumstances by which the model maker deviated into a separate occupation and using Theodore Conrad’s life as the prime example, the chapter records the changes undergone by the modeling craft in terms of education and professional backgrounds, workshop and the organization of work. The collaborative nature of the three professions allows an understanding of individual contributions to the design and presentation of architecture through models. This helps to reconsider questions of authorship and agency during the height of the Miniature Boom. By looking at collaborations within the network and the differences in skill and output caused by the division of labor into separate professions, the chapter defines the profession of the model maker as a co-author in architecture. This authorship is, not least, evident by the establishment of a new level of craftsmanship that accompanied the new profession.