Architectural models - those physical miniatures of new technological parks or large landscaped leisure complexes - have become an essential part of the publicity machine of every new development. As every architect, planner and developer now needs to know how a building will look long before it is built, model makers are much in demand.
In the past five years, model-making studios have sprung up in Dublin to meet the new level of demand. One is Citymodels, headed by Paul Harrison, who trained with Richard Rodgers before returning to Dublin nine years ago to establish his practice, which is now based in a purpose-built workshop in Dublin's Portobello. Recent projects include the new Dail offices, several corporate HQs in Citywest as well as a number of residential houses.
"We work very closely with architects and designers prior to planning, to ensure that the model is the most favourable representation of a proposed scheme," he says. Having trained directly under one of the world's most famous architects, Harrison understands the vital role of the communication process.
"With the pace of design development, even the most architecturally aware person can find it difficult to interpret complex architectural details without seeing them in three dimensions first."
Modelworks is another Dublin company dedicated to the visual presentation of future buildings. What started off as a basement operation in the home of architect David Murphy is now an office and workshop employing 20 people.
Strewn across Murphy's desk when I visited were several proposed developments in Dublin, London and beyond. "You need to have a great appreciation of buildings and architecture, as often it is necessary to interpret architects' drawings for the production of the visual presentation," explains Murphy.
The entire visual package is often made up of physical or digital models of the proposed development and site photography. Computer-generated montages then allow the proposed developments to be viewed from all angles and - if desired - it is possible to take a virtual reality amble through the new streetscape to absorb their impact.
With the combined use of technology and miniatures, it is possible to see how the sun will shine on the proposed buildings at different times of the day. This scenario will even include the precise reflections from surrounding architecture. Sometimes, David Murphy is even called on to give evidence at An Bord Pleanala hearings - to give his word that his images are a true and accurate representation of the future buildings.
"When I started in this business, developers were very reluctant to spend anything on marketing; now marketing budgets are becoming a greater proportion of the developer's overall budget, as the banks like them to sell buildings before they are built or during construction," says Murphy.
Following his architectural studies at University College Dublin, Murphy got a job with Irish-born international architect Kevin Roche in his studio in Hamden, Connecticut, in the US.
"As a student, I did a lot of presentation work through models and worked part-time for architects as a modelmaker. As it happened, Kevin Roche also specialised in models and he visited the school of architecture during my final year; I wrote to him afterwards and he gave me a job."
The year's work in Roche's practice proved to be formative for Murphy. After returning to Dublin, he spent a few years working in various architects' practices, then set up on his own as an architect and model maker.
"I found I was moving more and more into presentation work, and 10 years ago, I decided to concentrate on that end of things," he explains. With a staff of five, Murphy worked from the basement of his Monkstown home, before moving in 1991 to his current premises in a former weaving factory off Newtownpark Avenue in Blackrock, Co Dublin. Such is the demand for his work, that Murphy is now set to expand his workshop and office.
"There are graphic artists, computer model makers and architectural photographers, but I believe we are the only ones who do all this work in-house," says Murphy, whose clients include Dublin Port Authority, London Buildings, Ballymore Properties and the Office of Public Works. He adds that despite the huge advances in technology, constructing physical models of buildings is still still two-thirds of his business.
Computers have, however, simplified the task of making scale models of buildings. Constructed from plastic, each individual component is cut out with the aid of a cutting programme. Following lamination, they are assembled and painted by hand. "There is still a huge proportion of the work done by hand," says Murphy. They are then placed on a base alongside landscaping, miniature cars and tiny human figures. Other buildings which are not part of the job are usually represented as block models (i.e., simple white undetailed structures).
It is the combined use of the physical or computer-generated model and site photography which has developed the potential of visual presentations most. For example, Modelworks had to provide three separate views of a proposed Dublin docklands development from the Sandymount coast. This involved creating a computer simulation of the development, taking photographs looking towards the site at the specified points and creating a montage using these photographs and the computer-generated model.
Once the visual information is on computer file, images of other proposed buildings can then be added and viewed internally and externally through animated sequences on interactive CDs or videos.
"It is this kind of interactive CD work, exploiting the latest technology, which gets me most interested now," says Murphy. Meanwhile, the decorative 7 ft tall doll's house that Murphy started to build for his wife's 40th birthday stands incomplete in the foyer of Modelworks - a symbol of the success of his business.
