This book offers an explanation of why scale models are important to the design process. Through this description of the relationship between architecture and the scale model, the auhtor demonstrates the effective process between concept and "machine", between the idea and the final building. The value of this book is to reveal the nature of the scale model and to unlock the potential of this design tool as a thinking and communicative advice.
The chronological analysis goes on from Egypt through Rome to the relationship between the Greek paradigm scale model and then on to Medieval and Renaissance models. It concludes with the models of the Spanish architect Antonio Gaudi, the Russian Constructivists, the American architect Louis Khan and finally looks at the role of scale models in the present day through the work of the Polish/American architect Daniel Libeskind and the American Frank Gehry.