Supermodels

Supermodels represents the distillation of 20 years of Piercy&Company’s design thinking around the importance of the haptic, sensory and experiential in architecture. The mechanical automata, projection, sound, light and scent employed in Supermodels are not the everyday techniques and products of an architectural project. Rather, they are a creative body of work and an experiment in how far the model can be pushed as a tool for communicating architectural ideas.

Each super model is based on a building by Piercy&Company – some built, some unbuilt – and abstracted to capture the kernel of the idea behind the building. The ‘coming alive’ of the models through film, sound and movement plays into the mysterious allure of objects with a miniature life of their own – the doll's house, the cuckoo clock, the model railway. The evocation of delight is intentionally egalitarian – an exploration of a mode of architectural communication that is ageless and universal. Supermodels seeks to reconnect digital and physical worlds through a childlike sense of wonder and unfiltered joy.

The models were made over a five year period in Piercy&Company’s London studio by the architectural team, between and around projects. The Supermodels exhibition is located in the Jahn Court building, which is currently at the often unseen point of a project between strip out works and construction. The planned extension and refurbishment of Jahn Court forms part of Endurance Land’s ten-year vision to revitalise Regent Quarter, a mixed-use 3.5 acre urban quarter east of King’s Cross station. Piercy&Company are leading the design strategy for the Quarter and are lead architects on the retrofit of three existing buildings – Jahn Court, Times House and the Laundry Buildings.

We would like to thank Endurance Land for their support in making the exhibition possible.