Models…What for?

“[...] -What do you consider the largest map that would be really useful?”

About six inches to the mile.”

-”Only six inches!” exclaimed Mein Herr. “We very soon got to six yards to the mile. Then we tried a hundred yards to the mile. And then came the grandest idea of all! We actually made a map of the country on the scale of a mile to the mile!”

-”Have you used it much?” I enquired.

-”It has never been spread out, yet,” said Mein Herr: “the farmers objected; they said it would cover the whole country and shut out the sunlight! So we now use the country itself, as its own map, and I assure you it does nearly as well.”

from “Sylvie and Bruno Concluded” by Lewis Carroll.

When an architect creates a project of a new building, he creates a model of the building first, either 2d, 3d, virtual or real. The model is done in order to get a better idea of the whole project, to estimate the overall qualities of the building before actually building it. It’s cheaper than actually realizing the project in 1:1 scale. Models are used in many domains: engineering, software, finance, etc. Their purpose is to present the idea, being evaluated in a simplified, cheaper way without dealing with the complexity of reality. Usually this is done on a smaller scale. Models play central role in some software theories, as is the case with model driven architecture. Models are very important in the contemporary building architecture as well. Many contemporary buildings and installations are realized thanks to the accurate models that were built in advance. Cecil Balmond & Arup engineers prove that this way of computer-aided design by creating architectural and engineering models produces interesting results. You could take a look at the Serpenite Pavilion Gallery as reference.

“A model is a simplification. It is an interpretation of reality that abstracts the aspects relevant to solving the problem at hand and ignores extraneous detail.”

…

“Most systems are dynamic, i.e. they change in time. But at the same time most models are static, i.e. they don’t change in time. This is a highly interesting property of models because it facilitates reasoning on these models.”

from “Domain-Driven Design: Takling complexity in the Hearth of Software” by Eric Evans

Definition:

“mod·el [modd’l] noun (plural mod·els)

1. copy of an object: a copy of an object, especially one made on a smaller scale than the original ( often used before a noun )

5. simplified version: a simplified version of something complex used, for example, to analyze and solve problems or make predictions a financial model”

Model is a keyword. Take a look at the keywords list!