In the editorial, the editors of this OASE address the specific qualities of the model, separate from the often empirical way it is used in the professional domain of architecture. They emphasize that the objective of this OASE is in fact to examine the dividing line between architecture and art, as well as the role the model plays as an autonomous object in both domains. The focus is on the model, based on the question of what exactly the model object can be and can signify when something other than its representative character is emphasized. The editorial places the various contributions in the issue against the background of this question.

The work of the German artist Thomas Demand consists of large photographs he takes of temporary, life-sized paper structures he assembles in front of his camera. Once the photo is taken, the paper work is destroyed. The photos show exactly what their titles say: a sink, a camping table, a parking garage. The titles refer to the ‘architecture’ of the scene. Places we know from our collective memory without knowing the place itself. We had the opportunity to conduct a correspondence with Demand about his work and in relation to the theme of this issue: models. A conversation about their materials and their reality, about representation and idea.

Bas Princen’s contribution consists of images found and collected by the photographer that serve as inspirations for his photographs. They are images that attempt to render ideas about space visually. These include simulations, references, interpretations, never-executed buildings, existing but forgotten objects and landscapes, and places that only exist for us in drawings, spaces in which the idea predominates or in which the space exists solely to make an idea legible.