The project
Built in 2022 for Dorte Mandrup Arkitekter, this is an architectural scale model of the Exile Museum in Berlin, made for the studio's exhibition PLACE at Aedes Architectural Forum. The architects supplied their 3D files and asked for the model and its table to be solid oak throughout.
The approach
A model spanning around 1.5 m cannot be machined from a single piece of oak, and solid wood does not hold still once material starts coming out of it. Routing many deep pockets into a plank makes it shift and twist in ways that are hard to predict, so the stock had to be properly prepared before any cutting began. The model was then sliced into parts, with each cut placed at a specific angle so that the assembled facade would read as one solid block rather than a row of panels.
How it was made
The facade was CNC machined from multiple oak planks, each carrying its own section of the building's pattern, then assembled into a single model around 150 cm long and 50 cm deep. The ruins of the Anhalter Bahnhof standing in front of the building were CNC machined from solid oak plank in several pieces, assembled, sanded, and left raw with no finish applied. The table, around 200 by 100 cm, was built from MDF and veneered in oak, with a drawer integrated into it. The black steel frame the piece stands on was made elsewhere.
Where the same approach works
An exhibition model is looked at closely and for a long time, which is a harder test than a presentation model seen across a stand. Every joint is visible at that range, so the whole method gets chosen around hiding them. The same approach suits gallery and museum pieces, architectural exhibitions, and any wooden model where the material itself is part of the argument.
