Aires Mateus: Book of Models

This poetic and minimalist visual anthology presents a 10 year retrospective of AIRES MATEUS design studios at the Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio in Switzerland.

Including 100 black & white and color images of largescale models built by students of AIRES MATEUS, these models are curated to create a family portrait. Each expertly staged model is pictured with the essential schemes necessary to understand the volumes portrayed. Award-winning brothers and business partners Francisco and Manuel Aires Mateus’ many years of experience in pedagogy and the use of models in practice are brought together in a manifesto which precedes the anthology of images. The importance of the model in the formation of architectural ideas and throughout the design process, as well as its potency as a standalone statement are highlighted.

The evocative photographs in this book reveal abstract spaces produced by artistic interpretations of light, volume and materiality.