Sinergies between design models and their after images in the practice of UNstudio

Abstract

United Network Studio (UNStudio), led by Ben van Berkel and Caroline Bos, is one of the few internationally renowned offices which sustains all its production on a rigorous project, critical and experimental analysis based on the theory of knowledge. The Studio has developed some instruments to channel the great amount of information that the contemporary architect has to deal with.
This article expands and focuses on the notion of “design model” as the primary project material in the UNStudio praxis, overcoming the liberal concept of matter as a physical and constructive fact. The document also analyses another theoretical principle that emerged in UNStudio after a long period of concern for the image, its effects and conditions: the concept of “after-image”.
The author proposes a critical analysis of knowledge instrumentalisation and the relationship between image and matter in different UNStudio projects.