While in college studying architecture, we were given freedom to present our project designs however we wanted. My preferred technique was to build 3-D models for my presentations.

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Wielding an x-acto knife, Elmer's glue, and working in chipboard, mat board, balsa wood, or other materials, these models were all created to represent my project designs. 

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The skill is largely obsolete in the field of architecture today, as computer modeling and 3-D printing has eclipsed the cardboard model as a tool for presentations or explorations. So these are not only artifacts of my college career, but perhaps also of the profession. I still have a few of them sprinkled around our house, but many of them are long gone.

 

I find it interesting that people still respond to scale models with curiosity in a way that computer models just don't elicit. I am not sure if it is just the physicality of them, or their more tangible nature, but people are always drawn to them. Something there has been lost in the digital age.