When I went to architecture school, I gave it all up. I figured that I could not make a career in models, and should do something else that I enjoyed. Little did I realize what awaited me. I actually got a job in architectural scale model making! If you enjoy working with miniatures and have working knowledge architecture, this is an amazing field to get into. When I make architectural scale models, I get to create complete miniature communities. Most of my architecture scale model clients don't want to just have a model of the building that they are proposing. They want a model that shows the whole surrounding area along with the building. This gives context to the vision, and makes it appear as if it has already come to life. This is where architectural scale model builders coming in.
One of the interesting things about architectural scale model making is how painstaking it is. Despite all the advances of modern technology, there is still only one way to make an architectural scale model: by hand. Sure, there are some advantages that we have that previous generations did not. The individual pieces of architectural scale models can be stamped out. This saves hundreds of hours of work, because you don't have to cut each piece by itself. However, adapting the architectural blueprint to an architectural scale model, designing the pieces, creating the molds, trimming the parts, and putting them together, all still have to be done by human hands. No one has figured out a way to automate the process.
I am grateful that they haven't figured out a way to take the individual craftsmen away from the architectural scale model. This job is a dream come true, and I'm glad it can't be done more efficiently by machines. I think it will be a long time before anyone figures out another way to do it. If it were a matter of mass manufacturing architectural scale models, it would be different. You could create one design and have it stamped out by a machine. But each architectural scale model is custom ordered, and so each must be custom made.
