January 31, 2022
Do you want to know what a day in the life of an architectural model maker and fabricator consists of? Read below to see what Korzell Coe, a native Detroiter who recently graduated from the University of Detroit Mercy and now works at Zoyes Creative Group, has to say.
Architecture is a diverse field. You can choose to pursue many roles, each of them contributing to the team effort to create a great experience for clients. Typical teams include creative directors, illustrators, model makers, fabricators, craftspersons, designers, contractors, and more. At Zoyes Creative Group, a firm that offers brand development, architectural models, and renderings, my role is model maker and fabricator. I handle multiple projects at once with different architectural scales in this role. This requires me to be hands-on and pay close attention to detail. In fact, I have to pay enough attention to measure to the thousandths of an inch to ensure the highest quality of work.
As a new young professional, I joined the team at Zoyes in May 2021, just one week before earning my Master of Architecture from the University of Detroit Mercy School of Architecture and Community Development. I am assigned to Zoye’s Form Studio located in Ferndale – they have another location, the Brand Studio, in downtown Detroit – and my typical workday is from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. In a typical week, I work on three to six projects.
There are two stages in the model-making process: pre- and post-production. The details of the project, such as the model size, detailedness, the massing of buildings, and timing requirement, determine my role in the project, whether I am pre- or post-production.
When I am pre-production, I spend 40% of my time in the virtual pre-production stage, which is when I draw commercial and residential buildings in a city using Google Earth and Google Maps. The goal is to create a three-dimensional drawing to prepare the buildings to be 3D printed in either Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) – what is used in Legos – or stereolithography (SLA) – sometimes used for chess pieces. These plastic materials allow us to provide detail in thousandths of an inch and alter their appearance once finished.
I usually draw between 50-100 massing buildings for each city project at 1/50:1/600 scale in our small-scale city models. These models are either approximately 1’ by 2’ or 3’ by 4’, and all are created in a 2D and 3D master file consisting of 2D computer-aided design (CAD) work. The CAD work includes building outlines, trees, parking lines, road lines, sidewalks, topography, and building screw block locations. Every detail and thickness material is labeled and accounted for; therefore, the margin of error is very low, and adjustments are able to be made quickly.
When I am not working on pre-production, I am handling post-production. This stage is when the model starts to come to life, and it’s all hands-on deck – quite literally. By this time, the carpenter has constructed the model base, and the model makers can begin making progress. Although we are a small team at Zoyes, we can handle and produce models of all scales and even finish early with the range of experts that we have.
During this stage, I spend 50% of my time in the shop where each individual building undergoes a detailed process after being printed. This includes curing the model, clipping any support material, sanding the model, tapping the screw blocks, choosing acrylic thickness for the roof, laser cutting acrylic, welding the roof to the model frame, priming and spray painting the building a designated color, and securing the model base to its appropriate place.
The largest city model we have been producing for over a year is 14’ by 16’ at 1/20:1/240 scale. This model consists of over 300 buildings, trees, vehicles, light poles and bollards with fiber optics, vinyl parking and crosswalks, sidewalk treatment changes, grass, curb treatment, cars, and small furniture in detailed areas.
For an example of what this final model will look like, check out this 2019 model we created for Bedrock, located at 630 Woodward Ave., Detroit, MI 48226. Click here to check out other cool models that Zoyes Creative has created.
In addition to being a model maker, I am also a fabricator for Zoyes’ Brand Studio, located in downtown Detroit. This studio designs signage and wayfinding for its clients, ranging from room numbers, exit signs, stair signs, restroom signs, and other safety signs needed for code regulation for occupancy in a building. Once they create the designs, they send them to the Form Studio, where I begin the fabricating process, which takes approximately 5% of my time at Zoyes.
I handle the fabrication of Shinola watch boxes carried in stores or that companies personalize as gifts for employees. My role is to laser cut the designs for the boxes, then clean and package each one accordingly before it is shipped out. All other signage and wayfinding designs must also be quality inspected, cleaned, organized, re-packaged, and re-organized according to their location in the building’s interior. And once they are fabricated, the carpenter or project manager will assemble them on-site.
My job is relatively flexible. While it is a lot of work, there are also a lot of opportunities to come together with my coworkers, which I often do during lunchtime. Midday is usually when three of my coworkers (and collegemates!) take a break and enjoy lunch together. Sometimes we get carry-out from a local restaurant or bring our lunch. Somehow, we always talk about our memories in architecture school or how we traveled to Volterra, Italy, to study abroad. These conversations are just an underlying reflection of how imperative it is for the classroom to extend beyond the four walls, beams, ceilings, and floors.
Overall, architecture is a problem-solving occupation where the design can elevate higher each time. My job as an architectural model maker and fabricator may be behind-the-scenes, but it is an integral part of the team so that we can show our models in the appropriate miniature scale for a curated overall experience. The pre- and post-production process can be complicated at times but seeing the evolvement of the project from virtual to tangible is an unspeakable experience each time. Architecture is the epitome of that, which intrigued me from a young age when I first decided to become an artist. I can only imagine what is next for me as I grow deeper into the field of architecture.
Written by Korzell Coe
