In yesterday's post, we explored gingerbread houses designed by architects and engineers as part of a fun Christmas event with a design twist. However, can a miniature house really be considered an architectural model? For example, are there differences between a doll's house and an architectural model? An exhibition at London's Architectural Association (AA) recently analyzed this dilemma.
"Portraits of a Practice: The Life and Work of MJ Long," featured two doll's houses used as portals to examine MJ Long's designs, work, life, and her uncatalogued archive at the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).
Born in Summit, New Jersey, in 1939, Mary Jane Long studied architecture at Yale School of Architecture, later moving to the UK in 1965 to join Colin St John (Sandy) Wilson's architecture practice. She played a crucial role in the 30-year creation of the British Library, and married Wilson in 1972. She independently designed studios for artists including Peter Blake, RB Kitaj and Frank Auerbach, and worked on museums and galleries including the Jewish Museum in London.
The exhibition at the AA Gallery showcased a doll's house Long designed for her daughter Sal and a model, a reconstruction of Colin St John Wilson and Partners' entry to the AD Doll's House Competition in 1982.
There are some differences between these two structures: the doll's house served as a contemplative space that encapsulated references and ideas from Long's career into a miniature form. It also explored the gendering of space and objects, as well as the gendered complexities of family life and domesticity. On the other hand, the architectural model, while still a doll's house, looked more modern with its brightly colored and functional environments, and featured numerous drawers, doors, and layers, even though it lacked inhabitation.
Doll's houses actually often consider inhabitation, making hierarchies and power structures embedded in domestic space more visible, while architectural models tend to hide these relationships through the abstraction of space and minimal inhabitation.
Besides, the doll's house is considered a toy, something playful and feminine, while the other is seen as a more serious and professional model.
However, MJ Long's house for Sal remains a real gem: hand-painted, in tones of grey and mauve, it was based on a classic New Haven house (on a street called Hillhouse Avenue, not far from Yale University where Long studied) and featured the number 23 on the door.
The architect made it on the floor of the living room in the home she shared with her husband and business partner Colin St John Wilson.
Together, they co-designed the British Library, and during a challenging stage in the process, Long devoted her limited free time to constructing the doll's house, incorporating aspects of her childhood, academic interests and personal life to create this large timber object whose style is distinct from anything she made in practice and that maybe was created as a personal passion project, rather than just as a present for Sal.
Curated by AA Diploma tutor Elena Palacios Carral (who bought Long's doll's house for Sal at an auction) and designed by Isabella Synek Herd (who built the replica of the doll's house that was originally Colin St John Wilson and Partners' entry for the 1982 AD competition), the exhibition and a lecture accompanying it (see YouTube video embedded in this post) offered insights into Long's life and work.
Another fascinating example of toy house that could also be an architectural model is found at the Davia Bargellini Museum in Bologna.
This model serves as a miniature reproduction of an 18th century house, complete with furniture, tableware, and even a birdcage with a tiny bird hanging from the ceiling.
The exterior of the house features glass doors and large windows with golden balustrades, frames, and cornices. The interior is divided into five interconnected rooms, all of them floored and frescoed – entrance hall, dining room, kitchen, living room, and bedroom, all complete with exquisite furniture and accessories such as tableware.
Doll's houses were widely popular in Northern Europe at the time and in particular in countries such as the Netherlands (the Rijksmuseum has got some lovely examples of doll's houses), but also in France, Germany, and England. Doll's houses primarily served an educational function.
In Italy, scaled houses for nativity scenes and sacred representations are not rare, but, outside the religious context, these objects remain quite rare. In this doll's house instead, the reproduction of architectural elements and furnishings is accurate in every detail. Various materials were used, including wood, fabrics, glass, metals and ceramic, with gilded, painted, and lacquered decorations.
The carvings show motifs derived from Roman Baroque, often present in 18th century Bolognese furniture while the style reflects that of the region, which reveals the piece was probably made in Emilia Romagna.
Undoubtedly, this model represented a miniature luxury abode more similar to an extremely detailed architectural model, and light years away from the Barbie houses of our times in 50 shades of pink (guess it's a bit like comparing Haute Couture with ultra-fast fashion…).
Whether built for relaxation or turned into a profession, doll's houses and miniature spaces resonate with our times for one main reason: they serve as materializations of our dream houses, something that many cannot afford or have built and lost because of conflicts or natural catastrophes.