Model Making

This is a model I made during my first year at university, inspired by Invisible Cities (1972) by Italo Calvino. The book explores the connection between desire, place, and memory through Marco Polo’s descriptions of imagined cities.

I was particularly drawn to the city of Sophronia, which is described as two half-cities: one permanent, with banks, factories, schools, and palaces, and one temporary, a travelling fairground of roller coasters and big tops. Calvino’s language presents a fragile, almost toxic relationship between the two—one constant and devoted, the other transient and careless, always moving on. The sadness of Sophronia lies in its imbalance: the permanent city lives in anticipation of the fair’s return, only to endure grief again when it is uprooted and taken away.

Sophronia stood out to me as one of the shortest descriptions in the book, leaving much to the reader’s imagination. My model aimed to capture this tension between permanence and impermanence, stability and transience.