Considering these relative merits and demerits of physical and digital models, our goal was to create the iStudio, a stereoscopic 3 dimensional digital form-making environment for the beginning architecture studio. However, digital models also have limitations in that they might appear overtly structured in their 2D flat-screen interfaces which can be real barriers to tudent-instructor interaction. Given these challenges with physical models, the advances of digital tools provide new opportunities to explore alternatives to physical models. Sometimes the models are too 'finished' for the instructor to intervene in the student's design process in a timely way, and even if they do, instructors might be inhibited in tampering with finished products that are painstakingly conducted by students. Second, the model materials are relatively expensive and often unusable once complete.
First, students spend a copious amount of time and labor in producing these models which can sometime adversely affect creative ideation and exploration of alternatives. However, physical models also have limitations. There is an ease in handling these models that allow for spontaneous visualization in the design process. Because of the hands-on quality that a physical model affords, it appeals to the emotions through the tactility of materials and the mark of the human hand (Cheng, 1995). Often, the study model takes the form of a "straw man" around which design ideas and concepts are discussed, critiqued and modified. One of the artifacts created and produced during these interactions is the physical study model. Unlike a conventional lecture class, the architecture design studio consists of sustained and multiple interactions between instructors, students, and their artifacts.
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