Models are often used in the design process to understand the three-dimensionality of design ideas and to test how those design ideas function in a physical landscape. But models can also be used to “reverse engineer” or “Back design” a constructed space or site, to understand:
- how the site was constructed;
- to understand the functions and uses of the space; and
- to understand how the various remaining remnants of the site were connected in the past.
A video of the model created for Göbekli Tepe, the earliest site of and its importance in understanding the site.
- National Geographic. 2011. Modeling Göbekli Tepe. National Geographic. https://youtu.be/heV7CebZKw8
- Chikofsky, Elliot and James H. Cross II. 1990. Reverse Engineering and Design Recovery: A Taxonomy. IEEE Software. January 13-17. Accessed September 29, 2020, https://web.archive.org/web/20180417124021/http://win.ua.ac.be/~lore/Research/Chikofsky1990-Taxonomy.pdf.