Visitors joined us at the Shaping Space: Architectural Models Revealed exhibition to experience model making and discover how bridges work with Webb Yates Engineers. We were playing and drawing, to learn how over time humans have solved the problem of easing circulation covering long distances over valleys and water.

Using spaghetti and marshmallows visitors experienced how model making can help us understand buildings and their structures. We also recreated a ‘living model’ of the famous Forth bridge in Scotland (1887).  Each participant had a go at being a structural part of the celebrated engineering masterpiece: experiencing with our own body how forces run through a cantilever bridge and why it stands up!

Image: Experiments Illustrating the Principle of the Forth Bridge, Evelyn George Carey, 1885 © Crown copyright. National Records of Scotland.

This workshop is run thanks to the generous support of Webb Yates Engineers. It is part of the wider activities related to the Shaping Space: Architectural Models in Context project, funded by the AHRC, led by the V&A and the Building Centre.