The Physical Model as an Evolution of the Design Process: From the “Capostipite” to the Finished Product

The physical contact with the material, the giving of form while simultaneously verifying material consistency, curvature, and three-dimensionality, is an indispensable component of the designer's personal process in shaping the object to be produced. The physical model is the tool that has enabled designers to develop and validate their projects for successful industrial production. The paper explores the role of the physical model as a design tool and its contemporary evolution. It has, through the influence of increasingly advanced digital tools, acquired various functionalities, radically transforming the prototyping process. The model has increasingly become virtual from physical by means of more computational parametric and generative modelling software. With the evolution of rapid prototyping technologies into rapid additive manufacturing technologies, there is a shift from verification model to finished product, with performance characteristics comparable to an industrially manufactured object. This investigation made it possible to explain the main stages of change in the prototyping process in three graphics, where the constant shift from physical to digital can be seen. From a time-consuming process caused by making physical models mainly by manual work, to a short and digital process, making the main verification steps virtual.