‘Scalies,’ the Extras in Architectural Drawings, Finally Get Their Due

Weighing in at 1,256 pages, An Unfinished Encyclopedia of Scale Figures without Architecture (MIT Press) would seem to be the final word on its subject: “scalies,” those little people who occupy the fantastical world of architectural renderings, climbing atrium escalators or picnicking in courtyard plazas or simply looking happy to be somewhere. Yet according to Hilary Sample of MOS Architects—who compiled the book with her MOS co-founder, Michael Meredith—it is at best a first draft, and one that raises questions about people and architecture, some of them dark.

An Unfinished Encyclopedia includes more than 1,000 scale figures by 250-odd designers, presented in alphabetical order, from A(alto) to Z(umthor). Some are so beautifully drawn or irreverently realized that the buildings become almost afterthoughts. Others are grubby squiggles plucked from their Modernist machines for living. (While people in design drawings today seem to always be marching to or from brunch, that’s hardly been the case through history.)