CUTAWAY MODELS

Most architectural models show you the outside of a building. These show you the inside.

The cutaway format — a sectional slice through the building at its most revealing point — is the only way to understand certain kinds of architecture. The Pantheon in Rome cannot be fully appreciated as a facade: what makes it one of the most studied buildings in history is the relationship between the circular plan, the coffered dome rising 43 metres to an open oculus, and the single unbroken interior space beneath. Our cutaway model exposes all of that in a single object.

The same logic applies to the US Capitol Dome and the Thomas Jefferson Memorial, both of which draw directly on the Pantheon's vocabulary. The Jefferson Memorial (1943) is among the most faithful modern reinterpretations of the Roman original; the Capitol Dome (completed 1863), cast in iron rather than masonry, extends the tradition into the industrial age while maintaining its ceremonial grandeur. Together, the three pieces trace the most consequential architectural idea in Western history — from its Roman origins to its American reinventions — across more than two thousand years.