Richard Armiger

Richard Armiger is a professional, international architectural model maker and the founder of Network Modelmakers (established 1983).^[1] He is one of the foremost authorities on the design, research, construction and restoration of historic, culturally important architectural models.^[2][3] Armiger’s models, for architecture and design firms, including David Chipperfield, Grimshaw Architects, Zaha Hadid, John McAslan,^[4] John Pawson, and the late Jan Kaplický have appeared frequently in architectural exhibitions worldwide, and examples of his work can be seen in museums in the UK and internationally, including the permanent collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum^[5] and regularly at the Venice Biennale of Architecture. During a career spanning four decades, thirty-five of his models have been chosen for display in the annual Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition.^[4][6] In 2014 he was chosen to make a timber model for Westminster Abbey of the proposed new Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Galleries.

Education and Career

Richard Armiger working in his Kings Cross studio in 1984 on the model for the Coexistence Tower designed by Jan Kaplický at Future Systems.

Armiger first attended the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in 1970, studying painting and sculpture, before later studying industrial-design model making in England at the Kent Institute of Art & Design (KIAD) under inspirational Arup^[1] modelmaker George Rome Innes, graduating in 1978. He then spent time working at Arup Group before setting up the in-house model shop for Festival of Britain chief architect Sir Hugh Casson of Casson Conder Partnership, and then establishing his own independent workshop, Network Modelmakers in 1983. During this period he was also mentored by the Boston, USA designers at Cambridge Seven Associates.

During the 1980s Armiger created many models for the London based design studio Future Systems, led by futuristic architect Jan Kaplický and David Nixon. Many of these models, including the 3m high model for the Coexistence Tower^[7], are now in the possession of the Kaplicky Center^[8] in Prague and are regularly on public display, including at the May 2025 Pulse festival in Ostrava, Czech Republic ^[9].

In 1999 Armiger was commissioned to build a 1/100 scale model of the proposed Eden Project in Cornwall by Grimshaw Architects. This was a challenging model given the complex geodesic design and Armiger describes the model's construction in detail in the book Architectural Modelmaking (Portfolio Skills. Architecture) by Nick Dunn^[7]. The model was displayed in the RIBA’s “Difficult Sites: Architecture Against the Odds" exhibition in London in 2024-2025^[10].

In 2002, as consultant Model Coordinator to Crossrail (now 'The Elizabeth Line'), Armiger helped clarify the project's complexity to the Parliamentary Select committee and other design laymen in addition to designing and overseeing the building of the many models.^[11] In 2006, Armiger and his team created a lit model measuring four meters square^[12] that became the winning entry for Singapore's Gardens by the Bay competition after an exhibition to display the model to the public.^[13] The competition was won jointly by Grant Associates landscape designers and Wilkinson Eyre architects.

Many of his models have been shown in international architectural design competitions including several winning designs by Architects Nicholas Grimshaw. These include the Caixa Art Gallery, A Coruña, Spain; National Space Centre, Leicester, England; Southern Cross station, Melbourne, Australia; Enneus Heerma Bridge, Amsterdam, Netherlands; Frankfurt Exhibition Hall, Germany; and Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, Missouri, USA.

He is also the Director of House Portrait Models, a brand established in 1998 within the studio to market handcrafted ‘model portraits’ of private homes and estates.

Armiger has long been a proponent for the recognition of the artistic, creative and inspirational role and general contribution of the architectural model maker to the architectural design process.^[14]

Notable Models

Westminster Abbey (2014), Buckingham Palace

Timber model of Westminster Abbey, designed and built in collaboration with Simon Hamnell of Millennium Models and George Rome Innes. The model was presented to the Queen by Richard Armiger in June 2014.

The timber model of Westminster Abbey, one of Armiger’s largest and most ambitious models, was designed and built in collaboration with Simon Hamnell of Millennium Models and George Rome Innes.^[15] The model was commissioned to assist with the planning process  for The Weston Tower which gives access to The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Galleries, which opened in 2018. Armiger presented the Abbey model at Buckingham Palace in June 2014. In 2018 the model was displayed in the Royal Academy's 250th Summer exhibition as a work of art, and again in 2024-25 at the RIBA “Difficult Sites: Architecture Against the Odds" exhibition in London.^[10]

Le Corbusier - Villa Stein De Monzie (1987), Victoria & Albert Museum

Model of Villa Stein-de-Monzie, Garches, France built in 1926-28 by Le Corbusier, Wood and MDF model made in 1987 by Richard Armiger/The Network. Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

The Crystal Palace (2001), Victoria & Albert Museum^[5]

Model of The Crystal Palace at 1:32 scale, made by Richard Armiger and produced by the Network Modelmakers for the British Galleries at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London 2001.