When we speak of models, what immediately comes to mind is the volumetric representation of a given spatial reality: a building, a housing complex, a property development, a house, a city. A model is, in effect, a smaller-scale reproduction of that spatial reality. Built in three dimensions, it makes that spatial reality more perceptible, easier to grasp and to experience. Thus, if on the one hand we can say that people in their daily lives, as they move from one place to another, submit to the dimensions, forms and functions of the space around them, on the other hand we can safely say that taking part in building a model allows the opposite experience: that of mastering space. When we build a model, we subordinate space to our will, to our imagination and to our conception of order. The reduction of the proportions of a space achieved by building a model gives us a sense of pleasure insofar as we bring the space we experience — which is fragmented by the force of our human scale — under our control and manipulation. Reproducing a much larger spatial reality at a smaller scale turns that reality into a space accessible as a whole, easily subordinated to and controlled by people.
Hence the use of models as an educational resource. When building or designing a model, educators necessarily choose the elements that are part of the lesson they wish to convey; they build a physical reality, considered and interpreted, that will involve students in the true magic of having at hand an ordered and controllable space.