Megan Werner

Megan Werner is a designer, professional model maker, and advocate for physical representation and materiality in design. After completing her BArch at Virginia Tech and a MArch at Virginia Tech’s Center for European Studies, Werner spent several years practicing architecture in Switzerland (Keller Cabrini Verda) and Germany (S+P Plannungsgruppe).

Upon returning to the United States, Werner started zDp models, a full-service architectural scale-model shop composed of architecture, landscape architecture, and design professionals. zDp combines technology with craftsmanship to create precision-scale models for award-winning local and international projects. The firm’s philosophy stems from the notion that physical models make the invisible visible. Abstract ideas can be modeled and set against real-world constraints. Form, materials, technique, and process converge with the concrete rules and qualities of the third dimension. To match a model to its purpose requires a mastery of the full range of available materials and methods; accordingly, we combine machine- and hand-crafted elements with elements produced through digital technology.

The zDp shop also serves as an incubator for design research, experimentation, and collaboration. Some offshoot projects include dama maca (a handbag and accessories design and production studio which uses recycled materials) and AIA-sponsored hands-on architectural model-making workshops (which focus on helping architecture professionals reintegrate model making into their design process).

Werner has recently finished Model Making (Princeton Architectural Press), a book on model making geared toward architecture students and young professionals.

In addition to being a part of the CCA Interior Design faculty, Werner has also taught courses in CCA’s Ceramics Program, the Graduate Program in Design, and the First Year Program as well as at the College of Architecture and Urban Studies at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. She is currently an adjunct professor and academic advisor for the Interior Design Program.