Before ordering four hundred timber slats for the Voiron Cultural Centre, we built three bays of the façade at full scale in the courtyard of the studio.

For three weeks, the mock-up stood in sun, rain and wind. The team walked past it every morning.

What a 1:1 mock-up tells you

• How the slat spacing reads from the street and from inside.

• How the timber greys in the first weeks of weather.

• How long one bay really takes to assemble on site.

A drawing tells you what you want. A mock-up tells you what you get.

Decisions taken

We reduced the slat depth by ten millimetres and kept the spacing. From inside, the view stayed open; from the street, the screen stayed solid.

The mock-up was later reused as a bike shelter by the school next door.