The inspiring images in Miralles' monograph speak volumes in revealing his working process.

The Osthafen proposal (shown at left) is but one of many projects in which a three-dimensional collage approach is taken, interweaving existing site conditions with the architect's own interventions/interweaving. On Osthafen, Miralles speaks of the hand in active relationship with the scale of the model, "working with the same delicacy that the giant Gulliver needed to move among the houses of Lilliput;" based on this preliminary model, a basic urban topography could be shaped and dextrously worked upon.

1 . 2

left: making of the wood and cardboard Osthafen model