>> design prototype
A plan is a prediction. A prototype is an argument.
The difference matters because predictions can be wrong without anyone noticing. An argument you can push back on. It has edges. It breaks in specific places. Those places are exactly what you need to find.
In infrastructure work, prototypes are often skipped in favor of specifications. The specification feels more rigorous — it has diagrams, version numbers, sign-offs. But a specification describes intent, not behavior. Only the prototype behaves.
The same applies to exhibition design. You can draw a room and think you understand it. Then you walk into it and the scale is wrong, the light does something unexpected, the work doesn't breathe. No plan would have told you that.
The prototype does not need to be finished. It needs to be real enough to fail. Failure at prototype stage is information. Failure at launch is cost.
Make something rough. Put it in front of conditions. Note what it teaches you. Then decide if the structure holds.