CHURCH SERVICE

 

Picked up work on my "Hampshire Churches" study. Gathering information, organising into structured folders, using a "Revit Map" to visualise, analyse, plan.

Two years ago I did a study of Danish churches. It was a follow up on my exploration of the Klint churches of Copenhagen and I really learnt a lot in the process. As I dive deeper into the village churches of Hampshire I am really struck by a distinctive tradition stretching back to the Saxon era. The first few churches of this type that I visited were in the Meon valley and I had assumed that they were quite rare. Turns out they are quite common. Small village churches with clay tile roofs, squat timber bellfries. Red brick, whitewash, exposed roof trusses.

 

Not sure exactly how this comparative study will shape up, but I will be spending more and more time in this part of the world as I move through my transition to retirement. Looking forward to a rolling program of visits, mixed in with BIM pencil studies, maybe some freehand drawing and painting.

 

 

How to set about a survey of dozens of village churches in a particular region of Europe. I developed a number of techniques two years ago, looking at Danish churches mostly white, often with stepped gables.

I was using Revit of course, "off-label" application of the software perhaps, but for me it was very effective. So now, with a visit to Hampshire looming, I am picking up the threads again. This time I won't be totally reliant on web research although it's a great way to prepare for the visit and and a capability I never dreamed of 30 years ago when I first came up with the term "the way we build" to characterise such studies.

 

We can think of buildings as a mirror, a reflection of our cultural and technological history. The Hampshire Churches will help me to reflect on the withdrawal of Roman administration from Britain, the coming of Anglo-Saxons across the water, replacement of paganism by Christianity and so on.

Also use of flint walling, burning of chalk for lime, timber roofing of various configurations, how to best create Revit families for pointed arch windows with deep, splayed reveals. No shortage of threads to weave together with "the great integrator" AKA my BIM pencil, you may know it as Revit.