In 2014 I was given a guided tour of the recently renovated De La Warr pavilion in Bexhill, a seaside town on the South-East coast of England. It's another classic of early Modernism, with a dash of Expressionism thrown in for good luck.
Eric Mendelsohn was a German Jew who fled for England in 1933. Both he and his
client were sympathetic to Soviet Russia in those heady days, and to some
extent the building was intended to be a "palace for the people. The
client was both Mayor of Bexhill and a member of the aristocracy.
I started building a Revit model as soon as I got back to Dubai, but it hasn't
moved forward very much in the last ten years. So I decided to have another
little go. The photos on these sheets were taken during that 2014 visit. And
I've claimed the model up a bit.
The intention is to spend a few more days, then move on to another neglected
building from my BIM pencil studies of architectural history. There is no way I
can tie up all the loose ends in the time that is left to me but I do hope I
can hand these models on in a usable state with some educational value.
De La Warr pavilion. First pass at the glazing was mostly
LOD100. "there is a window here of about this size". You just need a
single family, fixed glazing in a frame, no internal subdivisions.
Moving on to second pass, the sides of the auditorium have three sets of double
doors with fanlights for each of the original rough openings. I have a
ready-made family for the double doors with fanlight in my library. So fastest
way to move forward goes like this.
Swap the fixed glazing family out for an empty opening. Place a glass wall
within that space. (disallow joins) Place three double door families in that
thin glass wall. Make a group. Copy around. Use new group types for raised sill
conditions. Update the glass wall to a "subframe" wall type using the
same material as the door framing.
The results are not 100%. That is left for another iteration. But it does the
job quickly and effectively to move my study forward. Note also that the
curtain walling on the rest of the building is represented by that same plain
glass wall on first pass.
