REGINALD, CHRISTINE & ARTHUR

 

This space is off to the side of my map of Hampshire Churches, a Revit project file. It’s somewhere in Surrey and bounded by a section box. Here I can place the family files that I have created for individual churches. Simplified forms assembled directly with solid modelling tools. They are all one-offs, so no need for parametrics.

Along the back I have added a wall, and copies of the few nested components I have used so far, which are Parametric because they occur multiple times with different sizes and proportions. The “windows” are labelled in quotes because although the families are Window Category, they use the Face-Based template and could be doors, archways, louvred openings of Bell towers, or blind recesses.

 

The first phase was mapping and data collection. Some 400 churches identified, placed on the map and assigned data in predefined fields. Now we are in the second phase. Creating massing models of the first 20 or so churches. Refining the methodology for this process.

For the past few days I have been making a second pass through these churches, bringing the models up to a consistent level of detail. Call it LOD100 if you like. The windows and doors are recesses with material parameters painted on the back surface (wood, glass, louvres).

 

 

Different in height but similar in outlook. Christine Espinosa took this selfie during my most recent visit to GAJ head office. I guess we have known each other almost 20 years now and how she has blossomed into a key player at the practice and a prominent voice on the Dubai architectural scene.

It's such a pleasure for me to stay in touch with the office that has meant so much to me, now that I am approaching retirement. Kind of 👀

 

 

Schedules are a very powerful weapon in Revit’s armoury. Once you have a decent amount of data input into the model, sorted and filtered schedules are a great way to discover gaps and anomalies

Filtering my Hampshire Churches for “Architects name exists” generates a subset of mostly Victorian Gothic Revival buildings. Grouping these immediately reveals a handful who designed several. Seems like an interesting way to narrow the field and make some comparisons.

Arthur William Blomfield comes up first, thanks to his initials. Ten churches by him in my dataset. He was uncle to Reginald Blomfield a name I knew better. Classicist, author and fierce critic of Modernism. Sir Arthur died in 1899. The Arts and Crafts Movement was probably the closest thing to Modernism that he witnessed. Possibly Art Nouveau sneaked into his peripheral vision.

 

 

I spent a morning mapping out 5 generations of the family. Quintessential Victorians emerging from Georgian roots. Arthur’s grandfather was a near comtemporary to John Soane. Large families with high infant mortality. We tend to forget how recently this was the norm.

The church looms large in their history although they started humbly as provincial school teachers. I will review Arthur’s work in a separate post, but his output was prodigious, mostly churches but not exclusively.