BERKSHIRE NIGHT OUT

Solid modelling in the Revit family environment. Slower than the surface modelling of Sketchup but better parametrics and embedded data. Best of all it integrates fully with the project environment for robust BIM workflows.

I moved on from Sketchup 20 years ago, Autocad hung on for little longer for some marginal work. But Revit has been my BIM pencil for so long now it's hard to think of losing access after I retire fully.

 

 

This is St Bartholomew's Arborfield by James Picton. Victorian Gothic Revival. I was there two weeks ago with my Reading friends, enjoying the architecture, soaking up the history and context, taking pictures (never enough) pub lunch together close by.

Friday was a good day to take a first crack at the massing model. Lots of rough estimating here, which is one of my favoured pastimes. A bit like freehand sketching. Drawing "by eye". Playing. Music "by ear".

Each church is unique so there's minimal use of parametrics. I've been learning how best to tackle these forms. Mostly extrusions, but what's the best choice of work plane? When to use join geometry? How to minimise voids? Striving all the time for greater fluency. Enjoying the challenge and delving deeper into the geometry of these churches.

 

Friday night out. Still hunting down new Sports Bars within taxi range. Just hit happy Hour nicely at The List, Al Jaddaf Rotana Suites. Quite a class act. The food was great. Flamingo theme picked up here and there in honour of the bird sanctuary close by. It may be a desert landscape, swamped by concrete and glass, but there is also nature to be found in Dubai, delicate as the city is brash.

 

I will gloss over the massing of this hotel. Not to my taste. But at close quarters it works, outside and in. Not exactly groundbreaking, the blend of modern and traditional is commonplace now. But it does exude quality and for the average non-architectural visitor it’s sure to delight.

As a non meat eater, I’m mostly faced with fish and chips or some kind of curry at these bars. In this case the fish was a cut above the average. Nice crispy batter that even held up as leftover lunch the next day. 

For the uninitiated Berkshire is pronounced "Barksher" and it's the ancient diocese and county to which the Arborfield church belongs.

 

 

HEALTHY DUBAI

Another day in the life of a BIM addict. Online research into the area around Hartley Wintney. We passed through the village on my recent church visits. Most of this research was done in the early hours of the morning. I'm still adapting to time-zone crossing on my way back to the Dubai.

 

Some of these churches were attached to country estates, others were in a village. Manor houses existed from medieval times, maybe Saxon. These were often replaced by Georgian Palazzos or Victorian Mansions with extensive parklands to match, as both the aristocracy and the new merchant class displayed their growing wealth. Hartley Grange and Elvetham Park. Architects Samuel Teulon and ??? Hotels and luxury apartments now of course, wedding venues.

Such are the stories that reach out to me as I continue to develop my map of Hampshire Churches using the power of Revit. Layers of intelligent objects.

 

 

On Wednesday a visit to see my oncologist. Passing the bird sanctuary at the end of the Creek with the Burj Khalifa in the background. I created a timeline with Excel to explore scenarios of monthly and quarterly injections as the clock runs down towards Xmas. Another family gathering then in Basingstoke. The question of whether I can extend my visa to align with the UK tax year.

It will all work out. One step at a time but it sometimes feels overwhelming. Winding up 22 years of my life. 45 if you count Zimbabwe. Back to the homeland. What's left of it. The churches and country estates remind me of what once was. A proud inheritance, warts and all.

 

Thankyou Dubai, thankyou GAJ, thankyou Sukoon, thankyou American Hospital. 21 years and counting of safe, modern, stimulating life in the Emirates. This is multiculturalism working well. Secure borders, regular visa renewal, no right to stay for the unemployed, but everyone is polite and respectful, genuinely interested to talk to people from different backgrounds.

Of course it is not perfect. Sometimes it feels like living in a theme park. Wage differentials are extreme. Health and Safety on building sites has improved a lot since I first arrived, but still a work in progress. Forget about marching in the streets or even reading criticism of the government in local newspapers.

 

Still, millions of people have come here and transformed their lives and the lives of extended family back home. As Thomas Sowell says "there are no solutions, only trade-offs." Dubai has made successful trade-offs and shown other Middle Eastern countries how to engage successfully with both East and West.

I will be moving my primary base to England next April and there are many things I prefer about the country of my birth. But Dubai has been kind to me and gained my respect.

Just setting up a colonoscopy almost a year on from the surgery to remove a tumour last December. Routine check, no queues. I will miss this hospital.

 

 

CHURCH VISITS CATCHUP

More images of St Bartholomew's, Arborfield. I'm actually back in Dubai as I write this. Slowly coming round from jetlag and general exhaustion. It's always interesting to make that sudden transition between different climates and cultures.

In my last post I suggested that the chimney served a fireplace in the Vestry, but checking more carefully it could be from a boiler in the basement accessed by external steps. There is no evidence of pipework and radiators, but that could have been removed long ago. There are overhead radiant heaters now at the junction of wall and ceiling.

Mostly carpeted now, but the original floor tiling is still visible in the chancel. Typical geometric patterns and colours. We used to call these quarry tiles and they were commonly found in the kitchens of old terraced housing, laid directly on a bed of coarse sand or blast-furnace slag.

 

I like to find areas where the construction is revealed. Timber lathe providing kek for lime plaster. Like the floor tiles this is very familiar to me from my days as a jobbing builder in Sheffield in my twenties.

The north wall of the vestry is moving away at one corner. Could be the thrust of the rafters or maybe water-related settlement from the downpipe at that corner. A crack measuring device has been placed to record change over time. "Watchful waiting" as my oncologist might say.

 

 

Church no 3 from last Saturday in UK. All Saints Swallowfield. This one is medieval with a complex history of alterations & additions (par for the course.)  There is a Norman core, including a splendid North doorway, no longer in use and superseded by a timber-framed south porch. I take this to signify a change from the main entrance facing the lord of the Manor to one that faces the village.

 

The bell tower is also a later edition and timber framed with brick infill. Quite distinctive in its form and to my eye attractive in its idiosyncrasy. The rest of the church is flint faced with stone trim. Plain tile roof, typically Hampshire. Some delightful carved stone detail ranging from the chevrons around the old door, to modestly voluptuous window tracery, and a sun dial projecting out at an angle.  Attempting to come closer to a true south-facing orientation I guess. Not sure why the original church was almost 30 degrees off the traditional East-West alignment. Maybe a reason will emerge over time.  It’s almost at right angles to the river and to the road, but why would that matter?

 

There is a floor grille running down the central aisle (heating pipes, defunct?) which will please my friend David Wood. Not easy to spot on these images. One puzzle though. I didn’t spot a chimney, or any access down to a basement boiler. The grill is Victorian looking, so surely coal-fired.  Maybe the flue was capped off? Seems a bit odd.

Anyway another successful image-gathering session for an intriguing old church. One more to come from that day with my long-time friends from Reading.  A hearty thanks to them.