You know it’s time to move on when you haven’t touched a project for three weeks. So let’s tie a little bow around Borromini for now. I made giant strides on my model of “Charlie 4 Fountains” during this iteration, considering there was very little there when I picked it up again in Dubai towards the end of March, in the closing weeks of my 22 year stay in Dubai, when the missiles began to fall (not that I saw any) That seems so long ago.
I have two sheets set up in the project worth sharing. These geometries always seem less challenging after the fact, but of course I have highly simplified the ornamentation. Hopefully I well take it forward again in the future and tackle some of the sculptural detail (abstracted into forms that Revit can handle)
For now I am happy that my own grasp of the way this church was built has moved forward significantly.
Borromini is the quintessential figure of Italian Baroque in my view. Taking the rebirth of classical thought with its reverence for the past, and bursting forth in a new wave of creativity. This then spread across Europe, taking different paths in different countries and in different art forms. (art, music, sculpture, architecture) The key takeaway for me is the beginnings of a constant churning of movements in the West, each generation seek a new language of expression. The birth of the modern world.
Sheet Two of this small baroque church in Rome. To create a Revit model, which is more than just geometry) is to deeply probe the design and construction of a building. Now that I have retired, after 22 wonderful years at GAJ, my Revit work will be confined to the task of grappling with the history and meaning of “The Way We Build”
My perspective is influenced by my own history. Born in England, moved to Africa at 30 yrs old, then to Dubai in my Early 50s, and retired back to England at 75. It’s Western centric, but so is the making of the modern world and my bias is leavened by spending most of my adult live in Africa and the Middle East. This Baroque church expresses the birth of modernism, that feeling of moving into uncharted territory, creating something new and unprecedented, moving beyond the outdated stiffness of the past.
It also illustrated the pendulum swing between complexity and simplicity, rationalism and emotion, form and function, art and science, that continues to unfold with our human story. There are no easy answers of course, only engaging with the subject matter. In the case of architecture and building this is all around us. Thankyou Francesco Borromini, I hope to get back to you at some point in our uncertain future.
Goldings Park (now War Memorial Park) is a classic example of English picturesque landscaping, unlike the formal gardens of Europe. This style belongs to the Romantic era when artists were moving beyond the constrictions of High Renaissance form. It’s carefully designed, but seeks to evoke unspoilt nature. There is a large oval where Deer and sheep would once have done the lawn-mowing job. And around the edge, blocking out views of urban sprawl, a variety of trees both indigenous and exotic.
Over the years, a smattering of man-made components have been placed for pictorial effect as well as utility. There is a bandstand, an aviary, different kinds of path, a small lodge … And embedded in the main asphalt path around the edge there are several wedge-shaped stone pavers with poetic lines cut into them. These often occur at park benches and I have wondered who composed the lines.
Last week I did a web search on one of them. It’s adapted from the opening lines of “Ode to Evening” by William Collins, a romantic poet from Hampshire (Chichester). Such a delight to slowly unpeel these layers of history. And in the background, a rear view of the travelling circus that spends a few days here every year. The caravans are “all mod cons” but still there is a whiff of romance here also and memories of childhood visits to circuses in Barnsley and Blackpool all those decades ago.
I've been fighting off a seasonal bug for about ten days
now, but today I felt strong enough to get out at 5am and take a long walk. We
are having a heat wave so sunrise is a good time to get the exercise in to
avoid heat stress.
I was able to document more of the pizza-slice paving poems. Samuel Johnson and
Thomas Browne. Different eras, but both great influences on the English
language. It will be good to hold these guys in mind as contemporaries of
certain churches and shifts in building style.
Look them up. I knew both names, but no facts about Browne. Always something to
learn if you keep your eyes peeled.
