POSSIBLE WORLDS

 In  2013 I did a series of blog posts as part of Zach Kron’s “Parametric Pumpkin” competition.  One of the themes was the work of M.C Escher, including his creation of “impossible worlds”. 

Seven years later I have my feet more firmly planted in reality, “painting” pictures of the city of Luzern in a broad brush way.  I’m calling these “possible worlds” because I have thrown together snapshots from different time periods in a fairly loose way.  It would be possible to set up phasing in Revit and to try to piece together a story of development, as I did some months ago for the Bank of England.  But I really don’t want to invest the effort right now.  Plus, I don’t really have enough source material to do it justice.

I started with St Leodegar.  First a painting, then some Revit work, including the immediate surroundings. Last weekend I extended this work all the way across the lake to the St Gotthard pass from Italy, and in the other direction towards France.  That was useful for me to understand the history of Luzern as gatekeepers of an important trade route.  In this context the city walls and the enclosed bridges that completed the loop around the city started to make more sense. 

Now it’s time to flesh out the medieval streets within those walls.  I threw together a little generic family with instance parameters for length. Width, Height, plus materials and roof slope angle.  

 

Dot these around in an indicative way with half an eye on Google earth and an old map/panorama.  Even so it’s taking time so some of the inner blocks are treated more simply as extrusions without defining individual buildings.  Vary the materials a bit.  Once again I am channeling my inner painter in order to do some “BIM sketching.”

While working on this I came to realise that the city was originally in three parts, lined together by long meandering bridges.  I decided to sketch in the city walls which drew my attention to the Moat and stream associated with the western portion. No sign of either now of course.  The stream must have been culverted underground and the moat will simply have been filled when the wall was demolished.  The city wall high above the eastern side still strides across a ridge and down to a kind of “harbour” (shown as water here but it has also been filled in, probably during the 19th century) .

You can brood over old maps, collect images online, read Wikipedia articles, but these are essentially passive methods of research. Much more exciting to build an intelligent model and let this drive those more conventional research activities. 

The covered bridge across the river mouth still exists as does the mill race further down stream. This is all very picturesque tourist stuff now, but back in the day was essential state-of-the-art technology for a functioning city in a state that had fought its way free from the one of the most powerful ruling dynasties in Europe. (William Tell and all that as noted in a previous post)

I have roughed out the Jesuit complex which lies at the heart of the left Bank. Presumably the medieval city housed other trades besides a flour mill (Horses, boats, blacksmiths). Could we find the traces? It would be so much fun to add some of this life to my BIM sketch.

But maybe I will pause my Lucern studies there. I have started a painting inspired by my trip to Nepal back in 2006 and in a recent post I drew parallels between the Alps & the Himalayas in terms of plate tectonics making Lucern & Kathmandu sister cities as gateways to a mountain pass/ historical trade route.

Maybe I will do some BIM sketching in parallel with the painting again.  Let’s see how that pans out.  Meanwhile let me finish with my version of Escher’s “Another World”.