ON BEING FRANK

 

Two more days from my visit to UK in the summer of 2018. I was on a mission to meet skilled artisans and visit churches... All inspired by the #bimpencil work on Notre Dame which had consumed most of my free time over the previous three months.

Two churches by John Soane. Second time to visit these and a chance to get past the exterior. Walworth is my favourite. Three young sculptors were gracious enough to show me their workshop and talk about stone carving.

Pitzhanger Manor was John Soane's country house, a short carriage ride from his Town House in Lincolns Inn Field. Restoration work recently completed so I enjoyed lunch at the restaurant and took a leisurely tour of the interior.

Soane was a self made man from a humble background with dreams of establishing a dynasty. He bought Pitzhanger at the height of that dream, transformed it much as he transformed the Bank of England, then lived through heartache as one son died and the other turned against him.

Those tragedies sent his beloved wife to an early grave but he soldiered on, neglecting Pitzhanger but pouring his energy into his passion for buildings and history.

 

Twenty years ago. I fancied myself a bit of a whiz with Autocad. Zimbabwe was already going downhill pretty fast. My boss was scratching around for work wherever he could get it.

Frank Lincoln was an interesting character. French Mauritian in his early 80s, Olympic yachtsman and architect with a singular vision.

I was contracted out to produce a drawing set under his direction for a four storey office development in the Seychelles. Turns out he was dying of cancer, although I didn't realise this until the job was almost done.

Thank you Frank. I wish there had been time to get to know you better, but looking back at these drawings brings a smile to my lips.

There was life before BIM. We found ways to get the job done and in the end, the most efficient processes you can imagine don't make up for mediocre design.

 

These are buildings designed by Frank Lincoln. All but the first were in Mauritius. Snaps taken during the week I spent there finalising outstanding issues for the Seychelles project I was working on for Frank. His last.

He grew up with modernism, but there was always a certain flamboyance in his style. Looking back at these shots now I'm struck by his assurance. Most of these are bank buildings. You might have expected a bland, Conservative approach... but not Frank.

The first shot is in KweKwe, a medium size town in the Midlands province of Zimbabwe. I was travelling through on my way back from Bulawayo where I did a guest lecturer spot at the school of architecture.

Wonderful memories. Seems so long ago now. 🙄

 

Bright sunshine today, but not crazy hot. During the week the building exterior was cleaned and we also had some rain (shock horror)

I had to clear my balcony during the cleaning but have got it set up again now, including the pigeon repulsion system.

I took my portable workbench outside to fill a couple of gaps in the spike setup. Definitely need to do this more often. Just a quick job, but it was good to have tools in my hands again.

 

 

Third post in my Mauritius series. To recap, I spent a week in PortLouis 20 years ago to wrap up my contributions Frank Lincoln's last project.

The lightweight balconies that wrapped themselves around the old colonial buildings made a big impression. These are among my earliest digital photos. What an experience that was, to be able to snap away madly without worrying about how much film I had.

Some of the designs are very simple. Others quite flamboyant. Almost all display a delightfully light touch. Even the simple ones are quite stylish, as befits a tropical island location.

I did use a couple of these for inspiration about a dozen years ago, on one of our early Revit projects. Would be interesting to do a heritage BIM study on railings perhaps.