CHIANG MAI

 

What do I know about Buddhist Temples? In many ways they resemble a church: the nave, the aisles, the high pointed roof. The symbolism of bells and candles.

There is something fractal about the structural timber geometries, "fascinatingly fractal" you might say. Did the Greeks take a similar approach I wonder? When first I attempted the temple of Poseidon in Revit, I modelled a simple truss. Triangulation comes so naturally to the modern mind. I found it hard to to visualise a different spanning system.

 

 

Talking of the ancient classicists, what about the columns here? They have base, shaft and capital. But there the resemblance ends and I am left with nothing to say. But how about that other fractal motif : stacked roofs, triangle within triangle?  Is this a natural out growth of the internal stacked beams? Or is it a representation of the hierarchical order of the cosmos?

Could be both of course.

 

As architects we are so used to the idea that a single door is the default case, and double doors a minority solution for wider openings. But it’s not so long ago that hinge technology wasn’t really up to the task, or at least the economic trade-offs involved meant that double doors were standard, even for quite narrow openings.

This is the bathroom door of my hotel room in Chiang Mai. Not exactly the genuine article, the rest of the building is mostly “nondescript modern” but I think it is based on a traditional design.

Industrial mass production has brought us many things but it’s interesting that we crave the crude simplicity of earlier, hand-crafted solutions. It’s kind of cute to live with for a few days, but I think the novelty would quickly wear thin if this was my apartment.

 

This village street-market was a joy to visit. A reminder of people living much more traditional lives, just a short drive outside the city.

To a large extent, the materials are modern, but the approach to building is not. Do what you can with whatever comes to hand. Drawing it all out in advance makes no sense in this context, still less a digital model.

I have my doubts about the use of portland cement of course, and viewed up close it’s far from pretty. But still there is a picturesque charm to the place overall. It’s good to know that the world has not been completely homogenised by this “crazy little thing called progress”

Thanks you Chiang Mai for providing such a rich context this latest gathering of my far-flung family. A fitting end to 2023.

 

Marsa Al Seef was a great project to be involved in. Just revisiting the Revit models as I load them into the cloud for archiving. Such a lot of cross-linking with more than 50 separate buildings.

It's a shame we didn't have cloud collaboration up and running in those days. Would have been great for the design team to have accessed the federated model through the browser. Just another reminder that major technology shifts happen over decades as the pieces of the puzzle slowly come together.

The photographs were taken a few years ago when I was down in the area early one morning. It's a different place in the evenings with lots of people and interesting lighting. Of course, to some people, it's all "fake", but to me that's a very simplistic judgement.

 

The point is, does it work? Does it capture the spirit of an old souq and merchants houses down the side of Dubai Creek. Does it attract visitors and buzz with life? Does it respect the traditions of Gulf Architecture, the proportions, textures, balance between regular and irregular.

In my view the design team did a great job, the client showed vision and I'm quite proud of the Revit families I developed also. Lots of different permutations to mix and match. It was an interesting challenge and I learnt a lot, both what to do and what not to do.

Memories to cherish as we tick off another year.