Picked up work on my "Hampshire
Churches" study. Gathering information, organising into structured
folders, using a "Revit Map" to visualise, analyse, plan.
Two years ago I did a study of Danish churches. It was
a follow up on my exploration of the Klint churches of Copenhagen and I really
learnt a lot in the process. As I dive deeper into the village churches of
Hampshire I am really struck by a distinctive tradition stretching back to the
Saxon era. The first few churches of this type that I visited were in the Meon
valley and I had assumed that they were quite rare. Turns out they are quite
common. Small village churches with clay tile roofs, squat timber bellfries.
Red brick, whitewash, exposed roof trusses.
Not sure exactly how this comparative study will shape
up, but I will be spending more and more time in this part of the world as I
move through my transition to retirement. Looking forward to a rolling program
of visits, mixed in with BIM pencil studies, maybe some freehand drawing and
painting.
How to set about a survey of dozens
of village churches in a particular region of Europe. I developed a number of
techniques two years ago, looking at Danish churches mostly white, often with
stepped gables.
I was using Revit of course, "off-label"
application of the software perhaps, but for me it was very effective. So now,
with a visit to Hampshire looming, I am picking up the threads again. This time
I won't be totally reliant on web research although it's a great way to prepare
for the visit and and a capability I never dreamed of 30 years ago when I first
came up with the term "the way we build" to characterise such
studies.
We can think of buildings as a mirror, a reflection of
our cultural and technological history. The Hampshire Churches will help me to
reflect on the withdrawal of Roman administration from Britain, the coming of
Anglo-Saxons across the water, replacement of paganism by Christianity and so
on.
Also use of flint walling, burning of chalk for lime,
timber roofing of various configurations, how to best create Revit families for
pointed arch windows with deep, splayed reveals. No shortage of threads to weave
together with "the great integrator" AKA my BIM pencil, you may know
it as Revit.
No comments:
Post a Comment
I've been getting a lot of spam so had to tighten up comments permissions. Sorry for any inconvenience. I do like to hear from real people