SOUTHAMPTON SLUGS

 I've been quiet since I got back from UK. A combination of factors. Disrupted sleep patterns, some routine medical stuff, and I'm kind of bogged down on the Hampshire Churches project.

Well not exactly bogged down, but definitely facing a long hard slog. It's easy enough to collect 20% of the data and set up sheets that look quite impressive. Collecting the rest, chasing down errors and conflicts, then tidying everything up... That takes much more time and the effect on the sheets seems minimal compared to the extra effort.

So I've just been putting in a few hours each day, as energy permits, thinking about a post from time to time, but in the end deciding to just buckle down to the routine effort. Gathering data on 400+ churches, a few at a time. Gradually filling out the map and the schedules.

Am I past half way? I certainly hope so because the mapping stage is just the beginning. I need to select at least 10% of the data set and do some modeling. Did I bite off too much? I don't think so. At least I have no regrets. This is a terrific way to learn.

 

 

Southampton. I can't remember whether I ever visited as a child. Looking forward to two or three day-trips down there by train and bus probably. Explore a few churches, get a feel for the place. That will be over the next year or so, hopefully.

I have two main sheets to define my area of study. For the most part there is space to tag the "pin" that marks the position of each church along with an image. But in a dense urban area like Southampton the churches are too close together, so I'm setting up third sheet for these.

The map begins as a highly abstracted set of shapes, a bit like the underground map for London. As the work proceeds I am adding more detail wherever it seems important to give context to the church locations. Step by step. Learning as I go. History and geography. Fascinating stories.  Sharing this work with a small audience keeps me motivated, provides essential feedback and opens up the possibility of others building on my efforts in the future.

 

 

These pics are from before I went to UK. Exercises in curtain-paneling-by-pattern that I upgraded and uploaded to ACC. I called this “the slug” and it was inspired by Zach Kron. If you divide a torus with rectangular panels, each ring around the donut contains identical components. You can then slice that torus in a way that makes it look more “nurbsy” than it really is. There will be a bunch of on-offs at the cuts of course but still a substantial amount of repetition, giving a nod towards affordability.

 

Of course I then went ahead and introduced pyramids of different heights, once again reducing the repetition factor. I was exploring Revit schedule to Excel workflows in those days to automate the randomizing. You can control it so there are only 3 or 4 different heights. Anyway, that was a brief interlude in my overall history and I haven’t done this kind of thing for a long time. I’m sure the younger guys are using a completely different approach to achieve these whacky concepts now.

 

My hope is that by packaging up 15 years of blog explorations into the cloud, Daniel and perhaps a few other close friends, can help me to pass this work on to future generations. I know that a few students have been inspired by my blog over the years, so it would be nice to keep that going. Not necessarily the most amazing work Revit/BIM work out there, but I think I have followed an unusual path. What did Frank say?

"I did it my way."

 

 

 

 

BONDING FOR HEALTH

 This is a section of brickwork from the village of Buckler's Hard. Soft red bricks laid in Flemish Bond result in a very warm and attractive wall surface.

As a former bricklayer (of sorts) my eye immediately scans a wall like this looking for anomalies. It's pretty much a subconscious process by now, with conscious reflection on whatever I find.

 

 

The blue cross marks a typical example. The bond has been lost resulting in a space too big for a header where the two bricklayers working from either end meet up. You could remove part of that course and redo it with slightly larger joints, but the solution used here is to substitute small three-quarter bricks for the expected header.

You could see this as a mistake or you could embrace it as part of the informal "hand-made" look of a rustic cottage. Take your pick. 🤔

 

Two brick pier in English Bond, that classic of strength and stability. It just happens to have a quiet beauty also in the rhythm of headers and queen closers alternating wlth the simplicity of two stretchers. And it's actually the same course rotated by 90 degrees every time.

Add to this the gorgeous curves of a well proportioned stone capping. There's just a hint of the baroque about this one, to my eye at least. And how about the gate? Cast finials, forged scrolls, nice and chunky.

I'm sure there is modern work that matches this in its blend of form, function and materials: but remember this is just a run-of-the-mill Board School in a back street of what was then a small market town. Judge an architectural style by it's humblest examples.

The many flavours of classicism score quite highly by that measure. That's my view.

 

 

Second session with my Slovenian physiotherapist today, training my sense of balance. It also involves strengthening my legs and core. Everything is connected right? Never really a single issue or cause with a silver bullet solution.

I have been aware of balance issues for two or three years now, especially since I started on the hormone therapy. Maybe it's one of the side effects of ultra-low testosterone. But if it sends the cancer to sleep that's OK with me.

Hopefully this is the last of the therapies I need to learn to keep my issues in check moving into retirement (fascitis, lower back pain, balance) Maybe not, but it's a good start. The Arabic coffee and dates are complimentary, served up by a guy in local dress at the entrance to outpatients.

The brown paper bag has two healthy salads from the coffee shop. Just another visit to American Hospital Dubai, my home from home.

 

 

HARD SLUG

Yesterday was a meetup with my cousin after far too long. He took me to Bucklers Hard, a village on the Beaulieu River which used to build warships back in the days of Lord Nelson. Fascinating to see how such a modest place could be producing cutting edge naval technology 250 years ago, just around the time that the industrial revolution was starting to get a grip on cotton spinning much further north.

Looking at the scale model it becomes easier to understand the wide space between the houses. Of course it's an imaginative reconstruction, but it makes a lot of sense, sets the brain to working. Which a museum should do.

 

It's sad for such a busy working centre of skilled craft to be reduced to a tourist attraction, but that's how things go.  All the same, I do hope that there will be a resurgence of new buildings built by hand with time-worn skills comparable to those that were omnipresent even a hundred years ago.  Maybe the long-promised emergence of universal plenty will unlock that potential? Or maybe not.  Could just as easily be that doing drugs and playing online games/ scrolling TikTok will be the dominant way of life.

 

The other pics are from before I went to UK. Exercises in curtain-paneling-by-pattern that I upgraded and uploaded to ACC.  I called this “the slug” and it was inspired by Zach Kron. If you divide a torus with rectangular panels, each ring around the donut contains identical components. You can then slice that torus in a way that makes it look more “nurbsy” than it really is.  There will be a bunch of on-offs at the cuts of course but still a substantial amount of repetition, giving a nod towards affordability.

 

Of course I then went ahead and introduced pyramids of different heights, once again reducing the repetition factor. I was exploring Revit schedule to Excel workflows in those days to automate the randomizing. You can control it so there are only 3 or 4 different heights.  Anyway, that was a brief interlude in my overall history and I haven’t done this kind of thing for a long time. I’m sure the younger guys are using a completely different approach to achieve these whacky concepts now.

My hope is that by packaging up 15 years of blog explorations into the cloud, Daniel and perhaps a few other close friends, can help me to pass this work on to future generations. I know that a few students have been inspired by my blog over the years, so it would be nice to keep that going. Not necessarily the most amazing work Revit/BIM work out there, but I think I have followed an unusual path.  What did Frank say?

I did it my way.

 

PROCESSING THREE CHURCHES

 

There's a process: looking for places to visit and planning how to get there. Then the desperate balance between snapping away madly and drinking in the atmosphere of place and time. Afterwards, uploading pictures to a carefully structured set of folders in the cloud, then filtering through them on the mobile device and selecting small groups to combine before deleting the rest from my time line.

During the selection and collage- making a voice in my head rehearses thoughts I might want to express. Hopefully I remember the good ones later when I fire up Samsung Notes. Could be the same evening, or more often a day or two later that I post to LinkedIn. Might be some minor final edits then.

 

The process is what I enjoy. Trying to live my best life. Learning each day by actively working with images, models, words, buildings. It shapes who I am, gives me a deeper historical perspective but in a very practical way.

It's wonderful to share that with a diverse group of friends. To feel that I can also pass something on, here and there.

Three more Hampshire Churches shown here, visited by car on a ride back from Reading to Basingstoke with long-time friends. St Mary Stratfield Mortimer, Victorian Gothic on a heroic scale. I've seen the spire many times from the train but never close up before. St Saviour Mortimer West End. Also Victorian but more modest in its pretensions. Mattingley parish church. Late Medieval timber frame restored by Butterfield. Almost domestic in feel and a fitting conclusion to this small adventure.

 

The image set below shows details of Stratfield Mortimer, a Victorian parish church. The vestry is very odd, added by a second architect at the West end, which is unusual. The roof is flat, but with two flying buttresses at the sides that seem more decorative than structural.

The other striking detail is a dressed-stone cover flashing. This is laid at a steep angle and projects over the lead soakers that interleave with the tiles. The lead is gone of course, stolen and replaced by a less reusable material. We used to know it as flash-band.

 

Next set. The carved ornament at the springing point of the window arches is found in both sets of images. Foliage terminations to columns as they rise up and to hood mouldings as they curve down, at St Mary's. A version of Tuscan capitals and carved heads at St Saviour.

At roof level we have a bell-cote in marked contrast to the soaring spire. Also a cross with trefoil embellishments. More carved heads "supporting" the hood moulding over a lance window. Wonderful balance of shapes, colours and textures here.

 

Mattingley is completely different of course. Heavy timber framing, closely spaced... you almost wonder what the bricks are doing in there. They look very beautiful of course, and lower maintenance than wattle and daub.

The framing has the feel of driftwood, that old favourite of the still life painter. If it was a modernist building the fans would say that the herringbone pattern of the bricks expresses their non-structural nature. It may be so, but I suspect the builders were just "building well" within a tradition. None of the the self-conscious rationalising we like to indulge in.

But perhaps that's my particular bias peeping through.

 

TWO KINGSLEY CHURCHES

 

On Tuesday I targeted three churches by bus. Sadly I had to call time on my stamina after the first two. All the same it was a great little adventure to the village of Kingsley.

All Saints is the currently active church, a Victorian replacement for St Nicholas, just a couple of bus stops away. The old church has remnants of medieval work at the East and West ends but the main body is a strange brick concoction from the Georgian period. The doors were locked.

 

The new church was open and although they employ different materials both inside and out are admirable examples of high Victorian polychrome. Generally speaking it's in excellent condition, but I suspect the exterior was originally selectively limewashed, leaving just the bands of dark stone exposed in contrast with the sparkling white of the lime.

It's a theory.

 

 

The details below are from the two churches I visited this week, both in Kingsley, Hampshire.

The green tunnel approach is quite common for these small village churches set back a little way from the road. Get off the bus and head up this enchanting side road. Lots to see. I even came across a dead rabbit in the hedgerow.

Typical village pub, lychgate from Victorian times. Some splendid doorways that I would love to tackle in Revit. Who knows when? Wonky grave stones with moss and lichen. How picturesque is that?

 

I had to look up lychgate to check if it's two words or one. In the process I discovered it means corpse gate, a symbolic reference to the resurrection when people will rise from the graveyard around the church to face the day of judgment.

Whether you are a believer or not it's a powerful story. Taken as a metaphor, the day of judgment reminds me to take my life seriously, to reflect on the positive and negative aspects of my journey, and to aim upwards with the time I have left.

Do we have those powerful moving stories to guide us through the modern world as the builders of these ancient churches did? Maybe AI can think a couple up for us... 👀

 

As sometimes happens when travelling, I got my images mixed up. No biggie, but here is the rabbit mentioned in my last post, and the village pub, and the green tunnel.

There is also a lychgate, not wonky this time, but it has a roof and seats, which are often associated with the term. The image squares I shared yesterday featured a rather splendid understated war memorial, one of several superb trees in the church garden at Kingsley All Saints. Plus an interesting buttress: very regular in all its edges, but a bit wonky in the middle.

 

The second set of squares shown here features both interior and exterior details from All Saints, Kingsley. Of course I love the casual irregularity of so much medieval work, the sense of evolution over time. But there is also something rather thrilling about the high Victorian Gothic with its crisp detailing and polychromy. Perhaps it's easier to imagine a period closer in time to ours, to inhabit the soul of a Gothic Revival architect.

That was a great day. A tiring day, but manageable and another solid step forward in my work on Hampshire Churches. Another day in my acclimatisation to UK life. I'm so lucky to be able to do this transition in a gradual, phased way. The prodigal son returning after 45 years? Yes and no.

It's a process.