PARTY TIME

 

Preston Candover. Village along the road in the valley bottom, Church to the right at the junction. Today I added trees to this view, not as many as there are in reality, just as many as I felt I needed to convey the message.

I'm not happy with the grey blocks that are pretending to be houses. Just put that on the list along with people and a couple of gravestones. But next up is probably another camera angle, something a bit closer.

 

GAJ Xmas party last night. Had a great time. Not sure if I will be able to attend any more of these. It seems I now have five thumbs on each hand. Turns out that practising every day for a week is not enough to get your skills back 😂

Nobody warned me about the lifetime achievement award. What a wonderful surprise. Can't believe how quickly the time has gone. I won't be leaving Dubai until April and I do intend to come back on visits. So many good friends. Special thanks to Brian, and Pratheep for taking care of me.

What a wonderful firm.

 

 

Dubai Metro is coming to International City. It will be too late for me, but it's good to see it happening at last. Such a dense concentration of lower-middle income residents out here, about half an hour drive from the city centre.

I'm assuming it will be a raised track but no sign of them working on the supporting pillars yet. Several cranes, probably the station locations. I've watched so many major projects being built from the ground up in the time I've been here.

Easy to point the finger but there is a dynamism in this place based on welcoming workers in from all around the world in a very controlled way. Opportunities for all, from top executives to deliveroo drivers. Far from perfect but a fascinating place that holds its head high.

 

 

So far I've been adding pitched-roof "houses" to the context models using "model in place" Time to switch it up and create a parametric family. The chimney has a visibility parameter. Turn it off for short returns etc.

The intention is to represent villages as they were in 1900, when churches were still the centre of life. Choice of materials for both walls and roof. Independently variable in all 3 dimensions plus roof pitch. No windows or doors for the moment.