Over the past few years I have stumbled across a way of exploring history using Building Information Modelling. This is not really what BIM was intended for, but I think it has huge potential, both for students of architecture and for general enthusiasts like myself.
Basically you choose a particular building or vernacular style that fascinates you and set out to recreate it as an intelligent digital model. This process inevitably leads to gathering information and reading around the topic. All kinds of difficulties and ambiguities emerge as you try to piece together the jigsaw puzzle. It's really all about the journey and the deeper understanding of context and meaning that gradually emerges.
I started with things like a Greek Temple, or The Pantheon in Rome. It was almost always about recreating something that has got lost. I was inspired by a visit to Kathmandu and the Newari shop-houses that have evolved over the centuries. None of these explorations was ever complete, but I found them all immensely enriching.
My "BIM pencil of choice" is Revit, and using this software tool to recreate a building based on limited source material is akin to some kind of detective puzzle. You need to employ your knowledge of physics, common building techniques, human behaviour, history ... whatever comes to mind that is relevant to solving the riddles that emerge.
You can sketch a convincing image using pencil and paper without really understanding how a building works, but modelling with intelligent objects that follow the time-honoured rules of walls, floors, windows, doors, beams and columns; that demands a more rigorous logic. The building has to work. You need to decide what kind of room is behind that window, where does the staircase lead, why are the rooms arranged like that?
Basically you choose a particular building or vernacular style that fascinates you and set out to recreate it as an intelligent digital model. This process inevitably leads to gathering information and reading around the topic. All kinds of difficulties and ambiguities emerge as you try to piece together the jigsaw puzzle. It's really all about the journey and the deeper understanding of context and meaning that gradually emerges.
I started with things like a Greek Temple, or The Pantheon in Rome. It was almost always about recreating something that has got lost. I was inspired by a visit to Kathmandu and the Newari shop-houses that have evolved over the centuries. None of these explorations was ever complete, but I found them all immensely enriching.
My "BIM pencil of choice" is Revit, and using this software tool to recreate a building based on limited source material is akin to some kind of detective puzzle. You need to employ your knowledge of physics, common building techniques, human behaviour, history ... whatever comes to mind that is relevant to solving the riddles that emerge.
You can sketch a convincing image using pencil and paper without really understanding how a building works, but modelling with intelligent objects that follow the time-honoured rules of walls, floors, windows, doors, beams and columns; that demands a more rigorous logic. The building has to work. You need to decide what kind of room is behind that window, where does the staircase lead, why are the rooms arranged like that?
No comments:
Post a Comment