Finished! A 1:200 scale physical model completed by our architecture team has just been boxed up and sent via courier this morning. Featuring laser cut townhouses and apartments for an urban site.
The process started with our Director, Keith Nye, and Senior Architect, James Dacre, sketching ideas for a masterplan that suited an urban context. This picked up on existing street patterns while proposing contrasting voids to create new public spaces. The scale of development blocks were explored using 3D modelling software to provide a gradation from the domestic low-rise housing up to the more urban high-rise. With the scale of massing agreed, each block was designed in further detail with consideration of residents experience and engaging façade treatments for the public realm.
To create the model itself, cutting sheets were drawn of each elevation and exported to a format that both laser cutting and CNC cutting machines could read. With these digital files, our suppliers were able to ‘click print’ on their respective machines and voila! – a collection of model pieces were cut ready for Architectural Assistant Harriet Littlewood to assemble at our offices in Lockington. Given some of the complicated shapes and details designed, the use of a laser cutter was a huge time saving exercise and also provided a crisp, accurate finish. The burning of the card edges provides an interesting model aesthetic that helps frame the buildings and their openings. White card was used for the façades while grey card was used to line the elevations to provide indicative recessed windows and doors.
