themodelmaker

First model I would like to present you is Richard Meier’s Jubilee Church I made last year. Plan-form and section are extremely clear. Three circles of equal radius create three concrete shells to the south and together with a thick spine wall to the north. The west (altar) and east (organ) walls are light glazing, surrounding the bright, white set pieces for the cross and organ respectively. Natural light is the major theme, with skylights between each shell and over the main space, creating ever changing patterns within. In a contrasting, plain L plan around a sunken courtyard, is the community centre, on four levels. The centre is separated from the main church by a linear top-lit atrium.

The whole model is hand cut from styrene. That was before I bought my laser plotter. The shells were vacuum formed or rather pushed on my clay mould I prepared especially for that. At the beginning I was going to laminate it with glass fibre and resin, but I decided that styrene will be easier to cut later. Each shell contains 2 sheets of formed styrene and few stripes in the middle to add the necessary thickness. Then I sanded the edges and engraved the mesh of panels divisions. The rest is pretty straight forward. The most time consuming was engraving (panels, paving and railings).

Everything is lit with around 40 LEDs and it serves as the “mood” light in my bedroom It better than “lava lamp”.

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