smashing
It beat me.
<p><a href=“http://www.flickr.com/photos/eversion/34758902/” title=“Photo Sharing”><img src=“http://photos21.flickr.com/34758902_917b184705.jpg” width=“257” height=“393” alt=“shot” /></a></p>
Back in 2002 I spent what felt like half my life experimenting with the modelling tools used to create <luckygoogle>Half Life</luckygoogle>. My goal being to create a virtual model of my building that the viewer would have complete control over. The first time I sat in front of the game and lifted the crow bar (the basic weapon provided near the beginning of the game), my thoughts turned to destruction rather than creation. I dreamt, for reasons that are still unclear to me, of modelling the <luckygoogle>Farnsworth House</luckygoogle> and then remodelling it with few swift, deadly swings of my virtual arm1.
In the following months, during my <a href=“http://rob.annable.co.uk/academic/post/pigsinspace/index.html”>Pigs in Space</a> period, I began to work up <a href=“http://rob.annable.co.uk/academic/post/pigsinspace/quake/quake.html”>a model for my final thesis project</a>. Tom Barker from b-consultants was developing models using the same technique at the time and I visited his office so we could share notes.
But in the end it beat me. Time ran out, the model proved too complicated to finish and I wasted too much time modelling, ahem, myself, as you can see above. I shelved it and got on with <a href=“http://rob.annable.co.uk/academic/post/pigsinspace/a.html”>the</a> <a href=“http://rob.annable.co.uk/academic/post/pigsinspace/b.html”>real</a> <a href=“http://rob.annable.co.uk/academic/post/pigsinspace/d.html”>work</a>.
Happily, it hasn't beaten everyone and I was delighted to find a discussion forum a few weeks ago showcasing some fantastic models of MVRDV's VPRO building2 using the very same technique. It's all been collated at <a href=“http://archlife.skynetblogs.be/”>Arch-life</a> (thanks to thingsmagazine.net for the heads up) and as well as shots of VPRO you'll find a map to download of the exquisite (in Real Life at least) <a href=“http://www.galinsky.com/buildings/baths/”>thermal baths in Vals by Peter Zumthor</a>.
Now, where's my crow bar?
<p><small>notes:<br> 1. or <a href=“http://rob.annable.co.uk/journal.cgi/2005/04/18/architecture/vpro_tracey”>is it Tracy Island</a>?<br> 2. Recently Mies' grandson <a href=“http://www.chicagoist.com/archives/2005/04/26/miess_grandson_to_smash_grandaddys_building.php”>got to do that for real</a>, but on the wrong building.</small></p>