Timber...!

Back to the Kings Cross Thameslink Hotel project... this is a view of the massing model I used as a major step in planning out each floor, i.e, where to stick each room, circulation, where windows faced e.t.c... Pretty laborious stuff. Just to get to this stage, I built a foam model out of triangular shards, roughly where I wanted the hotel to be in the space on the site. I was trying to achieve a tree-like crystal form, a megastructure that was both organic and fractured, that paid particular care to its site, specifically the dome of the Scala next door. The overhanging "stalactite" part is a particular feature of the project, which attempts to "frame" the dome (some people might get some sexual vibes off that idea... none was intended when I designed it. Honestly!) Well... each point on the foam 'crystal' was plotted into AutoCAD and using boolean tools, I was able to plot the outlines of each floorplate, and cutting them out resulted in this glorious model. It's a shame that it fell over (I hadn't glued the supports from the 7th floor upwards, as it seemed to hold together pretty well with friction alone, but then the shallower supports I had made for the lower floors caused a structural collapse when it vibrated as I moved it... oops.