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some new techniques along the way. I also wanted to use the model to test
the rendering capabilities of a piece of software that I had not yet used but
about which I had heard a lot of good things, Cheetah3D.
But probably the most important factor that pushed me into modeling this
project was a long-held desire to understand the structure: I started at archi-
tecture school the same year (1987) that this icon of deconstruction hit the
architectural headlines. When you first look at it, it seems impossible to
understand - a tangle of cranked beams and glass canopy perched precari-
ously on the edge of a roof. And just how did they make it waterproof?
Using photographs sourced from the Web, I was able to put together a first
rough draft, and as I found new photographs or plans, I refined the model bit
by bit. The method presented here is necessarily different from the one that
I used for the first models, since here I will be using other information that I
have gathered over the years, including an original plan and section.
So what did I get from this project? The satisfaction of a job well done (I hope),
a mystery solved… but also a little disappointment: I can never look at this won-
der again through the same eyes; it has given up (almost) all its secrets to me.
Since this was a private project, there was no deadline. Modeling was carried
out as and when time allowed. If there was one major constraint, it was the
lack of information: It is difficult to believe that after more than 20 years, there
are so few images in circulation of such iconic structure; there is not even a
single monograph on it!
I started modeling by studying the images obtained up close. Several
attempts were made (including many false starts) before a model was
produced that could serve as the basis for further analysis.
All the initial modeling was carried out in SketchUp 5 (the project was started
nearly four years ago). Only SketchUp's basic tool set was used - no modeling
plug-ins were used, and only the Bomb.rb Ruby was used to prepare the
model for export. The version 5 model was exported to version 4 to make the
animations. This got around the well-known “flickering shadows” problem.
Version 4 was the only version to avoid this problem. The infamous “shadow
problem” came back with version 5, and it is still with us today. All the textures
were applied in SketchUp, with Cheetah3D providing features like light-
ing, rendering, camera animation, and panorama preparation. Apple's free
MakeCubic.app was used to process the panoramic images into QTVR
panoramas. Photoshop was used in the preparation of some of the textures
and also in scanning and preparing the plan and section.”
Tip
If you still have a copy of SketchUp 4, guard it zealously since it is the
only version that does not suffer from the flickering shadows problem.
Unfortunately, version 4 does not run on Mac with versions of the
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