wysiwyg helps build The Ark in Cambridgeshire

UK - With three churches already serving its population of 2,300, it’s perhaps surprising that one of them is building a new one in the fenland village of Isleham in Cambridgeshire. But the congregation of High Street Church outgrew the existing chapel and a larger building became a necessity.
In 2009, they began construction of The Ark, which, at 2,200sq.m, is believed to be one of the UK’s largest green oak buildings constructed in living memory. Now fully weather-proof, it is expected to be completed in the not-too-distant future.
Jonny Billitt from event production and equipment hire company MTS Live, and a committed wysiwyg user for more 'typical' lighting design applications, takes up the story.
“Designers and builders from the project initially contacted me for advice regarding the uplighting,” he explains. “The main design requirements were to up-light the hammer beams and room extremities, also achieving a good ambient lighting level.
“wysiwyg was initially used to import building CADs and overlay installation schematics for the inground uplighters as the floor was being laid and the cabling needed to be in place. The building render and subsequent lighting design went from there. Using wysiwyg I was able to demonstrate the concept using the 360-export feature, exhibiting the suggested fixtures and how they would realistically luminate the building.”
The 360° render of the interior of The Ark that Jonny created with wysiwyg is impressive with its exquisite details to the architecture and lighting. The new building’s complex frame is traditional in inspiration and design, constructed entirely from green oak tastefully brought to life in the render with a subtle yet impacting lighting design.
Jonny used both Release 39 and the recently-announced Release 40 of wysiwyg to create both the schematics and the higher resolution 360º panoramas. The new release introduces security improvements to help protect user investment along with a host of invaluable new features guided by the principle that “the devil is in the detail”.
Among the new features of wysiwyg Release 40 is additional functionality for the software’s Truss Manager, allowing colour type and colour to be added, enabling each truss piece to be colour-coded and named for easy visual identification on drawings. It’s hard to believe it was intended to be used for the oak trusses, beams and posts from which The Ark is constructed.
(Jim Evans)

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