Estadio Bragantino construction diary part 3

August 3: I finished modelling the facade and filled in the lights on the roof. It's really basic - just a brick wall with windows lining it. This is very similar to the existing buildings to the northwest of the site, with brick in place of the concrete used there.

August 4: So I was sitting down watching the recap of Le Tour de France, and I had literally less than no interest in actually doing any real work. Before the competition started, I had joked around with the competition organiser that wacky waving inflatable arm-flailing tube men should be a requirement for the result, with 10 bonus points for each instance. While I may have been robbed and not received my bonus points in the results, I did sit down and model the tube men. Here they are in some Red Bull (well, Toro Rosso) inspired colours.

August 4: And in action! Don't they look so happy? I would later end up using them as part of the stage setup.

August 5: I started work on the concourse structures. Shown are the womens and mens (in the background) toilets. Sidenote - I wasn't being much more productive on this day, as this work took me literally hours. I spent so much time messing around and watching stuff on the second screen.

August 5: I started working on an entry statement for the stadium, since I was getting nowhere on the concourses. The lion is based on the lion located outside of the main stand restaurant. I didn't really like this, and it never fit near the main stand, so I stuck it in the far northern corner of the site.

August 10: You may notice the jump in dates there. I was insanely busy at this point preparing for a house inspection so I put this on hold. The next task was working on the support building, with the ticket and club offices, merchandise sales, and the new restaurant relocated from the main stand. This is part of the dining area.

August 10: An overview of the building. I had planned to connect the upper dining deck to the main stand by way of a bridge, but the location of the stairwells made that not possible.

August 12: Support trusses for the main stand.

August 13: And for the lower decks. I retained the form of the upper deck trusses. Probably need a few more branches but that's the structural engineer's job. Dude should be grateful is all I'm saying.

August 13: And on the eastern stand and corner. I was a little worried about space on the eastern concourse, but it worked out fine.

August 16: After another short break, I started work on the site surroundings. This is one of the most crucial parts of the project for me. One can only judge a design by its setting, and one only knows the setting if they can see it. It's also the most fun part of the project - I absolutely love site modelling. Seeing a little world come together piece by piece is very fulfilling.

August 18: The buildings in the northwestern quadrant. The taller building to the right would go on to inspire the final form of the main stand - more on that later on. It was also an absolute pain to model - I had a tough time getting a proper mental picture of the balconies.

August 19: A wider view of the buildings.

August 20: Conforming the buildings to the terrain and adding trees. Since the buildings were primarily modelled from Street View data, I affixed the individual buildings in place on the road side of the building. From there, I drew rectangles around the remainder of the walls where necessary to not leave massive holes in the building and terrain. The trees were stretched and scaled to approximately represent their real sizes, relative to the buildings around them.

August 20: And a nicer shaded view, with the 3-d trees turned on. I'm really impressed with this, given it was a couple of afternoons work.

August 20: Seeing it on the site for the first time. I was chuffed.

August 21: Looking at the buildings overhanging the site. I knew I wanted to retain some view of them from the seating area, so it was time to model the roof.

August 21: Phase 1 of modelling the roof. The biggest problem the roof faced was that three sides of the stadium are significantly higher than the other. My first proposal saw curved fronds rising from the rear of the eastern stand. I thought this looked ugly and out of place on the site, but the fronds idea did get me thinking on how the roof might work. More on that next time...