Av Paulista outside MASP

[nk]

About 8 years ago I visited MASP (Museum of Art Sao Paulo) in Sao Paulo, Brazil for work. It is a pretty amazing modernist building situated on Avenida Paulista


I was fascinated by the Portuguese style paving (you see this a lot in Lisbon) in the median strip of Av Paulista and decided that I had to make a model of it




but was a little intimidated by the prospect of how to actually replicate this in scale. After thinking for many years about it, I decided to bite the bullet and get on with it

I made up a drawing based on my photos and measurements



and started roughing out the form on a base



And then I tracked down some small terrazzo marble chips and experimented embedding them in plasticene



And then once I worked out the kinks tried with some black milliput. It took about 30 mins and a pair of tweezers to do 1" square which is pretty reasonable and I am satisfied with the results (no weathering yet)



when compared to the real thing


When I looked on Google maps I noticed that the median strip has been repaved and all this amazing paving no longer exists.
Thanks for looking. More updates soon.

[Ray Dunakin]

Very cool, interesting project! It's too bad the prototype has been destroyed.

[Gordon Ferguson]

Very interesting and neat solution.

I too have been interested in replicating this type of pavement , although mine will based on some Lisbon pavements. I notice that the Lisbon pavements use much more regular sized & shaped stone and for this reason I have used Fimo clay extruded through some shaped dies  ......... Will post some pics later

This is a typical Lisbon pavement

[finescalerr]

Not half bad, Narayan. -- Russ

[Bill Gill]

Narayan, interesting in the third photo down how the white "pattern" comes and goes. Looks like another neat scene. You seem to frequently select locations near museums, is that coincidence?

Gordon, that walk in Lisbon also looks like it will be an interesting project too.

[nk]

Gordon the Lisbon project looks fascinating. I am interested to see where it goes. Please post some pics.

Thanks Ray and Russ

Bill, you are right I do a lot of streets outside museums. I work in an art gallery so I often travel to museums all over the place, and the buildings are almost always very impressive. It is a destination, so people get drawn in and rarely look at what is around as they approach. So part of what I am doing is a slightly perverse  ground staring just outside some of the most amazing collections of art.

[nk]

Its been Methuselah's age since I last posted on this but I have made some recent progress that I would like to share.

I used all the images I took on site to draw up plans to scale. My shoe is exactly 1' long which is handy for pacing doing quick measurements without a ruler. I was able to transfer the measurements to 1"=1mm scale as I used the photos to draw the plan.

Once the plan was made I could then build a wooden subframe which included the contouring. I made the curb too high and added a little too much z-axis topography, but it still works in its own right (whew!)



and then I set about adding the mosaic-like surface using Milliput and crushed stone. I laid out a bed of Milliput, rollered it and then added the stones a piece at a time with tweezers and the point of a tiranti sculpting tool (if you have not tried these you must (https://www.tiranti.co.uk/Products/Plaster_ModellingTools) and had to contain the spread as I tamped it down to get a flattish surface. It was slow going and in all there are about 9000 pieces of stone added one at a time. It was enough to almost do my head in!

[nk]

Here are some progress shots

[nk]

The stub of a lamp post was added with details observed from Boston lamp posts lying by the side of the road.  I was able to leave space in reserve for manhole covers as I paved. You can see on the left of the median strip some 3D printed manholes that were drawn by Volker for me which I printed at Shapeways. THANK YOU Volker!!

[nk]

Once the paving was completed it was time to add the manhole covers, trim the overflow on the edges with a Dremel and a grinding bit and to make the pedestrian through ramp which was made in wood, and then cast in plaster using a silicone rubber mould of the wooden shape.

[nk]

The first image shows all the parts of the median strip in place


And the second image shows the asphalt in place. Its silicon carbide held in place with white glue on the base and then drizzled into it as a 25% solution. The first layer was very coarse and the upper layer a finer grade of carbide. This allowed for some texture to show through at the edges as it does in real asphalt paving. I smoothed the surface with a palette knife initially and then when it was just damp I used some copper pipe to "steamroller" it into place and get a beautiful smooth but granular surface. It's great to see it all coming together and the end is in sight!


Its maybe not a super-accurate reproduction but the accidents that happened along the way are happy accidents, and I am glad for them. A curator said to me just recently that I am not a photo realist as much as a philosopher. I'll take it! 
Thanks for looking.
Narayan

[Ray Dunakin]

Fantastic work! The prototype is such an appealing mix of materials and texture, and you've captured it well.

[finescalerr]

You have lost your cotton pickin' mind ... but in a good way. You are an artist. -- Russ

[nk]

Thanks Ray and Russ. Its been an exercise in perseverance, and I am glad that the work on the textures comes through. You are right about losing my mind...I've told my wife to take me to the vet and put me down is I ever start another project like this!!

[Bill Gill]

Narayan, It was a wait, but neat to see how this is looking now.