We begin the week by positioning the side door transoms of the main facade, as well as simulating the structure of the balcony and columns. This is being done with reference to the friezes in our possession and those visible in the model photo within the Shanghai Notebook.
We are carving tiles from the balsa wood pieces of the side section roofs and staining them to soften the appearance and create a discreet joint.
We are cleaning and refining the molded roof piece.
We are securing the railings and facade doors of the side sections.
We are beginning the balcony structure for the central part of the model.
We are questioning the arrangement of the ground floor friezes on the main facade. Nicolas Godelet had suggested that the notches on the friezes with ‘swastika’ patterns were for the balcony support brackets. However, these brackets do not appear in the building’s archives; we only see ‘bats’ there.
Nicolas’s response to our query is that what we refer to as ‘bats’ serve as spacers that are part of a frieze. This helps to separate the beam anchor points in the posts and to improve structural resistance by reinforcing the embedding effect.
Nicolas sends us photos of Chinese architectural bats as an example.
We are creating a floor for the left side of the central section’s balcony, ensuring it does not impede the model’s division into three parts.
We are beginning the castings of the missing pieces for the loggias of the central facade’s balcony.
We are installing the covers, carved moldings, and openwork pieces that are positioned between the floor and the roof of the side sections. We are also temporarily positioning a pillar of the side balcony railing.
We are molding a missing part of the frieze to be placed within the thickness of the balcony. We are continuing the castings of the friezes beneath the balcony.
We are adjusting and temporarily placing the facade of the left loggia of the central balcony.
We are arranging the balcony floors in our possession.
