Fonthill Abbey, Wiltshire, UK in Rhino 3D (William Beckford)

Using Rhino (www.rhino3d.com) NURBS modeling software to reconstruct Fonthill Abbey.

Fonthill Abbey was the creation of William Beckford a multi-millionaire, novelist, musician, sexual misfit and 18th century eccentric.
He was also the builder of one of most luxurious private homes the United Kingdom has ever seen.
In 1759 at the age of 11 he inherited one million pounds (equivalent to nearly 200 million pounds in the 21st century)
and with this money he embarked on building this truly vast and luxurious building. Once built he then proceeded to fill it with the finest art and treasures that money could buy.
The impracticalities of the vast poorly heated house, which Beckford himself had said cost £30,000 a year to run, finally came home to him and he sold it for a mere £330,000 pounds.
In 1825 shortly after the sale, the 276 foot tall tower collapsed, subsequently reducing a large part of the building to rubble.
The myth grew up that the then Clerk of Works had confessed that the foundations were insufficient for the weight, but recent surveys with ground radar have discounted this, and it is thought it was a constructional weakness in the towers lower walls that was to blame.

Sadly today after the passing of 185 years virtually all the remains of Beckford's Folly have long gone.
Numerous contemporary illustrations and plans do still survive however, along with the original architect's model.
Using information from these I have attempted to reconstruct the Abbey (* note 1) in 3D CAD software.
The building during its lifetime was constantly altered and added too, something that can be detected from the various contemporary illustrations. Even the architect's model and the plans show differences to illustrations that were drawn shortly before its collapse.
I have tried to make the 3D model resemble the Abbey's' appearance as close as possible before its 1825 death.
More information can be found at www.fonthill.hvtesla.com
The Rhino model in the video is an earlier one of mine with several mistakes (it is currently being totally redrawn) , but it gives an idea of the building, its size and proportions, and what you can do with Rhino.

* note1: The building never had any religious connection at all. It was merely a pretentious title that Beckford gave it.

Music: Erik the Umbrella man.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Rhino
• tutorial
• 3D
• NURBS
• CAD
• Rhinoceros
• Fonthill
• Abbey
• Wiltshire
• Beckford
• William
• software

[nighterjay]

Having Read "At Home" By Bill Bryson, I have always tried to recreate this Building in My mind. This video is great to bring some flesh to what Bryson is saying about the scale of this house. Just incredible, considering, Beckford was going to live in this Cathedral with just his wife.......well............wit­h about 50 servants, but You get My meaning!!

[allertonoff4]

fontasic work !

[KBNASTAT92]

Fantastic. I first read about Fonthill abbey in Bill Bryson's book "At Home". It's a real pity the building never survived, imagine how much of an attraction it would be nowadays.We'll never see the likes of again because this was during Britain's Gilded age, the age of the aristocracy. Even if you were the richest man in England, it'd be socially unacceptable to build yourself a house which had: 35ft doors, 50ft long dining table, 300ft long hallway, 280ft roof and 80ft long curtains!

[peerage1]

Dire!

[BoyWithBlackWings07]

I am decended from William Beckford. My parents changed our surname to be the same as his as I guess as they were proud of his achievements, but I heard some bad things about him. I don't really know much about him, other than he was an eccentric and he built some tower, but I dunno why my parents would name me/our family after him if those things were true. If anyone knows anything about his life, msg me.

[gobacktorussia]

@triplethreatvette he doesn't need to scale it down, just extend grid, but this badly reduces performance! infact as he is showing this i would recommend he disabled grid to improve motion. and follytowers, i would love to see this rendered in vray, it would look beautiful! great model, and get rendering!

[triplethreatvette]

ahh i havent used rhino since high school drafting. you should scale it down, i made big things but never off the grid, reminds me how much i hated how it would disappear when you changing view, rendered in penguin right?

[AG3304]

Must've been magnificent,Fonthill Abbey.

[Kitsos95]

can you use this programme to create games in visual basic

[BulkandSkull]

Killer job, man. A great building with a hell of a story behind it.