| STAGE 2: PLANNING THE MODEL
Following the project team's preliminary discussions
about the evolution of the furnace site and an assessment of the
quality of information available at each stage, it was decided
to fix the date for the reconstruction at the time of Geisler's
visit to Sheffield in 1772. This had the advantage of showing
the furnace building shortly after Huntsman built the four-hole
extension, and as the works were beginning to grow from a backyard
operation into a more integrated industrial complex. However,
the model would need to be carefully designed to take into account
the pre-extension furnace layout, rather than relying on Geisler's
idealised version.
Much of the basic setting-out, such as the position and dimensions
of the furnace building, its stacks and outbuildings, could be
derived from the Fairbanks' surveys of the Attercliffe site. However,
smaller scale details -- including the stonework of the windows,
doors and cellar openings, and the roof hatches to let out heat
and smoke -- would have to be adapted from surviving examples
of industrial buildings. Site levels from later survey data would
also need to be incorporated, to determine the elevation of the
furnace floor level and cellar openings relative to the yard.
Reference to eighteenth-century industrial and agricultural vernacular
construction helped to determine the most likely roof and wall
structure, materials used, and architectural detailing. Internally,
the fittings of the crucible shop would be based on the layout
of later furnace buildings and the application of these principles
to Huntsman's plan. Although much of this information was already
contained in the text and drawings of the source case study, it
had not hitherto been possible to represent them in an integrated
visualisation.
At the pre-modelling stage, it was also decided to texture map
the finished model with real materials sampled at a high resolution
from existing built examples, for which Abbeydale Works again
seemed the most suitable candidate. It would also be essential
to decide at what level of detail to model different portions
of the works, depending on the available data and their relative
importance in the final animation. Elements such as the workers'
housing and the cementation furnace, about which less was known,
would only be seen in long shots and could therefore be simplified
in the CAD model, concentrating on their external massing and
roof forms.
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