Urban Design and Architecture of the Virtual World

Are you ready to take your design practice to the virtual world? The other day a colleague told me their friend was considering applying for a landscape architecture position within metaverse prime, a company that designs environments for Second Life (SL). For those that may not know, SL is an on-line persistent virtual world where people participate virtually in a “Second Life”. Within it people can earn local currency and exchange it with real world currencies. To get some idea of the landscape, check out SLs Google-like Map.

I was not surprised to hear about the need for landscape architects to design virtual sites, but amazed that it had finally happened. In 2000, I gave a lecture about the future of landscape architecture to a local garden club and ended it with the thought of landscape architects becoming involved in developing video games. At the time, I had been tinkering with developing models of environments for the on-line, first person shooter Quake III. It was fascinating to have total control of the environment and then interact with it. Obviously, it was not the same as the real world. Smell, touch, and the feeling of space were noticeably absent, but the design did affect the player’s behaviors and were enjoyable to view. I couldn’t help but approach it from a landscape architect’s perspective - an unlimited budget and not having to necessarily worry about physics was liberating.

I have not entered Second Life and at the moment have no plans to do it, though I must admit I have considered it. If I do I will let you know how it goes. After a few quick searches, it is interesting that there are some design professionals offering designs for both the real and virtual world. Two examples I have run across include architect David Denton’s practice and Crescendo Design. Two of the best articles I have read on the subject include a tour by Archinect and one by the Guardian. The Archinect article covers the Landing Lights Project, which uses the SL interface to facilitate the public process for designing a real world park in New York and is a very interesting use of the technology. Some companies are using the virtual world for training and it makes you wonder if some day we will be attending an ASLA or AIA convention in a virtual world.

Overall, SL’s current graphics seem a bit crude by current gaming standards, but as computing power increases I can see this becoming less of a problems and the platform becoming more and more popular. Despite the graphics, from the screen shots I have seen of Second Life, I would say it could use a lot of creative energy from architects and landscape architects. Computing power alone does not improve creativity. So if you are looking to expand your practice, you may want to stake your claim in Second Life and begin to conquer the virtual world.