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Should architects now be making video game worlds?

1 December 2017

MyUCL Student Journalist Robert Vilkelis shares his takeaways from a brilliant Lunch Hour Lecture by Luke Pearson from the UCL Bartlett School of Architecture.

Video game city

Creating new worlds

We often see architecture as an act of designing and planning what could exist in the world, and then making it happen.

In the exponential boom of computational power in the recent decades, however, architects and game designers alike have an ability to create more than just buildings with thrilling realism and vast three-dimensional scale: they can speculate on entire worlds.

As Luke shares pictures side-by-side on the screen, it's difficult to tell the difference between real-life photographs and video game screenshots. Then, right up against a modern Chinese residential block, there's a picture of 'Golem City' - a ghetto for the mechanically augmented citizens of Prague in Deus Ex: Mankind Divided.

In the world of Deus Ex, architects create cities, settlements and installations that explore one question: what if we had the technology to mechanically augment ourselves? In the video game space of Human Revolution we explore a humanity both excited and concerned about the direction we're headed; in Mankind Divided, we live through the eyes of people terrified of what we've created, and in doing so, explore the idea of apartheid-level discrimination from a whole new level.

For the first time, we're not only presented with worlds and realities to look at, but worlds and realities to act within; a window that reflects our society, what plays out within it, and what exists beyond it.

A return to 'Pre-Renaissance days'

When I was 14, I got my hands on a copy of Minecraft Beta 1.4 - a game that was really taking off in popularity.

Like so many, I was taken by the prospect of chopping down trees and digging to the depths of the Earth to harvest materials to build my epic cliff-face-base and overly ambitious city with genius placements like a jail next to a nightclub in the middle of nowhere. I just created and built without reservation - and to this day, you can still find my 14-year-old voice preserved on YouTube walking through my creations (if you can find the URL).

Yet, Luke took my experiences and put them into a new context.

Compared to the architectural process used for hundreds of years, "Minecraft returns us to these pre-Renaissance days where the architect would be on-site directing the building from the ground up."

Video games like Minecraft aren't simply handing everyday people the chance to become architects - they've ushered in a freedom to create from nothing on a scale that's never been available before.         

A future of new communication

"They're quite sad," Luke remarks, talking about planning notices that communicate local construction plans. "They're a laminated sheet of A4 and there's not really much fun about it."

How can we reinvent the planning notice as a video game space? Enter 'Playable Planning Notice,' where a sheet of A4 comes to life and you can see what's planned by building it yourself.

Want to teach people about how Los Angeles developed? Immerse people in the world of 'Lost Angeland' where you hold the tools to manually transform the middle of nowhere into a modern metropolis through launching concrete, greenery and money at your surroundings.

Through playing a game, we can learn to take away what we engage with and bring it into our own lives. Learning through discovering, teaching through revealing and communicating through creating. That's the power of harnessing video game worlds.

What will you create?

Be open to what there is to discover, willing to create in the moment, and innovative in how you communicate. That's what being an architect in a video game teaches us and it's something we can take into our lives beyond the screen.

What experiences are you going to create as the architect of your life?

Next time it's your turn!

Lunch Hour Lectures are your opportunity to engage with brilliant work taking place across all of UCL. From the arts to the sciences and beyond, you're sure to find something you're passionate about.

Check out the Lunch Hour Lecture schedule to find out what you could be on your way to attending, and we'll see you around soon!
 

  • You can view the full Lunch Hour Lecture on YouTube.