Virtual Suburbia

Another 'First': Annual Second Life Design Competition

Just in off the wire, and something you may be interested in - A call for submissions for the "First Annual Architecture and Design Competition in Second Life". The competition appears to be the brainchild of Munich-based artist and architect Stephan Doesinger.

From the competition's website www.sl-award.com (link is to English version, original URL is in German):

Topic of the Competition:
Seeking the coolest, most spatially interesting and aesthetically independent pieces of architecture from the inhabitants of Second Life. It can include all buildings: from big to small, spaceships, underwater constructions, villas, fully landscaped and designed islands, complex high rises. Decisive are creativity, innovation, features, style, and spatial qualities.

Deadline:
September 1st, 2007

Most intriguing is this excerpt from the 'background' section of the site, perhaps a nice summary of the tree we've been barking up for a while now:

What matters in Second Life is the architectural function of the building. Even if one cannot enter them, like the CAD renderings, in a physical way, the communication happens on many levels: aesthetic, linguistic, musical, and finally with virtual buildings, which one could also call walk-in plastic sculptures. This alone is something that real architecture sometimes can't achieve any more. Here, "architecture happens" and creates in this way, as contradictory as it may seem, "real places." Only through the "beyond human" physicality in Second Life – one can even fly as an avatar or teleport oneself – are new spatial connections made. The exciting question is: Which relation does the real architecture (-culture) have to this development and vice versa – on all levels?

My instant reaction to any RL architecture competition (in North America, at least) is a certain degree of skepticism, usually related to the inevitable politicking and compromises that occur if the winning design is ever to get built at all. The only potential concern about this one is that it seems to cast the net a little wide as it pertains to the *actual* criteria that will collectively emerge among the jurors to deem a spaceship better than a high rise, for example.

Regardless of how that plays out, the intentions at a quick first glance seem good, and barring any unforeseen malicious legalese the potential is for every entry to be of value to the creator, win or lose, as an actual 'built' work, providing a function in Second Life rather than simply languishing on paper and relegated to gathering dust.

That said, I can't recall the last time my inventory was swept out.

posted by Chip Poutine @ 12:10 AM