Virtual Suburbia

Just my Two Fingers

2009-05-08T08:22:00.000-07:00

...on the radial artery of this blog, that is.

Its Follow Friday for @chippoutine, and I was thinking of people who click on the link in my profile only to find another dead blogspot site.

Well, its not dead dead, something more akin to being nestled in a cocoon, hunkered down for a long and slow metamorphosis.

In the meantime, I've been posting some random sketches and other cruft over at the blog of our somewhat less nascent virtual design atelier - www.priondesign.com

As well, if you're interested, have a look at www.simvineyard.com, which documents the development of a Second Life island completed for a startup California winery. The island has since been taken offline, however you might find the blog to be an interesting read. Some of the "SL blog roundups" seem to indicate that simvineyard is actually more active than this site. *sighs*

Finally, feel free to peruse the archives around here, and if you like what you see let me know - perhaps the cocoon might start to resemble a piñata.

Thanks for stopping by!

-C.

Gathering Refuge

2007-06-13T10:33:00.000-07:00

In addition to the Royal Institute of Technology Stockholm's LOL Architects utilizing Second Life as a tool for architectural education (previously mentioned here and here), this post at Sharon B's Mindtracks reports at least one more university utilizing the metaverse to teach design and problem-solving skills, namely the School of Architecture and Design at Australia's RMIT University.

Very much like LOL's sim, RMIT Island (view on map | direct teleport | website) is an explosion of ideas that attempts to push the boundaries of architectural possibility, arguably blurring the lines between space, sculpture, graphics, and information in a manner not for the timid and seldom achieved in corporate builds.

While both islands present amazing works ranging from the slightly polemic to the downright esoteric, if the two were to be compared it would seem that the LOL students have had more freedom to define their own project parameters, with the RMIT projects appearing more focused by virtue of a relatively explicit design brief. For example here is the programme for the first of two assignments (the other being a space of gathering) completed over the course of the studio:

Project 1: Lost - A Space of Refuge
Design a space of refuge that is inhabitable by two to three people and examines the architectural relationship between interior, exterior and landscape. Inform this design by reading Borges’ short story on the relationship between the map and its territory, and develop a spatial and cultural understanding of refuge through architectural design.

As a result most of the RMIT projects felt to some degree like buildings as opposed to installations, yet it also seemed like the RMIT students were designing objects to be explored through camming rather than avatar movement. While one is compelled to dispense a healthy amount of leeway given the experimental nature of these works, many were frustrating to navigate and others entirely uninhabitable. In such cases personal impressions quickly degrade from breathless to just huffy.

Among the notable exceptions is Dinah Cortes's take on the Refuge project. In case you were wondering, it's the green thing pictured above. Quoting from the notecard dispensed at the entry:

The sequence of different spaces, lead the visitor to walk through a gradual initiation of darkness, light colours and sounds in being more aware of one’s true nature and relationship to the rest of the existence. Reaching a stage of isolation and contemplation, the viewer can experience a kind of meditative reverence, bringing out the vibrant spirit of nature.

Perhaps excluding the grandiose part about having me relate to the rest of existence, this eye-catching build does what it says. Simple, elegant, expressive, and even a little profound. I'd give it seven thumbs up.

Or maybe just an A.

Korova Milk Bar

2007-06-05T22:33:00.000-07:00

Speaking strictly from personal observation, the residents of Second Life have spent considerable energy creating spaces inspired by literary reference. Some are based on specific authors and works such as John Norman's Chronicles of Gor, others are simply evocative nods to science fiction and fantasy novels that lack obvious attribution. Star Wars fandom notwithstanding, there seem to be far fewer spaces drawing their inspiration from traditional cinema (an admittedly clumsy qualifier used to differentiate it from the rise of spaces serving machinima, whether they take the form of backlot sets or personalized screening rooms).

While first envisioned in the words of Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange is better known from the film that made him infamous, and the Korova Milk Bar in the sim of Geoje (view on map | direct teleport | website) is not the first build in SL to hatch as the spawn of impresario Stanley Kubrick. In the archives of New World Notes Hamlet Au reported on Korov-oid tribute spaces dating as far back as 2005. Nor can the genius of the man be contained in-world, as one is reminded every time the grid goes down - heck, I've even used that flick as a reference in one of my earliest posts on this site, not to mention a subsequent review of a prefab known as 'Slightly Droog.'

That hasn't deterred Italian SL residents Mavi Beck and Franci Kubrick from being the latest to settle into the meme and make it their own in a way that (intentionally or not) belies the detached coolness and soulless hedonism depicted in the movie. A shared sense of cinematic immersion seems to instead evoke a kind of kinship with one's fellow avatars that cuts through the usual personal barriers of bling and bootylicious-ness.

Franci and Mavi have out of necessity elaborated upon the stark and partial glimpses of the bar as presented in the film. The walls feature the same scrawled menu of drug-laced dairy products seeping from brightly lit porcelain nudes (although they didn't serve drencrom, which is what I was drinking). Filling in the gaps however are a number of more whimsical elements, like a giant spinning turntable dance floor emblazoned with the giant spinning head of Ludwig Van. The bar itself is accessed by ascending a staircase from an art gallery on the ground floor. While the artworks currently on display are themselves compelling and the framegrab tableau of ultra-violence one encounters at the top of the stairs quite powerful, the entreatment to "Be a Smart Droog - Rent a Shop in Korova Milk Land" takes the whole thing down a peg.

So while these additional elements are executed to varying degrees of conceptual consistency, it could be argued that the flaws of this build are in fact what yield its charms. If one accepts the notion that presence in a literary world is all about disappearing, perhaps presence in a cinematic world is all about being seen. This iteration of the Korova Milk Bar has a definite lived-in feel, infused with the personality of its builders.

All of which leaves your humble narrator unable to look away, and hungry for ticks of toast.

The Ties That Bind

2007-04-04T23:00:00.000-07:00

The self-described sardonic jackass Lordfly Digeridoo is known on occasion to betray his declared modus operandi with insightful and entertaining rants on his blog. Easily one of the most prolific builders in Second Life, the portfolio on his site merely scratches the surface of a body of work dating back to SL's earliest days. In fact, last month he posted about a collection of historic photos capturing Second Life's sum total of 108 sims as they existed back in March 2004, and was able to identify many of his own builds in the snapshots.

The post reminded me of my own time spent on the color sims, which for many represent the 'old world' of the grid. While working on the Mauve Infohub I'd occasionally check out the surrounding environs where a simple sculpture on Green called 'The Ties That Bind' (view on map | direct teleport) managed to attach itself to the nether regions of my brain.

We've previously explored the theme of ephemerality in Second Life architecture, how the ability to instantly erase or conjure a build from inventory makes it seem in some senses disposable. Yet at the same time this very volatility leads one to savour the structures as they manifest themselves in the moment, insecure in the knowledge that at any other given moment they could be gone, perhaps forever. Edifice in the physical world, one might suggest, could in fact be easier to take for granted and/or even dismiss, easily shuffled into 'mental inventory' with the comfort of knowing it is going to take significant effort (and copious explosives) for a building to be removed.

Where the comparison falls down, of course, is when we begin to compare the material qualities of the 'stuff' that captures and envelopes real versus virtual space. A real brick wall does a lot of things that a virtual one can't, like withstand being crushed under the weight of the bricks above it, feel cold and rough to the touch, taste like dirt, smell like...you know what I mean. There's a certain completeness to the way in which these materials are 'read' that tends to outweigh the effects of ephemerality described above. Add some recreational drugs into the mix and one might call it a draw.

So what happens when the stuff of virtual architecture stops trying so hard to achieve the sense of gravitas it hopes to gain by incompletely imitating that which we have come to know in the physical world? Arguably it has the potential to make up for these deficiencies, take on its own character, and sit alongside physical architecture on a continuum of spatial experience.

In a small way, this is precisely what 'The Ties That Bind' appears to do, with Lordfly's post nudging me to document it before it disappears.

While not necessarily inhabitable in the same way as other works of Second Life architecture (unless one's avatar happens to be very very small (and a distinct possibility BTW)), the slipperiness of scale afforded by the camera allows viewpoints from within as well as around the sculpture, a diminutive collection of tortured prim ribbons that when considered as a whole come together to form a very complex, evocative, and gestural surface, a victory for raw expression over rational geometry the likes of which not commonly seen in-world.

It achieves its surface qualities through an apparent lack of concern for providing any sort of enclosure or 'envelope', and a seeming disinterest with being a building at all. And yet for me anyway it alights in the imagination as the facade of a distant skyscraper that upon approach transforms into something different altogether. While far less likely to be seen hanging from a rear view mirror, the closest analogue is perhaps the Native American notion of the dream catcher as a filter for unseen forces of imagination, allowing us to pause and perhaps perceive things may have been, or things that may never be.

Sliding into Second

2007-03-27T07:57:00.000-07:00

As the number of podcasts focused on Second Life increases (and stands poised to explode upon the release of the voice client), Wayne MacPhail's 'Who's on Second' remains one of my favourites. The show is an enlightening look at Second Life that goes beyond the typical media memes to highlight non-profits, educators, activists, and now me.

Episode 19 proved a marvelous opportunity to discuss some of the ideas that have been gestating here at Virtual Suburbia. The conversation covers a lot of ground, including the idea of spatial versus formal experience and whether we 'feel' space based on some sort of inherent physiological hardwiring or perceptual conditioning, through to how the notion of 'presence' extends across 3D and 2D media like email, IM, IRC, and Twitter, as well as how spatial apprehension and metaphors are brought to bear on one-to-many and many-to-many interactions. Upon first listen it would also appear I could stand to talk slower, say Um a few less times, and not come so dangerously close to contradicting myself. Good times.

One of the more challenging parts of the few interviews I've done is to narrow down a shortlist of admirable people and work to discuss. For that I would like to apologise in advance to anyone not specifically mentioned, and suggest our archives as a means of gaining a somewhat fuller sense of the scope and breadth of architectural talent in Second Life.

Another 'First': Annual Second Life Design Competition

2007-03-03T00:10:00.000-08:00

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.

The Long Commute

2007-03-02T21:35:00.000-08:00

We're back home again after a rather stressful outage, related to Blogger.com's ability to utilized custom domain names for Blogspot hosted blogs. As an emergency measure, all traffic was being directed to our project blog www.simvineyard.com. The rather convoluted solution employed was found here on the Blogger Help Group.

We also took the opportunity to get a feedburner feed up and running and will be looking at the most appropriate strategy to get our ducks in a row in that department. Anyway, glad to have that all behind us. The site should be accessible from www.virtualsuburbia.com, virtualsuburbia.com, and virtualsuburbia.blogspot.com, with all of the current incoming links to the site in tact.

Thanks for your patience and understanding (not that we have any grandiose notions of self-importance, mind you). We just felt it very important not to confound new visitors from sources such as (my favorite formZ author) Lachmi Khemlani's AECbytes Feature on Second Life's potentials for Architecture, Engineering, and Construction in Real Life.

As well, within minutes of service being restored, it was a delight to find a comment submitted on our review of the 'Creepy Peepers' Apartment Towers, by none other than Scott Teplin himself, the artist behind the original print work on which the build was based.

High on E

2007-02-28T10:30:00.000-08:00

Occasionally in an attempt to replicate the serendipity of discovering builds on the Second Life mainland I'll engage in some random island hopping. The results range from unsavory to stomach-turning, to intriguing, delightful, and even sublime. Not necessarily in that order. Sometimes simultaneously.

The sim of Sudo sits on the latter half of that spectrum. As originally posted at Second Life Art News, the island was launched for a mixed reality collaboration between Seattle's Bumbershoot Arts Festival and The Frye Art Museum. It contains works from some of SL's most talented creators, running the gamut from Cory Edo and Forseti Svarog's sea monster 'Chester' all the way to Dancoyote Antonelli's spectacular expressions in Hyperformalism.

One work on Sudo seems to sit comfortably within this range and yet somehow above it all. In bringing Scott Teplin's pen and ink work 'Creepy Peepers' into the third dimension (so to speak), Kim Anubis and her fellow Magicians have conjured a build (view on map | direct teleport) that sits engagingly between the realms of realism and abstraction, architecture and art, illustration and reproduction, a feat of illusion which like a bifurcated bikini clad showgirl leaves you scratching your head, utterly amazed, and feeling a little strange all at the same time.

Creepy Peepers (which just finished showing as a part of the 'Heavy Water' solo exhibition in Paris) is a voyeuristic glimpse into the domestic struggles of characters we get to know but never get to meet. Unlike the often disappointing adaptations of books into movies, the migration of this piece into Second Life seems to invoke an additional layer of resonance over and above what was already a wondrous little drawing to begin with. The axonometric view of the unspoken intentions of high rise dwellers explodes in new ways and from multiple angles when alt-zooming into every hand-drawn nook and cranny of the structure, as if donning a pair of super-binoculars from one's own balcony window.

My only disappointment about this build is no fault of the artist nor the folks who brought it to Second Life, for it would appear so evocative as to bring back a long forgotten childhood preoccupation with the books of Richard Scarry, and as such, I kept waiting for Lowly Worm to peek his head out from around a corner. He never did.

thing-king

2007-02-13T08:05:00.000-08:00

Last Monday the blog of print publication Things Magazine included Virtual Suburbia alongside Keystone Bouchard's The Arch in a reading roundup (check for the Feb 05 entry, as no permalink seems to be available) of sorts, and had the following to say:

The ARCH, a weblog that 'explores the convergence of the metaverse with the real life practice of architecture'. Ultimately, it boils down to this: can Second Life be used as a real world professional tool for architects and planners? From our vantage point (without a presence in the virtual community), the answer would have to be a resounding no. Turns out that there is a burgeoning community of design-obsessed commentators circling the infamous on-line community; see also Virtual Suburbia, 'the architecture of Second Life, reviewed on the fly'. The question has to be why.

As for Keystone's work, I'd encourage you to check it out and decide for yourself, and suggest his most recent posts (as covered in New World Notes) make a very compelling case to the contrary.

I tried to leave the following comment on the post but was told "Your form appears to be incomplete or your comments may be seen as spam," so it has been reproduced here:

"The lofty goal of Virtual Suburbia is to draw out criteria on a case by case basis of what constitutes architecture appropriate to the (non) physical and cultural contexts of Second Life. The problem-solving approach brought to bear on such architectures is in many ways ported from and translated back to design in Real Life. If the formal characteristics are not the same, the spatial experience and the very idea of a 'solution' to a particular function, be it of significant gravitas or indeed 'just a game' has much to teach myself at least about design in general, and most of my learning comes in the dialogue that is facilitated by the weblog form.

The not-so-lofty goal is to simply draw attention to the many talented individuals expressing their creativity with Second Life as the medium and provide additional information to those holding the assumption that Second Life as a whole reflects a bland unconsidered cacophony of shopping malls and doll houses.

Oh yeah, and its fun.

So, thanks for posing the question, allowing for a revisit of why exactly I'm doing what I'm doing, and to have discovered your excellent publication along the way."

Sorry if this is repetitive to any longtime readers. Thought it might also might be helpful for those visiting for the first time, for which you have my thanks.

Your Dream Cubicle

2007-01-31T13:57:00.000-08:00

Second Life resident Nathan Babcock has created some stunning residential prefabs and furniture. One look at his Flickr photostream and you'll quickly get a sense of his talent.

Nathan's work is interesting not merely for its clean modern lines but also for the questions that it raises, as embodied in the 'OFX Series Cubicle.'

Flickr user Frans Martins picks up on this with the following comment:

Love the design. Very architectural minimalistic. But, cubicles!! I would love small sandboxes and pleasant social enviroments. I am also learning and making buildings and furniture. SOmetimes we are so condition from the rl space, we miss the virtual posibilities and the SL rules.

Instead of buildings... you can have floating space, maybe circular with plants around... bridged @ a distance with the other work areas or social meeting points... all to reduce lag, offer better prim performance and reduced chat noise. Now the design of the space could be defaulted to some prefab design, but should be customizable.

As one would aspire to simulate a real office, these pieces are exquisite, but like Frans it leads me to wonder (while Linden Lab thanks me for my continued patience as today's outage has extended beyond its anticipated timeframe) how the residents of Second Life actually work. While there are some who do remain within the confines of their club or store, my guess is not chained to a desk.

It might be a good question to ask the folks at Wired Magazine, who at the time of my last visit had followed a fairly traditional office model but themed the whole place to look like a giant circuit board. It makes a statement about who they are as an organization, even when nobody's around.

Just as an empty house communicates the personality and preferences of the absent avatar, perhaps a virtual cubicle might also symbolically communicate one's rigor and professionalism to visitors of his or her virtual workplace. The difference, perhaps, might be that most of us look forward to returning to our houses or at least the idea of having a place to come home to (if you're not completely of the householding / roleplaying persuasion) while a comparative few would pine for their dream cubicle, no matter how nice it is.

Unless you happen to be the boss, and the thought of watching your employees supplicate puts a smile on your face. Actually, I'm sure there are plenty of people with plenty of good reasons to purchase the OFX Series Cubicle, which is but one small part of a significant portfolio of cool stuff.

Keep up the good work Nathan, as soon as they let us all log back in.

House and Foundations

2007-01-12T12:48:00.000-08:00

Since our popular Little House on the Sandbox post from last August, residential designer Keystone Bouchard has gone on to great things. Namely, he loaded up the truck and moved to ~~Beverley~~ the Bay Area to join metaverse developer Clear Ink, where he has completed such projects as Autodesk Island and most recently the United States House of Representatives in Second Life at which events were held during the swearing in of new House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

On his blog 'The Arch', Keystone shares his insights into the design and construction of this landmark, including the discussion of whether to faithfully recreate the existing space or to adapt it as he does successfully to both the pragmatic function of Second Life's avatar and camera controls as well as the symbolic notion of 'opening up' the building in a gesture to increased transparency and accessibility as facilitated by the democratic process.

In an earlier post Keystone also provides a summary of the event he and I hosted last month for both new and seasoned builders. Dubbed 'SL Foundations,' the objective of the event was to share tips, techniques and resources through discussion and demonstrations, placing emphasis on the practical aspects of 'how to build' over the theoretical aspects of 'why to build'. Two of the goals coming out of this event were to: 1) have more events like it and 2) launch a wiki to capture and centralize all of the good stuff coming out of the session.

While the second event has not yet been planned, the wiki has been launched, and I invite you to head over, check it out and feel free to contribute. Does the world need another wiki? Some would say not, but, unlike most wikis www.SLFoundations.org is at the very least easy on the eyes, and quite fun to use.

Archi-nnections

2007-01-11T08:15:00.000-08:00

....Because J-Wu already named his post archinect'ed, ok? Seriously, though, when a link comes in from Archinect it means a lot, being one of my favorite sites for news, projects, and a great discussion forum, free of construction industry cruft and precipitous product pimpage (unlike these guys, who also happened to post about SL this week with a well-deserved introduction to the work of Tab Scott).

In Architecture's Second Life the reader is presented with an in depth analysis of the topic, including a brilliant interview with Tor Lindstrand, a.k.a. Kapital Metropolitan, with whom I've also had the pleasure of meeting last year when covering the final crits for LOL Architect's 2006 studio with a review of Vava Vavoom's 'Little Sweden' project.

Of course the article introduces the well worn debate of design conservatism in a virtual world where anything is possible (ignoring things like prim budgets, flicker, and z-fighting presumably), however Tor steers clear of any assertions that his work or theories represent any sort of polemic against the status quo rather suggesting that we take a much broader perspective, beyond even the distinction that is often made between the real and virtual, where spatial experience is of primary importance.

Some of his students may be thinking otherwise, however. Raplaa Lazarno's '3D Graffiti' project daringly explores the line between architecture and griefer build as he rumbles with castles, log cabins, and the infamous low prim beach house.

Thanks for stopping by, Archinect readers. Feel free to peruse the archives and join the conversation as we continue to explore the architecture of Second Life.

Now with More Press

2007-01-08T10:29:00.000-08:00

Perhaps one of these days we'll get around to posting another actual architectural review, but in the meantime here's another press clipping ;)

This time, it is courtesy of the National Post, a Canadian national newspaper, who did a little feature (free sign-up required to read the entire thing, regrettably) on entrepreneurship in Second Life, mentioning the Prion Design Group and our ongoing efforts for the Capozzi Winery, including a brief interview with Josh Hermsmeyer, the owner of the RL winery and the Capozzi Winery Island in SL.

A good foundational article with a lot of stuff that will be familiar to those who track SL's development on a regular basis, however it chose to focus on my speculation vis a vis the value that architects could add to the virtual real estate market, when during our conversation this was included in the context of a larger discussion that included custom design services and product sales.

Second Life Foundations

2006-11-30T14:00:00.000-08:00

Virtual Suburbia and The Arch will be co-hosting "Second Life Foundations: A Primer for new Architects and Builders."

It will be an informal gathering, to welcome new architects to Second Life, and to bring people who love architecture together.

Keystone Bouchard, myself, and invited guests will be providing helpful tools, tips, contacts, resources and demonstrations to architects who are just getting started in Second Life.

Tuesday, December 5th
7:00 pm SLT (Pacific)

Tinta Verde 153, 68

Thanks to Rik Riel for including us in his weekly picks over at New World Notes.

Welcome Spectators

2006-11-25T23:13:00.000-08:00

A week ago last Friday I was contacted by Shannon Proudfoot, national reporter for the CanWest newspaper chain to comment on the launch of Mario Gerosa's Synthravels, a travel agency providing guided tours to the Kodak Moments of the MMO universe. In addition to Synthravels Mario is attached to some very important work, including the Convention for the Protection of Virtual Architectural Heritage.

Last weekend the story ran in the Ottawa Citizen and the Victoria Times Colonist with many papers across Canada electing to pass on the story, perhaps pushed off the page by the launch of two new video game consoles. However a week (wii-k?) later it was picked up by the Hamilton Spectator and also published on their website.

The article doesn't contain any printed urls or active links, so if you happened to arrive here via search engine you may also be interested in the following:

Synthravels - the main topic of the article
played in italy - Mario Gerosa's Blog
The Second Life Herald - Home to muckraker extraordinaire Peter Ludlow, also interviewed for the article
simVineyard - blog for the project we are working on with the Capozzi Winery in the online world of Second Life.

THE DUDE's Pad

2006-11-17T11:30:00.000-08:00

Following a discussion of the very public and didactic First Second Life Church of Elvis comes a quiet place of repose and solitude that by comparison lacks any apparent function or purpose. Yet it is this very ambiguity that offers up a portal to the possibilities and provocations inherent in 'THE DUDE's Pad', located in the Second Life region of Stinson (view on map | direct teleport).

Largely devoid of the iconography or signifiers of traditional residential construction, THE DUDE's Pad could be considered more of a pavilion than a house, a small living room connected to both the visual qualities of the surrounding context and also the broader opportunities inherent in a virtual environment.

Set into the side of a small escarpment, the build (much like the Single Maltz Residence reviewed long long ago) is a study in how to integrate with the landscape. Unlike many prefab houses in Second Life usually created to maximize versatility and potential sales volumes, subsequent copies of this structure might look rather strange in any other location. In this case the ephemerality of the Second Life landscape (i.e. the ability to be easily transformed) also heightens the attributes inherent in such a response.

In general, sharp angles and forms are juxtaposed with a warmth of materials to frame and enhance the organic-ness of the surroundings, making this a serene and tranquil stopping point. Unconcerned as many houses in Second Life are with hermetically sealing itself off from the rest of the world, it reveals itself as a continuous flow of space from outside to inside where one circulates along a series of ramps from the upper sitting area to a small outdoor garden space below. There are no doors or windows, and the space is largely devoid of objects. There is no kitchen, plasma screen or security system. The focus is outward, to the trees and the terrain, and one might suggest also inward to the self, as setting the stage for quite contemplation.

Structurally, the residence seizes the opportunity to express itself in a manner that is easily understandable and yet in also counterintuitive to what we might expect in 'real' space. This paradox leads to a ready apprehension of the rules that would be broken if it were to encounter the persistent belligerence of gravity. Specifically, the reading of the main supports seems to fluctuate somewhere between a column or a truss, with its attached semi-transparent panels sheltering mesh walls and tension cables that do a seemingly heroic job of helping to support the ramp system. The net result one might suggest is to subtly enhance an overall sense of place in a world that exists without physical laws.

Yet, with a name like 'THE DUDE's Pad, it ultimately fails to live up to certain expectations, like a bowling lane, or a fridge stocked with milk and Kahlua. There is a rug, but it doesn't tie the room together, nor does it look particularly peed upon. Sigh. Then again, perhaps I've been quietly contemplating a bit too much now, and should get out for some air. Or a drink.

Elvis Has Left a Building

2006-10-26T21:33:00.000-07:00

Hello again, patient and valued readers. I just realized that the one year anniversary of Virtual Suburbia has come and gone without fanfare, celebration, or ceremony. Which is ok. If we should be celebrating anything it is the accomplishments of the builders that I have been fortunate enough to encounter and document over the past thirteen months. Hats off to you.

As the discussion of Architecture in Second Life evolves some common questions persist, with many new and established voices jumping into the fray:

1. Realism - does it reproduce, augment, or abandon the physical world as we know it?
2. Function - What purpose does it serve? What should
it do?
3. Execution - how are its ideas expressed (Eg. solid/void, thick/thin, material/immaterial, grounded/avian)?

As it pertains to the debate of realism, Caliandris Pendragon has a number of interesting thoughts recently posted over at the Second Life Insider, where it is suggested some find realism boring while others find it comforting, especially as it regards the onslaught of big businesses coming to SL where it is the client (who has worked hard to build a brand in RL) that must be comforted as opposed to the avatar and her actual experience. Prokofy Neva also touches on some of these issues over at Second Thoughts. Not to mention, the Society for Virtual Architecture is a very lively place to hang out in-world these days.

On the subject of function, we have seen that building types translate from RL into SL with varying degrees of success. We've seen houses, stores, offices, factories, schools, and libraries, where it might be implied that function in some cases is more symbolic than literal. That said, one building type that seems to possess an acute sense of purpose these days is the 'place of assembly.' All around the grid you'll find amphitheatres of one form or another, that implicitly or explicitly respond to the dyadic needs of our physical selves and our avatars. Our camera can move anywhere, yet it feels awkward if two or more residents are not actually facing each other, or if they are standing too close together (its amazing that I 'feel' the personal space of my avatar). Therefore we've ended up with a number of spaces where we go to focus our attention on a stage to hear an interview, speech, or performance in a manner 'in person' that is quite different than listening to it on a stream from a remote location.

Of these Places of Assembly that exist in both the real world and the virtual, the ones that fascinate me the most are Places of Worship, because they seem to be the most alike one another, both serving a function that is in some senses quite 'virtual'. We trigger animations, speak in strange codes on different channels, rez objects for their communal effect with entities existing in some life that is somehow 'secondary' to our own.

So, with all of these ideas rattling around in my head, along comes the First Second Life Church of Elvis, grinding them up like a mortar against the inner wall of my skull.

The build sits on a mere 512 square meters of land in the sim of Nampo (view on map | direct teleport). While representative of one of the humble gable-roofed churches found in rural areas across North America, it also happens to be hovering in the air, fused with bling and iconography of the The King. Fittingly, a yellow porcelain toilet sits at the apse end from which the clergy (including the Right Reverend Elvis Faust and his associate SpaceProphet Jay (who kinda looked like a young Darth Vegas)) delivered the service. The pews are emblazoned with the visage of The Hilbilly Cat, allowing attendees to take part in a ceremonious sitting on his face.

Like any good piece of religious architecture, The First Second Life Church of Elvis creates a paradoxical container that is about being woven together with others in community yet completely alone before a higher power. In this case, that higher power wears a pompadour.

But then again, so did I. They were handing them out at the door.

I arrived last Sunday, just before the noon service. The congregation was waiting on a small grassy space outside the sanctuary, engaged in conversation with Reverend Faust and the particles emanating from his crotch that might only be described as blue suede ooze. The service that followed was profoundly hilarious and and yet for some reason to me also quite touching, as the tiny space was completely packed with avatars, some standing and swaying, some wearing hot dog(ma) costumes and waving placards. The intimacy of the service as constrained by the miniscule space had the effect of making the sermon more thought-provoking, the music more moving, and me more prostrate at the possibility of another Comeback Special. No less powerful and no less absurd than a religious experience in Real Life, for me anyway (although I have only the garden variety sectarian franchises from which to compare, and yet to sample any of the numerous RL churches also dedicated to the consecration of fried peanut butter and banana sammiches).

With surging popularity comes talk of expansion, of getting a bigger space to meet the increasing popular demand. I'll have none of it, and beg you not to go all Crystal Cathedral on me. You might as well take a picture of Richard Nixon shaking my hand. No, wait... Ok, well, expand as you must but in my humble opinion the First Second Life Church of Elvis as it exists today is a fitting testament to the people and spirit of Second Life. Not so much a gem as a rhinestone, a glimmering like a sequin in virtual airspace, and the kind of worship I could really get into, if only for tax purposes. Unless there was a Church of Wayne Gretsky. Waikiki Hockey, anyone?

funhaus Stilman

2006-09-19T21:08:00.000-07:00

With the 2006 Burning Man Project marking its first steps into 3pointD territory via Google Earth, Second Life's annual homage to the event is already well established and has enjoyed an exceptional amount of coverage this year thanks to GavinLeigh Wake's Burninglife.com. And yet while the glowing embers of the festival fade to black perhaps we might take one last opportunity to work the bellows. The theme this year was 'The Future: Hope and Fear'. At the time of the event it wasn't going to be 'the future' until the event was over, so it seems appropriate to discuss it now-er, yeah. A few builders may have also mistook the theme to read 'Ambivalence: Ban Lines and Plywood', however that's not to say the festival was devoid of compelling experiences. Far from it.

At its best Burning Life, like any time-certain event in Second Life, is intensified by its ephemerality and the knowledge that hundreds of person hours of avatar effort will at some point implode to inventory or scatter throughout the grid. What sets it apart is its subject matter, where residents have the potential to be not merely amused but also confronted by deeper and more personal visions on the part of the creators. For a brief time the playa is a condenser, saturated with inspiration and perspiration, where boundaries are drawn on the endless asymmetric expanse of the mind, creating a momentary compound from which to contemplate the world and our place within it.

These qualities were exemplified, even amplified, in funhaus Stilman.

Located on the Tianci sim, funhaus Stilman featured 2D artwork by the avatar of the same name, however far from being just another art space seeking to gently fade into the background as a value-neutral container for its wares, the funhaus proved a twitchy high-strung agonist, a work of art in and of itself, propelling a singular, seamless, phenomenal collage on the hardpan of the playa.

As with any tractor trailer unfurled at the county fair and worth its weight in stuffed animals, the funhaus experience was metered out in small doses, and while forced to follow a preset path visitors were denied the comfort of being able to conceptualize the whole thing at once. A series of circuitous and tenuous catwalks occasionally enveloped by mesh and tactile membranes thus seemed to create an elusive and not entirely uncomfortable slippage with the surroundings, to which like a dissected worm the build was delicately pinned via a network of metal twigs and concrete piers.

Proportionally, the spaces unfolded as a combination of dark compressed corridors and open platforms, the former providing a frame for artworks mounted onto protruding light boxes, the latter affording moments of relative respite with views across a central courtyard. Within this central courtyard a dome structure and attached blobby duodenum functioned as one of the few consistent landmarks for navigation, however color was carefully used to provide depth of field and subtle wayfinding cues throughout.

The dome might have also been considered the physical and emotional climax of the journey. Nowhere was the connection between the artwork and the build more apparent than from the viewpoint from inside, where the combination of opaque printed panels and transparent vision panels blended to create a singular apparition of art and architecture, of media and manifestation. One might imagine standing in the pinhole of a camera obscura, or Plato as a carny.

As with Tyg Jarrico's build from last year, hopefully the funhaus will find a permanent home, that is to say as permanent as anything in SL ever turns out to be. And yet one suspects it just wouldn't be the same be able to not only visit the funhaus at anytime but also to put off visiting it at any time as well. As I tire of blowing hot air perhaps the intent here was not only to heap praise and sincere gratitude on funhaus Stilman (and indeed all of the Burning Life builders) but also to make my time there last just a little bit longer, keeping it firmly rooted in the place from whence it came.

Mobile's Home: The TELUS Store

2006-08-23T22:22:00.000-07:00

As reported in my first post for 3pointD.com, Canada's second largest telecommunications company has set up shop in the sim of Shinda (view on map | direct teleport). The post said a little about the architecture and a lot about the significance of the first major Canadian corporation, the first major Telco, and the first branded mobile handsets to appear in Second Life.

Let us now invert that discussion and talk about one heck of a build.

As reiterated over at another blog, I did stumble upon the store. There were a couple of reasons for that. First, the build is sited on the mainland. Its hard to accidentally teleport to an island (not that I haven't done my share of double-clicking the map at random). Second, its scoops up eyeballs like a grizzly bear in a salmon run, attracting attention not for the kind of iconic qualities we've examined in previous posts but rather for its subtly refined shading and prim details that place it in vast contrast to the garish structures that comprise its environs.

Lighting and shadow details contribute significantly to the success of the build, and could be easily mistaken for handiwork of SL's resident Master Chef of texture baking, the legendary Aimee Weber - but you would be wrong. This is the work of relative newcomer Scope Cleaver. Arriving with a (seemingly ideal) background in Fine Arts and IT Systems, Scope thus far has only three custom builds under his belt (not to mention a newly launched Prefab business), and you'll be seeing all three of them here in the days to come.

Scope describes his work as 'freestyle', riffing off the possibilities for space and form presented by the medium. TELUS Advertising Manager Sparkle Dale had examples to show him from their flagship stores, but these were simply to reference the look and feel of the brand experience. The actual design of the store was Scope's vision from the ground up.

His penchant for I-beams and facades that "cut like a magazine layout" are salient here in a legible structural order of steel, glass and concrete that would feel perhaps a little too monochrome if it were not for his sophisticated use of colour, the familiar purple and green that I see plastered all over the media and malls of my home town. The end result is a playful, airy and gracious single-level space that resonates with the RL brand but also successfully extends it into virtual space, in this case doing so without wild formal gymnastics or flagrant breaches of the laws of physics. Rather the build, like the TELUS effort as a whole, engages simply by trying to understand what it means to be an avatar, and then making an earnest effort to deliver.

From the perspective of avatar usability one might deem it somewhat more successful than the recently launched and much ballyhooed American Apparel outlet on the island of Lerappa (view on map | direct teleport) by the aforementioned Ms. Webber. While the build itself is more prim efficient than the TELUS build, and somewhat less laggy by virtue of not being located next to The Matrix Nightclub, Aimee's trademark texturing brilliance is slightly overshadowed (if you'll pardon the pun) by the somewhat constricted proportions of the plan and the inclusion of a second storey that is accessed via two perceptually narrow and steep staircases. A generous deck on the roof of the first level serves as a landing point for those who wish to go back outside and fly to up rather than negotiate the stairs. The decision to employ a second floor is interesting given that the store is currently sits alone on the sim. That being said, there is much to admire in the design of the American Apparel store, and the effort is deserved of the accolades that it has been given.

For the moment let us turn our attention back to the mainland. The TELUS Store is at the time of this writing celebrating its Grand Opening, including an event in RL for the Telco's non avatar-based employees. Among the swag you'll find free helium balloons that I am disappointed to say cannot be inhaled, so no high octave party in the mouth.

Just a feast for the eyes.

ManorMeta Crystalline Home

2006-08-11T22:27:00.000-07:00

The ManorMeta Crystalline Home is currently on display in Brilliant (view on map | direct teleport) as a part of the Architecture category in the New West Art Exhibition. After picking my jaw up off the floor, my first question was simple: What is it, exactly?

The home as entered in the exhibition is a significant embellishment upon a pre-existing 'alpha' build in the Better World Sim that has been documented on Snapzilla by Second Life residents Torley Linden (who purports to have entered 'THE KICKASS ZONE') and Tao Takashi (for whom it looked rather strange at first glance). While the build in Better World appears to be somewhat permanent, its mutant cousin on steroids will only be available for viewing in Brilliant until Sunday. Fortunately, it has already been extensively photographed by its creators (and to whom credit is owed for the images appearing in this post). That said, the initial question remained: What is it, exactly?

Some of the more 'pragmatic' details on home can be found here, but luckily I ran into In Kenzo, one of the build's two creators, who was able to fill in some of the gaps. According to Kenzo, ManorMeta is a set for an RL family television/web series in development. With the script for the pilot episode, Kenzo came to Second Life at the beginning of this year with the intention of using it as a production tool to prototype ideas, of which there would appear to be no shortage; in the series "six foster kids come to live in an organic "smart home" with a retired rock and roll diva and hacker scientists." Ok. Makes perfect sense to me.

The build represents an altogether mind-blowing duality of hard angular spaces interwoven with curvaceous organic elements and iconography to create an architecture of pure imagination that is at once substantial and ephemeral, a shimmering mirage at the edge of the liminal and the subliminal that would seem to suspend within it terabyte upon terabyte of moments, memories, and secrets, perhaps not entirely unlike the imagination of a child.

Butterfly Tiki Bar

2006-08-05T21:05:00.000-07:00

The Butterfly Tiki Bar in the mainland sim of Raiden (view on map | direct teleport) is another curiously engaging build that takes full advantage of Second Life's unique combination of references to and departures from the physical world to create both interesting architectural form and intriguing narrative subtext.

In somewhat typical Tiki Bar fashion the location occupies only 16 square meters of waterfront; however the compact floorplate multiplies over seven levels, each with its own functional contribution (i.e. dance floor, hot tub). Through these additional levels the build adds to the usual Polynesian experience by incorporating a wide swath of pan-Asian influences such as a Japanese Tea Room located just a few floors up from the bumpin' booty pad. The result is a slim, totemic (dare we say 'torch-like') piece of off-ramp ouevre that wouldn't be out of place in urban centres such as Macau, Manila, or Malé. In most of these cities the eccentricity of the build would actually be a form of utility, borne out of the need to make the most of what little land might be available.

In Second Life, however, it sits without any adjacent neighbours and yet nestles up close to a road bridge running across the waterway. The siting seems to justify and benefit from the verticality of the build, the seemingly intentional choice to address the roadway condition rather than just say, coping with it, makes the build all the more appropriate to the physical attributes of the location. At the same time it takes advantage of the lack of gravity (and the avian abilities of the avatar) to create an unstable, almost provisional quality that establishes a clear dialogue with the virtual.

This, combined with the unsavoury goings-on implied on some of the upper levels gives the build a whimsically gritty narrative tension that not only enhances the overall experience but sits in stark contrast to the idyllic setting and technical perfection of the Azure Islands Tiki Bar (view on map | direct teleport), for example, where the experience is overwhelmingly pleasant and stress-free, complete with crashing waves and screenings of the popular video podcast Tiki Bar TV.

Both destinations are worth a visit, IMHO, but if the two were pitted against each other in Mortal Kombat, well, you know. Raiden Wins.

The Tide Rises...

2006-08-02T19:26:00.000-07:00

Along with the rapid growth in the popularity of Second Life we have also seen an increase in the profile of architecture as a topic of discussion and discovery, including the newly launched Metaverse Architecture, an ambitious effort that comprises one of four fascinating blogs under the Metaverse Territories banner.

The goal of Metaverse Architecture as indicated in its inaugural post is to:

take various builds in Second Life (SL) as examples to generate, structure and clarify my own thoughts on : a) what it means to have an architectural idea in the metaverse; and, b) how is architectural space fabricated from (im)materials.

I like it already, but perhaps you already knew that :)

The most recent post examines the Hipcast Conference Centre, previously featured here back in May. The author, a self-described "architect cloaked as an artist and teacher" provides the type of elevated, insightful and rigourous analysis that we look forward to devouring on a regular basis.

Virtual Suburbia extends a warm welcome to our new neighbours on SL's architectural beat.

Little House on the Sandbox

2006-07-18T19:19:00.000-07:00

The House on Swan Pond is the kind of build in SL that could be easily overlooked. At first glance, it seems to be a competent albeit somewhat ubiquitous example of SL structures reflecting architectural values of Real Life, yet appearing to miss the opportunities afforded by virtual space to escape the constraints posed by physics, climate, and finance.

Keep looking. Things are not as they appear.

The House on Swan Pond exists as an analogue to a RL structure for a good reason - it is a real house being designed for a real family. The author, Keystone Bouchard, makes a living as a residential designer specializing in energy efficient 'green' houses and within a week of rezzing in SL had attained sufficient skill with the building tools to mock up the structure in order to collaborate with his clients - to better visualize the design, establish a dialogue about the design, and capture the imagination in a way that is not possible utilizing typical drawings, still renderings, or other burgeoning (not to mention outrageously expensive and/or cumbersome) realtime tools. The family can literally occupy the house, get a feel for the spaces, and suggest changes based on their first-person evaluation. A Second Life dream representing a Real Life artifact, instead of the other way around.

The SL incarnation of the house lacks some of the detail suggested by a more typical architectural rendering pictured above (provided courtesy of Crescendo Design). Textures apparent in the rendering give way to pure surfaces and/or default plywood (at the time of this writing, anyway). As well, small gaps in the construction are visble, and the build seems to be constructed with an abundance of prims that may make it unsuitable for some plots of land. That's not to say that the house does not have the potential to become a viable prefab given some technical optimization or that Keystone has no aspirations to sell prefabs or help build communities in SL, but again, in the case of this build these issues are of lesser relevance, as one could suggest the House on Swan Pond as it exists within SL at this moment is not so much a work of virtual architecture as it is another form of architectural representation.

When considered in this light it is not uncommon to carefully consider which medium is most appropriate to the design process at any given time, and the degree to which abstraction is a means to make a stronger connection with a client, such that they may be able to invest themselves and infer into the possibilities of the architecture as it continues in its development, filling in the blanks and completing the experience, not entirely unlike how the simple blips and bleeps of the Atari 2600 swept me away as a youngster to entirely different worlds - jungles, oceans, or outer space, all with the same basic set of chunky 'primitives,' if you will.

So while SL for its technical limitations is still a long way from the Virtual Reality envisioned by scientists, novelists, and Hollywood art directors, one might suggest that it represents a powerful space for architecture that engages the imagination rather than simply reflecting it. And yet it seems somewhat fitting that the clients of the House On Swan Pond were greeted at the front door by a completely nude avatar that was leaving nothing to the imagination, if you get my drift. Just another day in the sandbox, unlike any other, hard to overlook.

Failte go d'ti Dublin

2006-06-26T21:05:00.000-07:00

Update: A number of readers have pointed out a critical omission that must be corrected. During our discussion Ham and Boliver graciously credited Shukran Fahid as the sim's main builder, and mentioned that he was flown to Dublin to gather reference material for the build. My apologies for not mentioning Shukran's substantial contribution in the original post.

It's not often that one receives a personal tour of one of the world's great cities from none other than the mayor of the city itself. Indeed it felt a little like that as Mayor Ham Rambler and Chief Project Manager Boliver Oddfellow led me through a virtually reconstructed section of central Dublin (view on map | direct teleport), with each stop along the tour highlighting areas of civic and historical significance while providing another example of RL culture reflected in digital space.

It would appear that certain notions of urban design translate well from the human scale to that of the human scaled avatar, namely the sense of the city as an outdoor living room and as an extension of the domicile. The streets indeed become the most comfortable and successful parts of the build, while the shops (a mix of actual Dublin landmarks and SL resident franchises) feel less inviting given the relatively compressed amount of space for camera maneuverability. On the other hand, the impact of St. Stephens Green (Dublin's equivalent of Central Park, according to Ham) is also to be felt in relation to the streets, only from the obverse condition. While it almost feels a little too open, it also yields one of the sim's most intimate and profound moments, a recreation of the Edwin Delaney's Famine Memorial statue.

Ham reports that a few liberties were taken with the design, namely the relocation of the nearby but outlying Guinness Brewery to within the sim boundaries, given its importance as a cultural icon and exemplifying the potential fusion of place making and corporate sponsorship as a business model in the post-dwell era.

On the other hand, Ham has not strayed from controversy in the quest for realism. The Millennium Spire (unofficially dubbed 'The Spike,' or 'Bertie's Pole' in honor of Ham's RL counterpart who commissioned it) is a gleaming slender vertical needle standing 120m high, functioning less like an obelisk as a traditional organizing element, more like a javelin hurled by angry gods of antiquity. According to Ham a majority of RL Dubliners view it in a negative light.

In addition to serving as a really nifty vantage point (given the opportunity to ride it to the top with draw distance cranked way up), the spire and more importantly the decision not to edit it out provide a conceptual focal point for not only the sim but also the spectrum of potential that exists in Second Life between experiences of the familiar and the surreal. Ham has clearly sided with the familiar, even if that includes 'foreign' elements.

I completely respect this position, and yet as one begins to swing the camera around something even more compelling happens. The illusion starts to break down, and the sim upon closer scrutiny begins to feel reminiscent of a machinima set, the edges giving way to some very compelling residual spatial conditions given that the layout (again for the sake of 'authenticity') has been cranked relative to the standard north-south orientation of the island upon which it finds itself situated.

All of the interpreted 'placard' moments, all of the very real and collective efforts of Dublin's RL builders and founders are actually enhanced when the virtual version of it suddenly also becomes equally surreal, of the moment, and intensely personal. A living city in a virtual world, but perhaps more importantly, a portal of discovery.

Frisch (but not Neue)

2006-05-30T20:50:00.000-07:00

A castle captures the imagination and aspirations of many a Second Life resident, a powerful epoxy of authority and territoriality catalysed by escapism and fantasy. At any given time many variations on the theme can be found fused to the grid, including the temporary remnants of building contests or tacky cable TV tie-ins (such as the self-proclaimed "ugliest building in Second Life" for G4's Attack of the ~~Shills~~ Show). Previously we examined Tetsuharu Nino's Castle as a mashup of traditional and contemporary architectural sensibilities, providing an exciting if not somewhat brash impression of Japanese culture. From this we now move to another castle built for another of Second Life's regional subcontinents, namely Jauani Wu and Nicola Escher's "Ulrichsburg," a subtle and masterful remixing of German influences on the sim of Frisch (Note: The build is not yet officially open, and as with Tetsuharu's Castle, typical teleport links have been omitted due to the nature of the sim. Despite the lack of direct access lots of pics are to be found on Snapzilla, including this album).

Jauani has previously blogged about the process of putting this build together in an Open Letter to Ben Linden. We'll take the opportunity now to focus on the finished product, for which Ben had the following to say:

"I think this is one of the best single pieces of content created in SL, including in-house work. It is incredibly well designed, and very good looking."

The build provides the orientation experience that all new avatars have gone through, complete with scary parrot (and presumably the occasional griefer rezzing yet another alt). As the source of many first impressions this build is a perfect introduction to the graphical possibilities inherent in Second Life's graphics engine, demonstrating that in the right hands SL (for all of the additional technical challenges inherent in streaming user-created assets) can indeed hold its own alongside games in the MMORPG market to which it is commonly compared. The tendency for comparison is also addressed somewhat by the build taking the form of a castle itself, with an element of the familiar as a means to transition new users into the idea of a dynamic metaverse rather than a pre-rendered grind-fest.

That said, perhaps even more important to the success of Ulrichsburg than the remarkable shading and texture work (for which Jauani adds that not a single repeating texture is to be found) is the layout of the castle, namely the sequence of movement and placement of the orientation stations. The path that one follows is intuitive to navigate yet unfolds with a sense of discovery that does not feel linear, a direct yet winding ascent. Through stations such as 'getting a closer look' and 'flying', where the former presents the avatar with a panoramic promontory from which to learn the finer points of camera control and the latter raises the stakes and heightens the moment for that first brave leap off a harrowing precipice, the architectural context profoundly enhances the experience of gaining new skills and confidence in a new world.

The build has been modeled after the real Chateau St. Ulrich, however according to Jauani a few small liberties were taken in order to enhance the orientation narrative. Jauani and Nicola's interpretation of the castle as a ruin proves a sophisticated and resonant reference to German culture, evocative without being overt, reflective without being presumptuous. In the midst of everything this build has to offer the visitor, indeed even more is conjured in the imagination, empowered by possibility, fused to the grid from this point forward.

Hipcast.com Conference and Expo Center

2006-05-11T20:02:00.000-07:00

Perhaps Jauani Wu has already best captured the essence of this build in his comment on Snapzilla:

"simply - wow!"

The Hipcast.com Conference and Expo Centre bears the design signature of Endira Udal and Rez Menoptra of Rezzust (formerly Kush Design Lab), and represents their most jaw-dropping work to date.

Their Art of Nature Gallery was the subject of a previous review, where the attitude toward the use of color, tensile materials, and landscape integration have been clearly carried forward into this massively-scaled event space, commissioned by media superconductor Spin Martin and projected over the water on his island sim of Shalida (146,238,30 - view on map | direct teleport)

Functionally, the build appears well-purposed for hosting large conferences and trade events in a manner that is easily navigable and as much fun to fly through as it is to walk around. The spaces are enveloped by an continuous extrusion that threads its way through repeating structural sections, creating pockets for the primary hall and gathering space on the main level, as well as secondary halls in the two levels above. The whole thing is capped off with a hypnotic curved glass canopy that Rez simply described to me as taking a long time to figure out... Astride the main extrusion are two levels of smaller salons with a courtyard formed by the space between these two major architectural elements.

The overall feeling is open and airy, in some ways more like a pavilion or an inhabitable sculpture where avs are to be found nesting with their ideas and wares. The material palette is restrained, save for the exuberant colored banners and glass panels that Spin describes as his favorite parts of the build. The restraint also lends further punctuation to the landscape elements, plants, trees, and fountains, all carefully integrated to at times respond to the structural order, at others to deny it, adding to the overall sense of dynamic interplay between the spaces of the conference centre and the formal elements by which they are framed. The only relatively problematic aspect of the build at this point appears to lie with the entry sequence, specifically the manner in which one begins to walk toward the entrance from the circular rezzing platform only to encounter an unexpected and unceremonious drop down onto a short bridge that is itself nicely laden with event-specific regalia.

One minor problem aside, the conference center is a significant watershed structure, a genuine (and photogenic) work of virtual architecture that has the potential to contribute to the image of Second Life on the world stage. Rather than drag out the example of how an iconic build like Frank Gehry's Bilbao Guggenheim has put the Spanish city on the map (an impact that is slowly diluting as every B-list burb vies for its own version of the titanium turd), I would rather suggest parallels to the manner in which Massimiliano Fuksas's new conference centre, the Nuovo Polo Fiera Milano utilizes architecture as a medium to elevate the art of gathering and the exchange of ideas. With a similar sense of refinement, elegance, grandeur, and enthusiasm, the architecture of the Hipcast.com Conference and Expo Centre is sure to broaden the appeal and edifice of Second Life to the big fish that Spin has been reeling in as of late (not to mention a certain 800 pound Gorilla).

So, like Jauani said, wow. Simply, wow.

Ethnographia

2006-04-26T10:33:00.000-07:00

One of the builds in the queue for a review was Tom Bukowski's home in Dowden dubbed 'Ethnographia', currently serving as headquarters for the RL political campaign being waged by RL architect Brian Ulaszewki. For more background on the campaign see Hamlet Au's post in New World Notes.

As for the build, I'm happy to discover that Trep Cosmo already has it covered on her blog SL Explorer in an entertaining post with lots of pics (including those you see above) and a slurl that will take you there.

Little Sweden

2006-04-22T12:59:00.000-07:00

From an implied reference to the hyperkineticism of Japanese culture we now move to an overt and light-hearted statement on the home country of everyone's favorite assemble-it-yourself furniture merchant (and if you'll recall, their injurious Allen Wrenches).

Vava Vavoom's "Little Sweden" is one of a number of projects to be found on The Office (67,166,23 - view on map | direct teleport), and a part of LOL Architects, a design studio conducted by the Architecture School of the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. Students studying to be architects in RL were given the task of designing and presenting a project appropriate to the context of digital space.

The build presents itself from the front as a chunk bashed off one of the ubiquitous blue boxes we are accustomed to seeing along our freeways, however it is obvious that something is askew here. At the end of a long red carpet one passes briefly through a compressed vestibule festooned in summer foliage before plunging into a rarefied volume of darkness, with only occasional hints of stars, dusky photographic scenery and a few text passages describing the Swedish winter. While perhaps intentioned, it is a nonetheless frustrating experience in this space to locate and to follow a camouflaged ramp that leads upward and finally spills you out onto the back of the build, anatomically correct in a full-scale doll house of compartmentalized exhibits, each containing a selection of representative and whimsical imagery.

Unlike the narrative power of Tetsuharu Nino's build, in this case the architecture itself seems to contribute little to one's understanding of Swedish culture. Instead it attempts through a composition of spatial sequence and scalar relationships to experientially frame a container for content. While the differences between summer and winter are none-too-subtly communicated, the skewed box form itself is among architects almost as ubiquitous as the undifferentiated prefab structures to which it responds. In addition, the metaphor of the doll house, while clever, also does little to help distinguish Sweden from other countries that place emphasis on domesticity as exile from a harsh Nordic climate. Hence the reliance on giant murals of meat balls, Uma Thurman press clippings and life-size cutouts of exuberant youngsters picnicking in a meadow. Aside from the meat balls, it was oddly reminiscent of a visit to Electric Avenue in Vienna's MuseumsQuarter where I was bombarded by an electro-kitschy collage of Smurf figurines, David Hasslehoff portraits, and outrageously expensive Curd Duca albums.

And yet, for all its problematic elements (add unexplained lag to the list) I couldn't help but enjoy my visit to Little Sweden, as evidenced by a rather sizable album of photographic souvenirs. Vava's effort is to be commended, and while this build does not necessarily take full advantage of its siting in virtual space it certainly reflects the potential of Second Life for architectural education, where one gets to actually 'build,' rather than merely represent what is to be built, where one gets to directly inhabit spaces rather than be forced to interpret static and abstracted imagery, and most importantly where ideas can be shared and meaningfully debated, escaping the vacuum of individual hard drives into the public realm of Second Life's residents, a degree removed from the typically insular cadre of academics, fellow students, and other designers.

Tetsuharu's Castle

2006-04-09T20:17:00.000-07:00

Taking a little time out from Infohub development to examine Tetsuharu Nino's intriguing build on the Japanese sim of Yanagi ((251,34) Note: Typical teleport links have been omitted due to the nature of this sim. I'll let you figure out how to get there). This 'Castle' as it has been referred to is a dynamic interplay of traditional and contemporary Japanese influences that seems to oscillate between symbiotic and parasitic qualities.

The traditional structure forms the base of the build, with a solid concrete framework bursting out from it, scooping volume out from air space above to infill with transparent floor slabs underneath, as well as supporting a quiet rooftop penthouse which further reflects the overall gene splice. In some areas the traditional structure creeps up the concrete framework, the concrete responding with angles that respond to the shingled roofs of the presumably 'original' form. The end result is a heightening of the tension/harmony inherent in this build, and a narrative sense of 'organic' growth that would only be possible through the utilization of two distinct stylistic expressions.

Functionally, this is clearly an avian structure. It turns its back to the adjacent roadway, and the staircase leading up from ground level is the least interesting way to access the build. That said, the property must still be under construction, as while the upper levels are accessible and sparsely populated with items for sale, access is denied as of yet to the ground level.

If this is the case, then Tetsuharu's Castle is off to a great start. Appropriately on edge, it suggests a certain thematic response to a virtual version of the Japanese culture (not to mention sending the mind reeling in a whole other direction on what this might mean exactly), and yet takes advantage of its siting in virtual space to do itself one better than your typically atypical Tokyo landmark. The best part is, you know its only a matter of time until the real thing catches up, if it hasn't done so already.

Open Sourced

2006-03-28T21:27:00.000-08:00

Tonight I had the honour of appearing on Christopher Lydon's Open Source discussing 'Living in Game Space' alongside Sherry Turkle, Hamlet Au, and Cristiano Midnight, as well as an in-world audience of talented content creators and entrepreneurs.

Props to the Electric Sheep Company for pulling off yet another pan-reality event.

If you're interested, the show is available here.

The Future's So Bright (Part I) - The Grail

2006-03-12T21:12:00.000-08:00

Taking the ideas introduced in the previous post to their logical extreme we examine Seifert Surface's latest build, a head-spinning exorcism of the right angle. His structure, called 'The Grail,' resides in a surreal private island playground sim known simply as The Future (95,187,400 - view on map | direct teleport).

I first encountered Seifert's stunning mathematical visions at Lordfly Digeridoo's Grignano Public Art Museum, and was struck by the relationship of his abstract sculptures to the historicist context of the build in which they were contained. Head on out to his backyard, however, and its a whole different deal. As far as context goes, 'The Grail' simply hangs ambiguously in the sky amongst Seifert's menagerie of curious experiments. If you're looking for the build's function, it is also somewhat unclear. Someone might want to live there, someone else might want to fill it with slot machines and call it Biff's, a third may just want to get stoned and stare for hours (Hey, its very shiny. People with Glaucoma would be really missing out if they didn't get it treated).

The Grail is typically accessed via one of Siefert's trademark discombobulators such as those enjoyed at this past year's Burning Life Festival. Upon arrival at the elevator lobby there is the further need to launch onself upward in a seemingly precarious manner to the desired floor. But that's a bit of a misnomer - its all one floor. Weighing in at over 1000 prims, the entire build is perceived as a single manipulated plane. This expression creates a number of fascinating conditions where horizontal and vertical elements meet, each one resolved in a unique and well-articulated way. I continue to be mezmerized by the build, and not in a manner that involves lime flavored Tostitos.

The Grail is but one of a number of forward-looking structures on this sim that breaks the shackles of our assumptions about architecture as they exist in the real world. Rest assured, we'll be back.

Barnesworth's Pre-fab[ulous] Homes and Furniture

2006-03-01T23:08:00.000-08:00

Turning our attention now from a build that responds to the natural context, Barnesworth's Pre-fab[ulous] Homes and Furniture in Barcola (83,159,25 - view on map | direct teleport) similarly responds to an 'urban' context in a manner that blurs the distinction between private and public space as it appropriates the materiality and scale of an adjacent pedestrian plaza by manipulating a single surface into an up-to-date container for retro merchandise.

In some senses the build evokes similarities to the abundance of rounded-corner 'soft box' architecture in Avalon, however it represents a departure from the somewhat self-referential qualities of these builds by engaging the plaza not only on the level of surface manipulation but also as a distinctly unique object relative to its surrounding structures, as opposed to the more subtle thematic variations to be found amongst the collection of Avalon builds. The store acts as a bookend to the outdoor mall that comprises the Barcola Riverside Commercial District (which as of this writing is still under construction), with views to the water and the nearby SLOPCO facility.

With all the attention that has been focused on the Larsen Shops lately (also by Barnesworth Anubis with Jauani Wu) it would seem appropriate to highlight the effective potential in builds such as this one that take advantage of their presence in virtual space not just to skillfully mimic real world structures (although complicated ideas of continuous surface manipulation nee the Deleuzian fold have been clearly pinging the radar of the RL architectural vanguard for over a decade) but rather to take advantage of the virtual context to create a structure that is abstract and yet gains meaning by remaining engaged in a dialogue with architectural realism.

The forward-looking quality of the build does however seem to present a juxtaposition with the retrospective nature of the merchandise inside. This contrast would appear on the whole to be a positive thing, serving to emphasize the goods for sale rather than to hide them, however it also suggests that if one is to hold up the merchandise to the tenents of the Modernist movement that spawned it, the manner in which the goods are displayed is perhaps missing a certain degree of clarity, rigor, and logic. One might also suggest some additional opportunities to fully utilize the various pockets of space created by the interaction of surfaces in a manner that might play up the potential ambiguities between the interior of the store and the exterior plaza condition.

These negligible issues aside, having picked up a couple of chairs and a chaise for the old cabana there is something to be said for the pure joy in purchasing virtual furniture, namely not having to arrange for delivery, or rent roof racks, or scratch the floors on the way inside, or bash one's knuckles as a consequence of undersized Allen wrenches and the necessity for self-assembly. With the apparent ease of a single swooping gesture, Barnesworth has created a spatial compliment decidedly on par with the retail experience.

Art of Nature Gallery

2006-02-19T20:15:00.000-08:00

Continuing a look at curated virtual spaces, the Art of Nature Gallery in Philudoria (185,115,47) dovetails nicely into the discussion as a contrast to the monumentality of the Grignano Public Art Museum and the cacophony of the Curious Kitties Boutique.

In speaking with owner Horus Baker, the original concept given to builders Endira Udal and Rez Menoptra of Kush Design Lab was to create a 'gallery in the park' from which to exhibit original works of nature photography. Rez and Endira, partners in both SL and RL, have crafted an engaging dialectic between built and natural elements in a manner that seems to contextualize and heighten the experience of the artistic work relative to its surroundings.

Entering the 'L' shaped plan at the intersection between the two spokes one is able to easily move from one end of the build to the other with an innate sense of one's position within the larger whole at any given time (unlike a number of major RL galleries where one is confused by a perfect symmetry of identical rectangular rooms and a bewildering preponderance of Madonnas and their children). Within the apparent simplicity of the plan there unfolds a rich and complex sequence of spaces, such that one spoke of the 'L' is developed as a single large gallery, the other is a composition of individual floor slabs that follow the upward slope of the landscape as a series of terraces connected by ramps.

The artworks are displayed on a partition system that follows a consistent modular design, deferring to both the frames they hold and the spaces they frame, which are allowed to flow transparently and uninterrupted from both above and below. This idea is further reinforced by the lightness of roof structure and its perception as loosely draped fabric sun shades, emphasizing the connection with the sky, contributing to an overall expression that feels less like a building and more like a pavilion, where the architecture is playing second fiddle to the sense of nature communicated in the photographs and around the photographs.

Which brings us to the most compelling elements in the build. The spaces between the spaces, the interstitial areas formed outside the gallery partitions are teeming with rocks, plants, and water elements that attempt to catapult the viewer into an entirely different mental place by screening the rest of the sim from view (and creating a few minor camera issues along the way). The end result, the greater whole to be derived from the sum of these parts, is a fantastic and simultaneous combination of dynamism, serenity, engagement, and repose.

Like a zen rollercoaster. (Stop the ride, I don't wanna get off?)

Update: For more info on Endira and Rez, check out the article written by Horus Baker in this issue (large PDF link) of the Metaverse Messenger.

Rezzed in Mexico City

2006-02-07T18:40:00.000-08:00

From the 'Actual Virtual Suburbia' File:

Evidence of a highly efficient SL-RL data exchange mechanism, as documented by helicopter pilot / photographer C.O. Ruiz. Have a look at the entire gallery for some stunning and surreal images.

These photos make it obvious that somebody's been holding out on us. Jeffrey Gomez, Csven Concord, I'm looking at you, perhaps??

Via BLDGBLG and Future Feeder

Curious Kitties

2006-01-31T11:53:00.000-08:00

Curious Kitties in Bizzare (22, 43, 54) is a raucous, cacophonous commercial build that recklessly tiptoes the edge between order and atrophy, with the result being not only a popular (and necessarily laggy) retail experience but also a provocative work of digital architecture.

Unencumbered by traditional notions of enclosure and structure that in RL would have it vaguely categorized alongside other folies rouges en métal such as Bernard Tschumi's Parc de la Villette, Curious Kitties unfolds as an exuberantly rigorous explosion of Japanese, Goth, and Fetish merchandise spread over three levels that are at once both complimentary and contradictory, with the top level floating in air and the bottom level submerged below grade in a manner that very few sims seem able to exploit (with one notable exception being the hauntingly nocturnal reflections in Devil's Moon).

The overall experience is somewhat like a dream from which one awakes uncertain if they've remembered all of the details, compelled to plumb both the heights and the depths, asphyxiated and vertiginous from the sheer number of offerings, the euphoria made manageable by a consistent presentation of white rectangular panels that respond to a kind of rational curatorial order, with the rules violated occasionally for added emphasis by panels cocked at odd angles or strewn along the floor/roof surfaces. In this build the content and the container complement each other extremely well (which is also interesting when compared to the somewhat dissonant quality of artwork as presented against the rational classicism of the Grignano Art Museum).

This relationship appears so symbiotic, in fact, it is at times hard to tell whether the walls and floors are influencing or responding to the logic of the merchandise displays. Through the use of largely simple square shapes in a similarly constrained palette of red, black and grey there is a richness to the composition, particularly in the lower subterranean level (accessed on my first visit by plunging unexpectedly through the grey phantom panels on the main floor) where one finds a curiously conflicted detente between serenity and freneticism, between the garish and the sublime, in a manner that frames and heightens the impending loss of innocence to be shed like so many locks of newbie hair, purple sweaters, and white T-shirts.

Grignano Art Museum

2006-01-12T22:20:00.000-08:00

Further to that bit of navel gazing in the previous post, Lordfly Digeridoo's Public Art Museum in Grignano (111, 79, 31) is an excellent focal point to explore just what it is that makes for architecture appropriate for a virtual world. It was seemingly poo-pooed by the jury at the State of Play Conference last fall because it had too much stylistic resemblance to structures one might find in the real world and lacked any sense of ephemeral abstraction critical to an architecture of the ethereal...This was a common criticism of the panel, and while it doesn't take a huge stretch of the imagination to at least understand where they might be coming from they may have been a little quick to dismiss Lordfly's creation.

The Museum does indeed provide a healthy jab of classicist and beaux-arts elements in a manner that attempts to impart a sense of importance and permanence to the museum as an important cultural institution. The manner in which these elements are employed, however, is where the build begins to depart from the logic and limitations to which these conventions are normally subject in the real world. The result is a build that is ethereal, that is an abstraction, by virtue of its paradoxical relationship to virtual space. Huh?

First off, the thing is MASSIVE. The more your brain tries to tell you it isn't, that its just prims, the more this build pummels you with its overwhelming sense of scale.

Secondly, its size is enabled by an apparent defiance of the structural logic that would typically dictate how the classical orders enable buildings to get higher by thinning out, employing buttresses, etc. The experience is the exact opposite of the depression induced by yet another overblown stucco keystone atop the entrance vestibule to your local (insert name of big box retail outlet here), instead imparting a sense of the surreal, where the elements to which we are familiar are merely the jumping off point for something entirely more memorable.

Thirdly, it this sense of mass and structure is juxtaposed against a sensitive response to the surrounding urban context, via an arcade that faces the street and tree-lined promenades that interface with the adjacent waterfront. As well, once inside, the space does not appear entirely congruent with the form as it is skewered by multiple floor plates that actually make certain aspects of the build seem quite intimate. One might almost think Lordfly to be running out of space if his curatorial sensibilities are any indication. The floors are sprinkled with a sampling of sublime sculptures by Seifert Surface, while the walls on the other hand are crammed with scans in a manner suggestive of the deviantART database server after a hard night of White Russians and Boney M.

Finally, no museum worth its enormously non-existent weight in non-existent gold would be complete without its gift shop, currently featuring a collection of prefabs from some of Second Life's most prolific builders.

So, for both the right and the wrong reasons, the Grignano Art Museum is a genuine institution, an authentic landmark, a public place in the public psyche, and in my mind, a winner. You should go.

(Virtual) Reality Check

2006-01-01T18:20:00.000-08:00

As we begin a new circuit around the sun and I scratch what has become a Fibonacci sequence of five o'clock shadows this brief holiday hiatus has borne the gift of a little time for a little reflection on where this little discussion of ours has been and where it is going (er, little by little).

The most striking aspect of Second Life thus far has been the sheer variety to be experienced in every aspect of the platform - avatars, objects, events, and opinions. It could be suggested that within this variety certain preferences seem to predominate among many individuals, especially with respect to aspects of a stylistic or visual nature.

As much as it might be seen to be otherwise, there has been no intention thus far to polarize our discussion around a predominant architectural style. Those elements that are most prevalent need not be discounted somehow as too 'mainstream', nor do the remainder of perspectives need be dismissed as 'elitist' or 'irrelevant'. Second Life is a far richer experience than other online worlds that are shaped entirely by professional animators and artists, and herein lies the possibility to showcase and celebrate the freedom that everyone enjoys to express themselves as they wish (with Premium Members being slightly more free, although not necessarily in the Orwellian sense of the word).

That said, to this point our discussions have been focused primarily on structures that differentiate themselves from the majority of builds personally experienced to date, which admittedly in my short time here is but a miniscule fraction of a fraction of the whole. Beyond the skill or craft that is often inherent in the quality of the build (but not always), the works of architecture we have examined seem to differentiate themselves in that they seek to examine spatial as well as formal ideas, provide an expressed relationship to their property's topography and surrounding context, and act to enhance and facilitate the activities and events of the avatars to which they are in service and not the other way around. As a result of such criteria it would seem that a number of commonalities and threads have thus emerged, but this hopefully has not come across as a judgmental preference for any particular 'style' over another. On the flipside I would humbly submit that just because I don't understand or appreciate something that it is of any lesser value to the richness of the SL experience, nor should it devalue the goal to provide exposure to architectural ideas that appear to be under-represented in the broader context. An aspiration for future postings is that discussions of style be secondary to a focus on how a build deems itself to be appropriate to the 'reality' of virtual space, albeit through an admittedly personal lens.

Despite the feigned exhaustion of the last post, the ongoing development of Virtual Suburbia has been thoroughly invigorating and invaluably enriched through the comments and feedback that have been received (except for the spammers that is, youse guys can screw off), and I deeply thank you for taking the time to visit and participate. Rather than being required to suffer through more long posts like this one it is an intention to make future reviews somewhat more compact. It is also hoped that some of the learnings from this exploration of amazingly talented SL architects can be allowed to inform my own attitude toward building, in an attempt to put my mouth where my money is, so to speak, contributing to the built environment of SL as well as simply musing upon it. Stay tuned :)

Snow Globe

2005-12-24T12:50:00.000-08:00

Part of this year's Second Life Winter Festival, in Jill Mackenzie's Snow Globe (Zermatt 10,94,84) we finally find a build that captures the essence of home, not just as an archetype but as a pure idea, pure as the snow that blanketing blemishes of doubt and despair, clear as an Alpha Channel, this humble build regales the visitor with ample conceptual spackle to smooth sundry cognitive fissures and miscellaneous bits of dissonance suspended like gold flakes in cinnamon schnapps.

The globe is accompanied by a circuitous toy train traveling relentlessly (to find its winning station) and simultaneously stunned like a reindeer in the headlights reflecting a savage quest for shelter, prisoners in a circumnavigable jail we bear the burden of our own creation the incessant bombardment of particulate that doesn't particularly matter, a primitive hut for the primitive Av we huddle in this bastion from the chill of fragile existence, psychotic penguin sentinels waiting to rez their gentle double−barreled persuasion you say you want a revolution bigger than baby Jesus, away in a manger with gifts of empty bottles, frankincense and tier. This frozen glass Eden is big enough for all our gods, those yet to be born, those reincarnate. Gods of war, this be your fortress, gods of porn this be your skybox in the ether, breath deeply, feel the precipitous embrace...

(Note: As of this writing Mr. Poutine has been restrained and temporarily placed in the care of family members in a secluded rural location, with internet access restricted to a dial-up connection. In the midst of being dragged away he muttered something about wanting to wish his many readers a happy holiday. You heard that right, he said many readers. Clearly delusional and reeling from his recent exposure in Hamlet Linden's New World Notes, Mr. Poutine will be receiving a needed rest.)

Koolhaus III

2005-12-18T20:47:00.000-08:00

Koolhaus III in Breakers dAlliez (11,158) is another exciting piece of work in our evolving spectrum of residential builds. Unlike some homes which rely extensively on textures, and others that depend on pure abstract surfaces, Koolhaus III assumes a position between the two. In terms of function, this build also seems to sit somewhere in the middle, neither a fully-engaged domestic setting nor a completely detached artifact.

The house is a composition of strong primary shapes which serve to establish a rich sequence of enclosed and courtyard spaces with landscape elements flowing from inside to outside. Despite the build's well-established formal expression, the spaces for the most part are quite amorphous and transparent, with the potential to be perceived in a number of different ways depending on one's viewpoint.

This sense of fluidity is further reinforced by the build's material palette. The walls are expressed as a combination of pure white surfaces and white colored bricks, but the use of white colour in this case is substantially different than that found in previously visited builds. It could be suggested that the plain white surfaces impart a certain sense of abstraction to the textured 'realness' of the brick, while the white color of the brick acts to 'realize' the abstraction of the plain solid surfaces, with the net effect of canceling each other out in a curious act of dematerialization. The wall treatments, when combined with the delicate filigree of the various window conditions reinforce not only the importance of the occupied ground plane and the objects contained within the various spaces, but also the surrounding landscape (which as of this writing is a delightful holiday mashup of snow and palm trees).

The builder Rem Koolhaas takes his online namesake from the founder of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), arguably best known to the North American public for the new Seattle Public Library and various projects for Prada (especially if that episode of Sex and the City where Carrie buys a red shirt for her soon-to-be-ex-boyfriend means anything). Koolhaus III, however, in its formal rigour seems devoid of any sort of uppity cultural criticism or zeitgeisty goodness typical of the Dutch powerhouse, nor does it appear to fundamentally challenge notions of the nature of residential living in SL. Instead, it presents a very well-executed alternative to the historicist styles that seem to prevail in the residential market, and is another fine example of a residence that is built to accommodate both the site and its occupants rather than impose upon them.

Single Maltz Residence

2005-12-11T19:36:00.000-08:00

Having now looked at a number of residential builds I remained somewhat unconvinced as to their relevance, mainly because it would seem that SL is a place that we visit rather than reside. If anything, the function of a residential build seems largely symbolic rather than functional, a signifier of the type of lifestyle with which one wishes to associate themselves, an extension of the avatar, a place to display one's possessions.

Which is why I was taken by surprise when encountering a stunning home in Chicagon (Chicagon 5,219). Aside from the architecture, which does a fantastic job of cozying into its hillside contours, retained with a solid sloped wall on the high side and setting up the condition for a series of angular shells which partially encapsulate volumes completed by either planes of glass or landscape elements, what was even more rarefied about this iconic build, with its highly specific response to site was that its owner, Single Maltz was there alone, playing her piano. Actually residing in her residence.

I couldn't help but be compelled to enter and ask permission to feature the build. She invited me in, and we sat down in chairs placed in an area that had been intentionally designed for one-on-one conversation. I learned that in RL she is an architectural professional based in the UK, and that she had built the house herself. We chatted about the limitations of the building tools, the relevance of enclosure and shelter...it all seemed so...civilized. In fact, the very fact that we were in this build of her own creation contributed immensely to how I came to understand the way Single wishes to present herself in a manner that was very different than the usual adhoc sandbox encounter spent mostly rezzing and passing inventory. The highly personal nature of this build was an integral part of the encounter, much more so than if it had occurred within a prefab, infinitely more so than the commodified objects it contained.

Having left this encounter my opinions of residential builds had changed, thinking perhaps they can indeed not only serve a symbolic but also a functional purpose. This build wasn't merely representing a visual style with which the owner wanted to be associated. This residence has been brilliantly conceived around the act of welcoming. We may indeed only aspire to be visitors in this world, but my experience in this place of dwelling, however temporary, has dramatically shaped my experience in a positive way.

Mar Vista Residence

2005-12-02T13:48:00.000-08:00

Octal Kahn's Mar Vista Residence (Shamrock 55, 155) is another highly realistic build worthy of consideration. When compared to the Slightly Droog home the texturing is subtle, but closer inspection reveals that not a single surface has been untouched by additional prims intended to enhance the geometry in terms of light and shadow. Particular attention has been paid to the manner in which the recessed lighting fixtures add a wash of light on the walls, as well as to the intersections between vertical and horizontal surfaces that typically receive less illumination. The resultant sense of volume is perhaps even more pronounced than that of the Slightly Droog Home as one expends less visual energy concentrating on the photographic nature of a heavily textured surface, leaving greater opportunity to comprehend its volumetric qualities. The spatial nature of the house as a container is reinforced by the exquisite detailing of the objects contained within, including furnishings, appliances, equipment and yes, even plumbing :)

The build is a faithful recreation of Octal's RL home designed by mid-century modernist Gregory Ain and is presented as a kind of archeological artifact, complete with removable roof and interpretive center-style signage outside the driveway. This sense of removal is heightened by its disconnection with the surrounding context, as the build sits on a block and is sited several meters below the grade of the adjacent roadway that runs through the sim. As well, there have been no deviations from the purity of the reconstruction made in the name of typical scaling and camera issues, and oddly enough one could suggest the required switch to mouselook seems to heighten this sense of a place removed from everyday SL existence, representing a curious juxtaposition of how the third-person view is seen as more indicative of 'direct' experience.

As an aside, the whole thing strangely parallels an RL visit to the work of one of Gregory Ain's better known contemporaries, Rudolph Schindler. The Schindler House has been decommissioned as a functioning residence and is now home to the MAK Centre for Art and Architecture, a North American offshoot of the MAK in Vienna. While there I encountered an installation whereby one of the rooms of the house was completely covered in white foamboard, a material traditionally used in architectural models, essentially turning the entire area into a full scale abstraction. This sudden grinding of my cognitive gearbox forced a similar yet opposite transition, from first person to third, and all of a sudden by standing in a 1:1 scale model the architectural artifact became more real.

So my sincere thanks to you Octal, for creating this seam in my space-time continuum, and for keeping your bathroom so clean.

Update: Nearly one year later the Mar Vista Residence is still standing, and continues to impress. Check out Hamlet Au's feature on it as a part of his 'The World From My Window' series over at New World Notes.

Slightly Droog Homes

2005-11-26T13:30:00.000-08:00

The last couple of builds we've looked at are predicated on the use of pure color surfaces, devoid of texture or shading. The build is then perceived to be about the experience of space as much as it is about form. But what is space if it cannot be seen, the surfaces are not differentiated, and the space itself cannot be apprehended? This ambiguity can be of benefit in certain situations (enframing and or heightening its occupants vis-a-vis the unloaded Construct in The Matrix), but what of the obverse condition, where the experience is framed by a complete lack of ambiguity, and the goal is to establish not a juxtaposition but rather a perfect engagement with the surroundings?

The 'Slightly Droog Home' by RELIC (currently for sale in Sanctum Sanctorum 164,7) is an excellent example of the latter, where each surface in the build has been carefully articulated through the use of pre-rendered textures. The ability to 'bake' textures appears to be regarded as one of the traits separating the professional from the casual builder and the perceived value of this skill is reflected in the prefab's $5000L sticker price.

When compared to the majority of SL builds this home significantly raises the bar in terms of realism, presenting us with a very simple set of spaces and forms made incredibly rich by the narrative subtleties of the texturing, including all the distress, patina, and rustication one needs to create the perception of an industrial-style shed draped around a heavy timber frame.

That said, this degree of realism also raises the bar in terms of how the build is judged in terms of its relationship to site, and it is in this respect that the prefab is implemented to varying degrees of success. When consistency has been established between the two the result is magic. On the other hand, any inconsistency between with the surrounding context can be seen as somewhat problematic.

By way of example, let us consider the Slightly Droog Home in two separate instances. The build is simply stunning in its role as EX{POSE}URE on the water sim of Iris (55,35) and acts to make all of the surrounding builds seem either awkward or increasingly surreal by virtue of its presence. Speaking in relative terms, in Nova Linden's residence (Ambleside 115,20) one could suggest the potential inversion of this relationship, as an overscaled imposition on a quiet pastoral landscape that just doesn't seem quite right when taken as a whole.

Caveat Emptor.

Club Felix

2005-11-18T11:35:00.000-08:00

In RL, the gestalt that is the club experience usually involves trying to fill in the gaps in your conversation with the person standing right next to you on the dance floor, awash in drink, wading through waves of push from the closest bass bin. By the end of the night the experience is less heady and entirely more visceral, as one leaves for home with ringing ears, stinking clothes, and a bad taste in the mouth.

My first visit to Club Felix (Atis 185,82) was surprisingly similar. The air was stuffy with lag. There were only four other avs in the entire place, and one of them pulled a gun on me.

I guess it begs the question, if RL clubs are so disliked and my first experience at Club Felix was so negative, what reasons would one have for going back to either of them?

In RL, from the process of filling in those conversational gaps, making constellations from the stars as it were, usually shine moments of complete profundity and brilliance. As well, for every person you find in a club causing you grief you find ten who are smart, funny, and friendly. Finally, there is something truly compelling about the paradox of being somewhere to see and be seen, yet simultaneously deindividuated into a larger whole.

It is in this regard that my subsequent visit to Club Felix was also surprisingly similar. Of course the barriers to carrying on a conversation in an SL club are gone, unless one has trouble reading over the music and that constant clickity click sound. In this case it is the architecture of the club itself that is asking to be read into.

Like the Avalon Film Festival site, white surfaces are utilized throughout the club in an obvious attempt to appear 'fresh' and 'contemporary,' however the decision to do so reaches beyond merely stylistic associations in the manner in which it defines the overall experience. The interplay between those surfaces which are strongly expressed and those that lack in differentiation leads to spatial qualities that are largely in flux and open to interpretation. I found myself strongly connected to the spaces by virtue of this abstraction, leading to moments of strong introspection, and yet heightening the presence of the other avs in the club.

Among them were some of the club's VIP's as well as Detect Surface, the designer and builder of the structure. They gave me a warm reception, answered my dumb questions, and even took me down to the secret underground VIP room (that in contrast to the main structure is all black and decidedly sci-fi). Detect's background is in graphic design and illustration, and it shows in the strong graphic identity of the club and the consistency between the club's graphics and its architecture.

This consistency could stand to be a bit more rigorous, however, as there are a few objects around the area of the dance floor and main entry lobby that begin to feel either too gregarious or too spindly when compared to the majority of the structure. As well, when the place is empty the geometry does show a few seams, but overall this is a sophisticated build that is easy to navigate and generously scaled with lots of variety all under one roof.

On my second visit to Club Felix I stumbled home, like after any great club night, with my moments of profundity and brilliance.

Festival Site, Avalon

2005-11-10T19:57:00.000-08:00

Many of SL's event-driven builds such as Burning Life and the Relay for Life achieve added significance by virtue of their temporality. Once the event is over the structures and/or the sims themselves are blasted from existence. Part of what makes them out of the ordinary is the impetus to visit before they are gone to linger only in the mind's eye and become more ephemeral as time goes on. Contrast this with the myriad *ingo pads sitting forlorn until their next slot in the events schedule, ephemeral by nature of their transparent servitude to the programmed event itself, minimizing impositions by providing a level playing field for all participants.

The site of the Avalon Film Festival (Avalon 216,154) sits somewhere in between. Unlike the Relays for Burning Life etc. This build does not disappear once the event is over, and yet it is different from Tringo-poriums in that several of the spaces are closed to access once the festival is over. In this manner the build serves to heighten the significance of the event without dilution into the daily grind.

One of the larger components of the Avalon sim, it requires an increase in draw distance just to take it all in. This sprawling collection of plazas and pavilions threaded by a connecting circulation element provides a wide variety of potential circumstances in which to engage the content of the festival as well as fellow festival-goers, from small kiosk-like screens in transitional areas, to lounges intended for small gatherings, to the massive piazza and cerebro-esque dome that anchor each end of the site. Thus the playing field is decidedly uneven, giving the build the potential to significantly shape the nature of the event.

As much as I admire the builds and prefabs available in Avalon, in many cases their predominantly modular expression as rectangular boxes with rounded corners seem to feel on a purely intuitive level less like architecture and more like inhabitable graphic design. This influence is evident in the design of the festival site, but only as a jumping off point for a thoroughly varied articulation within this modularity that serves to nicely reinforce the basic intent of the spatial planning.

To this point many of my travels through SL have been solitary experiences, and I am sometimes tempted to question the value of 'social' or public spaces over and above simply using IM when so many of them sit vacant (and mostly lag-free). Here that temptation is quashed. In provoking me to reflect on the nature of film as a temporal medium and the nature of festival as a temporal interaction of avatars in relation to said medium, it could be suggested this build does as good a job of framing, amplifying and expressing an idea when sitting empty as it does when fully occupied. That, on a purely intuitive level, feels very much like architecture, not to mention a delightful imposition.

Please Stand By...

2005-11-06T08:12:00.000-08:00

We are experiencing temporary technical difficulties as our image host, the amazing Snapzilla, moves to a new server.

Update: Thanks to some help from Cristiano Midnight we are back up and running. TY muchly :)

Waterfront Residence, Ravenglass

2005-10-27T20:34:00.000-07:00

While we are on the subject of waterfront builds, I thought it might be interesting to contrast Cottonteil Muromachi's build in Carnforth with Almarea Lumiere's residence in Ravenglass (Ravenglass 97,137), which takes a vastly opposed, but equally well-expressed approach to waterfront living.

Rather than being precariously perched on a tentative structure, the 'L' shaped build is nestled at the bottom of an alcove and decidedly 'grounded' on a set of massive stone piers that have been carefully articulated to express a narrative idea of being quarried out in large blocks and transported to the site. Arising from this foundation is a clear structural frame with wood and glass infill panels, completing a legible hierarchy of massive and light elements that imparts a sense of balance and repose suggestive of a certain lifestyle that is a juxtaposition from the dynamism and instability of Cottonteil's build. This idea is reinforced by the understated entrance to the build, a simple hole in the wall of the tall space at the knuckle of the 'L'.

The care that the builder has taken to create a substantial example of the manner in which architecture is capable of inflecting upon a lifestyle is to some degree irrespective of a broader debate about the purpose of residential builds in general. The furnishings in the build are sparse to the point of questioning how much time the resident might actually be spending there. That said, this build is perhaps the only one that I have seen in my brief travels so far (be it residential, commercial, or otherwise) that is truly enriched by virtue of the fact that it is sited on a body of water, as one enjoys not only the views of it afforded by the interior but also the experience of spelunking around on the outside between the piers and under the floor plate.

In fact, the spaces around this build are as important as those in Cottonteil's build, however rather than acting as an well-defined analogue or 'frame' to the interior, it is the unscripted, unprogrammed potentialities of these spaces that enhance the nature of dwelling in those areas which are intentionally constructed and rationally planned, whatever it may be.

Waterfront Studio, Carnforth

2005-10-18T21:04:00.000-07:00

Compelled to act on a tip from Torley Torgeson, the sim of Carnforth contains a thingy of Cottonteil Muromachi's that I do indeed like :)

This waterfront studio (Carnforth 243,206), like many coastal builds, is perched high above a sloping interface between water and landfall. However, unlike the passive 'good life' implied by many of these builds, Muromachi's studio appears to be more motivational in nature - inhabiting the build one cannot help but be engaged in a kind of creative provocation brought about by the tension between cleverly expressed and differentiated architectural elements. This tension begins from the ground up with a pair of brittle structural frames holding up flat slabs that are themselves wrested apart by solid infill walls so as to seemingly force the interior space into existence, with the end result of framing a void between these two enclosed volumes replete with inserted circulation elements that join the two and provide exterior deck space .

This studio was bumped up in the queue of builds to review because it seems to tie in nicely to SL forum posts (and this one in particular) reacting to the discussion of Architecture (available via streaming video) at this year's State of Play Conference. This build appears to be a good example of the way in which the 'reality' of a site condition can not only be addressed but used as a jumping off point from which to bend the rules implied by that condition for a kind of perceptual impact that might not otherwise be possible in RL architecture, without needing to resort to yet another re-interpretation of Gibsonian deck-punching abstractions first envisioned over 20 years ago.

Lo Lo Accessories

2005-10-07T20:23:00.000-07:00

The sim of Miramare is described in the SL History Wiki as having a "futuristic theme to it". In this case perhaps it is the lack of heavy, historicist stylings prevalent in the adjacent city sims that is by default being interpreted as 'futuristic.' Unfortunately this term has the potential to come off as somewhat dismissive, suggesting yet another set of formal trappings ala Spacely Space Sprockets.

Lo Lo Accessories in Miramare Plaza (Miramare 27,39 with an identical clone in Janus 144,229) at first glance seems to be one of the definitive builds contributing to this forward-looking moniker, but upon closer inspection moves beyond mere formalism to create a spatial experience that easily shatters any stereotype implied by the term.

This iconic build reinterprets the 'pod on a stick' with the wrapping and stretching of a single modulated surface (accentuated by virtue of being elevated on four legs) to envelope a breezy space within that one feels compelled to enter and explore. In addition to the openness and articulation of the volume, the relatively small, easily digestible size of the build is also an inducement to browse upon the wares. That said, the display of the merchandise itself as a collection of flat planes does not feel as integrated into the concept as it could otherwise be. This circumstance is mitigated somewhat by use of a black color on the interior surface, however in addition to making the merchandise stand out this also makes the wall surface ambiguous and much more difficult to ascertain when compared to the panelized exterior.

There might also be some debate with regard to the siting of this build. It is interesting to note that the wider of the two ends is actually less accessible than the narrow end, and it is this narrow end that was chosen to address the public walkway in the Plaza. The result of this seemingly inverted logic however, is an effective entry condition that (unlike some of the high-heeled footwear featured within) is easy to slip into.

The Black Library

2005-09-25T20:13:00.000-07:00

Libraries have long been one of a few archetypical building forms to readily transcend the boundaries of physical space. The web is full of sites referring to themselves as 'virtual libraries', and the internet in general as a 'container for information' is rife with spatial metaphor - chat rooms, firewalls, etc. The concept of a library among these more obvious examples has been exploited to varying degrees of success. As a result of these numerous treatments, one can see examples of virtual libraries on a continuum from those which accurately reproduce their physical counterparts to those which completely embrace the abstraction and the structural potentials of information itself.

A particularly bad example of the former can be found in the Michael Douglas / Demi Moore stinker Disclosure. In and amongst all the dry humping lies a tenuous plot thread centering around a VR database, where one presumably walks aimlessly down virtual halls replete with polished marble floors and gilded Corinthian columns until one finds the right virtual file cabinet and pulls out the virtual document that one requires. Would it have killed them to use the card catalogue? When information already exists in a visual format, and hyperlinks take us directly to the information, what is the added value of spatial navigation?

In Second Life, the Black Library (Furness 206,16) answers that question in a rather unique way. Each book contained in the library provides a link to the website of Wandering Yaffle (www.alwaysblack.com) where one actually reads the articles. It would then be easy to argue that since the writings can be more easily and readily accessed through the website, why bother to have a spatial counterpart other than as a mere promotional tool?

It would be just as easy to respond that the library, with its almost soviet-era composition of concrete and glass imparts a curious sense of personality and gravitas that enhances the experience of the website and provides an important experiential context for the writing. I might even go so far as to suggest one gets the best of both worlds. Go there, and do not miss the theatre, lest I haul out another Kubrickian proclivity.

Juro Kothari Homes

2005-09-13T22:23:00.000-07:00

The sim of Deneb features a number of interesting builds, one of the most striking is a small shopfront run by well-known SL builder Juro Kothari (Deneb 182,145). This build is a sophisticated and sensitive response to the commercial context of the sim that also serves to reinforce a sense of brand identity.

First of all, unlike many commercial builds, this shop does a very good job of addressing the street in general, and the corner in particular. The whole idea of streets in SL is an interesting one to me. I have yet to see an Av driving by in a vehicle, or walking on the sidewalk, due perhaps in some part to the fact that such confinement and conformity is something we experience too much of in RL as it is. Nonetheless, this build accepts the street as a site condition and deals with it well. Specifically, the corner is opened in a rectilinear fashion without resorting to a 45 degree chamfer, the resultant being a strong spatial (rather than formal) entry condition. The vertical projection of the signage past the roof line of the build provides a similar entry condition for those who are airborne.

The build is expressed as a compelling volumetric interplay between continuous and carved elements, with a clear differentiation between 'heavy' wall components and 'light' glass components. The crisp, plain white color provides a nice complement to the textured volumes and brings a unique graphic sensibility to the build as a whole. The build abuts Cyrus Designs (a structure also owned by Juro Kothari) and complements this build while maintaining its own identity. The two structures look as if they may have been conceived simultaneously, if this is the case Juro's shop is the more successful of the two.

Once inside, the content is well organized, and feels consistent with an overall concept. Functionally the scale of the build facilitates ease of movement while keeping camera issues to a minimum. This is a good thing since for being such a small build there's a lot here to gawk at. Its a good thing us Avs don't get whiplash.

Tyg Jarrico's Burning Life

2005-09-05T13:57:00.000-07:00

Tyg Jarrico's Burning Life (Burning Life 2 66,99) is one of many hallucinatory trips through the prosaic and sublime aspects of our existence to be experienced on the Burning Life Sims for 2005, however it is the overall presentation and packaging of this particular build that warrants mention here.

The entry sequence through a small water garden seems a bit superfluous once one begins the ascent into a mysterious matrix of luminous, translucent coloured orbs that really starts the futile process of trying to get one's mind around this structure. Each orb from the exterior features an animated cloud texture that heightens a sense of departure from the desert floor.

Movement through the structure is a strictly linear sequence which occasionally pops out into the interstitial space between the orbs, each of which belies its transparent exterior as a container for a thematic moment, spelunking a cave, pining away in an apartment, traversing the backs of butterflies, navigating a starfield, cloistered in the cabin of a commercial airliner...hopefully you're starting to get my drift. The only conceptually inconsistent area in the build is the 'Art Museum' but this is more than made up for by the dramatic climax, starkly alone, in the blackness of space, staring back at the planet earth.

The trans-dimensional aspect of this build is reminiscent to me of the slitscan sequence at the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey (sans giant floating fetus, although it wouldn't have been out of place), as one is bombarded with flashes of possible alternative realities, with the orbs acting as architectural skeleton. The monolith is dead. Long live the monolith.

Update: The 'Orbs of Wonder' now have a permenant home in Thunberg (90,222).

Best of SLRR - Neumoegen Station

2005-09-03T23:05:00.000-07:00

Its easy to see why Fallingwater Cellardoor's entry in the SLRR design competition is a winner - it appeals on a number of levels.

On a functional level, the Neumoegen station (Neumoegen 109, 153) can be admired on the basis of the builder's skill alone. The sinuous, organic quality of the structural connection clearly demonstrates of the art of the possible. The shadow maps applied directly to textures serves to clearly differentiate the various surfaces of the objects. The scale and height of the structure minimize camera problems associated with many builds.

On another level, and perhaps more importantly, the Neumoegen station is a significant example of an appropriate work of architecture for a virtual world such as the world of SL. It transcends the limitations imposed by RL, without imitating it. It bends the rules of structural logic, without bowing down to them or throwing them out altogether.

Finally, it has a strong narrative quality without appearing like a set-piece, or diorama, although this forum post (requires login) might suggest otherwise.

If only the railroad itself worked as well as this station. Those of you who have tried to ride it know what I'm talking about.

Welcome to Virtual Suburbia

2005-09-03T22:31:00.000-07:00

Hi There. After all this time, I finally find something to write about. You see, without the time and resources to jet around the world reviewing actual architecture, I can now teleport through the user-created world of Second Life. So why do this? For those of you who are unacquainted with Second Life, I thought you might want to see some of the interesting things people are doing. For those of you in Second Life, I thought I might start the discussion of what exactly constitutes architecture appropriate for a virtual world.

Its amazing how much banality permeates Second Life, two cars in the garage, clapboard and frilly curtains everywhere. It would be far to easy to go on an extended jag about this, and many, including mainstream design magazines such as Dwell, already have, suggesting in the August 2005 issue that "avatars seem to resort to cliched design tropes."

Instead, I choose to focus on what I consider to be good examples of space and form, and reflect perhaps on what it means to shelter ourselves in a place where there is no need for shelter.