Filed under: architectural resources, archvirtual, community, engineering, machinima, real estate, rl architecture, Unity3d, virtual architecture | Tags: architecture, archvirtual, city, downtown, dubuque, funding, game, iowa, kickstarter, main street, MMO, multi-player, multi-user, real, realtime, Unity3d, urban
We’re raising funds to launch Main Street MMO, and we need YOUR help as a founding supporter!
There are so many incredible sci-fi, war games and medieval adventures available today, with amazing complexity, detail and realism.
Main Street MMO seeks to combine the fun and interactivity of video games with real cities to promote local businesses, showcase city initiatives, visualize architectural designs, and a lot more.
We need your help!
Here’s a link to our Kickstarter page where you can pledge your support for our project:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/keystone/main-street-mmo-real-cities-in-realtime-3d
As a founding supporter of Main Street MMO, we will engrave your name in a cornerstone, add your name to the credits, name an NPC after you, or even kickstart an MMO of your city (other creative award ideas are welcome! =)
Even if you can’t afford to back the project financially, please consider sharing this within your network to help raise awareness! Your tweets, facebook updates, and blog posts are the stuff a successful Kickstarter project is made of, so please help us spread the word!
We’re just getting started! For the past year, we’ve been partnering directly with local businesses in our premiere city of Dubuque, Iowa to determine which features they feel would be most useful in a technology like this, and have compiled a list of features and functionality we believe will take this project to a new level, but we need your help!
Please consider backing Main Street MMO! Your support is very much appreciated. If you think your city would be interested in something like this, or if you have ideas for new features we should add, please get in touch with us!
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/keystone/main-street-mmo-real-cities-in-realtime-3d
Thanks SO MUCH @openingdesign @epredator @pbroviak Derek Barrett @samdriver and @moirah for stepping up as our first backers! We can’t thank you enough for your support!
Filed under: machinima, second life | Tags: Aalborg, ain shams, amr attia, architecture island, berlin, Bernd Bötzel, Blad Kligerman, cairo, david denton, Denmark, DU Diederichs, egypt, germany, judy cockeram, malaquais, Moira Hunter, paris, Planufakture, Scott Chase
This blog has moved! Please read this post on our new blog location:http://archvirtual.com/?p=3311
There were more than 42,000 kilometers separating this group if you connected our locations around the globe. For Amr Attia, in Cairo, Egypt, it was 10:00 in the evening. For Judy Cockeram, it was just 9:00 in the morning – but it was the next day for her, half-way around the world, in Auckland, New Zealand. Together with Moira Hunter (Paris, France), Bernd Boetzel (Berlin, Germany), Brad Kligerman (Cambridge, Massachussets) David Denton (Knoxville, USA), Scott Chase (Aalborg, Denmark) and myself (Madison, USA), this group joined together in the same time and place on Architecture Island in Second Life to have one of the most interesting and inspiring conversations I’ve witnessed in a long time. I may never cease to be amazed by this global network, and the virtual fabric we use to stitch it all together.
The creative and potential energy in this space was incredible, and I was honored to be a part of it. Each of these participants has completed and promoted specific initiatives and projects aimed at increasing awareness and raising the bar for architectural uses of virtual worlds, and it was very exciting to see this group gathered together in the same time and place. We’re definitely looking forward to many more discussions, with wider participation, in the future!
This blog has moved! Please read this post on our new blog location:http://archvirtual.com/?p=3311
Watch the full discussion video here: http://blip.tv/file/5024974
Check out this brilliant machinima piece, describing the EX.IT project I posted last week.
I think the choice of soundtrack is perfect – with the urban sounds of cars honking every so often – with rain in the background, creates a real sense of place and embodiment. This holistic integration of art, architecture, sculpture, cinematography, photography, fashion – clearly exercises a level of restraint and careful consideration that really makes you want to experience this virtual place for yourself. Brilliant work Lucam, keep it up!
This machinima, this essay by Theory Shaw, and a visit to this SLurl tell the whole picture. A great example of reflexivity and responsiveness in virtual architecture.
Filed under: cross disciplinary, jon brouchoud, keystone bouchard, lebenswelt, machinima, piano, reflexive architecture
Here is a brief machinima that hopefully describes the Architectural Jazz concept a bit more clearly. The idea is to make the inhabitant an active part of both the musical and architectural composition. In real life, when we listen to music, or occupy a space, we generally play a passive role. The composition remains largely unchanged when we listen or observe.
In a virtual environment, we have a unique opportunity to make the architecture responsive, or reflexive. The buildings can ‘know’ that we’re there, and react accordingly. They can even remember that we’ve been there, leaving visual or audio traces of our existence after we’ve left.
It isn’t that these ideas are impossible in real life (example), but its a lot easier and far less expensive to prototype and experiment in virtual reality. Plus, opportunities for true collaboration are more readily available. Realizing this installation, for example, required collaboration and general brainstorming with several others, including Theory Shaw, Ordinal Malaprop and Fumon Kubo.
This installation is only a small step toward a much greater realm of possibilities available to us in Second Life, and hopefully part of a broader collaboration-based, cross-disciplinary movement toward a new language of virtual architecture.
And YES, thanks for asking, but I have been made aware of the similarities between my installation and this =) :
Filed under: Linden Lab, machinima, second life, Torley Linden, virtual architecture
Looks pretty sweet, but it doesn’t look like there will be realtime shadows rendered. I can only imagine the weight a system like that would add to SL, so I’m definitely not surprised or disappointed. This will still dramatically improve the architectural illustration of this environment, and make it even more appropriate and useful as a professional tool for architectural presentation.
via Linden Blog. More screenshots on Torley’s Flickr page HERE.
Filed under: architect, architecture for humanity, cameron sinclair, clear ink, collaborative, collaborative design, design like you give a damn, machinima, rl architecture, sustainable, virtual architecture
Machinima showing Cameron Sinclair and John Gage discussing virtual collaboration and Open Architecture Network in Second Life.
Sponsored by Sun Professional Services, coordinated by Clear Ink, machinima by Kiwini Oe.
Filed under: architectural resources, keystone bouchard, machinima, RenderGlow, second life, Torley Linden, virtual architecture
During today’s downtime, I spent some time on the beta grid experimenting with RenderGlow per Torley’s suggestion. The gradient shading was done with textures, but the glow helps add some depth.
Architecture 101 is inspired by Dr. Francis Ching’s book ‘Form, Space, and Order‘; required reading for anyone wishing to learn the fundamentals of architecture. It is permanently rezzed on Architecture Island (SLurl).
Filed under: architect, architectural resources, architecture, architecture island, collaborative, collaborative design, community, jon brouchoud, keystone bouchard, machinima, rl architecture, second life, sustainable
As a contribution to Architecture for Humanity’s Open Architecture Network, I built this virtual model on Architecture Island (SLurl). Real-life construction of the Porchdog home is part of Architecture for Humanity‘s effort to provide housing relief and redevelopment in post-Katrina Biloxi, Mississippi.
Given the open and collaborative nature of this initiative, I think Second Life provides a perfect platform for visualizing, co-designing and brainstorming future contributions to the Network. Perhaps architects and designers from all around the world could gather virtually and collaborate on real-time relief solutions in the wake of an unforeseen disaster.
In reading some of the descriptive principles of Open Architecture Network, I think it’s clear that these goals can be readily fulfilled through virtual collaboration.
“The Open Architecture Network is an online, open source community dedicated to improving living conditions through innovative and sustainable design. Here designers of all persuasions can:
• Share their ideas, designs and plans
• View and review designs posted by others
• Collaborate with each other, people in other professions and community leaders to address specific design challenges
• Communicate easily amongst team members”
It’s about visualization, collaboration and community; all of which are existing features of Second Life. I would love to see SL become a catalyst for virtual collaboration toward this end, and hope we can find a way the Architecture Group can help facilitate it.
This machinima has already been posted to the Network, and can be seen at the bottom of THIS page. While I was at it, I posted our entry into the Cradle to Cradle design competition, seen HERE.
More soon!
Filed under: architecture, machinima, rl architecture, second life, virtual architecture
Here is a Second Life classic. Previously covered here and here, with video posted here. Visited it in SL here.
Given its RL Architectural nature, I think Octal Kahn’s reconstruction of Gregory Ain’s Mar Vista Residence deserves a place on The Arch.
Photos in the slideshow are from between 05 Oct 06 & 23 Oct 06, by Octal Kahn.
The ARCH 