Games, Architecture, and Crowdsourcing - 1

I've been working in both Photoshop and 3D Studio Max for a while now.  Sometimes, as I explore things, I have been less and less sure where I fit in.  How exactly do I leverage what I know as architect in ways beyond building.  And how do I take this experimentation back into the real world.

I started out playing the first version of Doom while I was in graduate school. When mod tools first appeared, I have to admit that, originally, I laughed at how simplistic many of the level designs were.  I became really interested though, because shear experimentation was rampant.  It was chaotic crowd-sourcing with people willing to throw literally anything into level design.  From a critical standpoint they were the simplest architectural spaces possible, but there were some interesting spatial ideas beyond the 'open door-see corridor-kill monster' design.  I kept on thinking that architectural simulation in games was something we as architects should pay attention to.  I actually proposed an independent studio based on the use of Doom's mod tools, but it wasn't very well received by my thesis advisor.

That didn't stop the IT guy and I from playing Doom in the PC lab late at night of course.

2012 - Massing study for Turin Train Station Ideas Competition.  I've been using 3D models in the way I used to build cardboard and wood models for massing studies.  The big idea was to have layers of courtyards and landscape as the integrative mechanism between the airport, train and bus components of a regional transportation hub.  A new public market was proposed to anchor the entrance and the edge of a new public square.  Bringing the river into the interior with a canal meant that new recreational and hospitality components could be explored. Default Renderer in 3D Studio Max.

 2013 - Book Cover Proposal

2013 - I've been rereading older science fiction; what is euphemistically called 'classic' or golden age work.  One of the first books I ever read (in junior high school) was Damon Knights compendium 'Beyond Tomorrow'.  I found an awesome first edition in a used book store not too long ago, and Robert Heinlein's 'Coventry' became the inspiration for this illustration.

all images in this blog are copyright vertigo studios and michael knudsen