Nordic Light Hotel, Stockholm, 20 October 2008

Gaming & Architecture 2008

When the virtual became reality

Quite a few business cards changed owner during the short, but intense, breakfast seminar ”Gaming & Architecture” at the Nordic Light Hotel in Stockholm.

The audience – remarkably young and with a majority of architects – immediately got the message when moderator Åsa Roos from Swedish game developer Avalanche Studios introduced by asking the rhetorical question: ”When will the architects discover the possibilities of the gaming business”?

And if there were any doubts about the possibilities given by the game engines of modern computer games, they were properly eliminated when Joakim Svärling from DICE let the audience get a glance at the coming Parkour/FPS game Mirror's Edge (release date 13 November for Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. A PC-version will be released later this winter).

Make the projects come alive with gaming techniques

Joakim Svärling  the presented his hobby project – a virtual interpretation of the life on the 17th century warship Vasa, to show the audience the power of making architecture come alive by using modern, cutting-edge graphic technology. The gaming industry already has the technical muscles to simulate, for example, sounds in a certain environment or how people move in different buildings – something that could be very useful for an architect in her daily work.

Svärling also meant that the gaming industry, which is constantly seeking more and more realistic game experiences, need the architects’ competence about materials, infra-structure and usability.

”We already work with tomorrow’s games, where the goal is to cross the boundaries – is it reality or a game? Well, that could be hard to decide when you feel the smell of food or the heat from a fireplace. In practice, we have solved this – you can’t even imagine everything we are able to do today. The real challenge is to know exactly how buildings collapse in an explosion. Here we need your help”, concluded Svärling with a blink to the architects in the audience.

The virtual world develops the concept of architecture

In the following panel debate, where Joakim Svärling participated together with Tor Lindstrand (architect and Associate Professor at the School of Architecture, Royal Institute of Technology) och Britta Holmblad (architect at White), the discussion continued about the possibilities of a cross-fertilization between the two industries.

Tor and Britta pointed out their experiences of Second Life, where – in spite of the unlimited possibilities – the houses were built traditionally with roofs (it rarely rains in Second Life) and with stairs (despite that you can fly). Their conclusion was that the architecture would need to be challenged by the freedom of the gaming world – to develop the view and ideas of the profession and the design in reality.

Judging from the reactions and discussions after the seminar, we’re definitely heading towards a very exciting future – in the virtual world as well as in the real world.

Note: The journalist Anders Rydell who sholud participated in the panel unfortunately had to cancel due to illness.

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