Virtual Representations of Architecture

Source Image – https://www.serebii.net/pokearth/kalos/parfumpalace.shtml

It would be an understatement to say that video games have been a constant in my life. One of my earliest recollections of my childhood is playing a hand-me-down Super Nintendo in the late 90s and early 00s. It wouldn’t even be a stretch to say that playing them so often while growing up is part of what led me to pursue architecture as a career path. Anyone who is familiar with this medium of entertainment can tell you the limitless possibilities of “worlds” you can travel to even within one game, and the interactive nature of videogames only adds to the immersive experience.

Real Life Cathedral of Notre Dame — Photo 1

With the advent of fully 3-dimensional games, developers of these games had started to fully flesh out and recreate architecture in interesting ways. Growing up and seeing the evolution of representation of architecture in videos really inspired me to test myself and see if I could be able to do the same in my career. I’d like to discuss a few of my favorite examples here.

One of my favorite video games franchises is Pokémon, also known as “Pocket Monsters”. While the game itself is a typical “collect-a-thon” of virtual creatures akin to many of its rival franchises, to me its setting is what sets it apart. Important landmarks of the series’ games would often be fictional representations of real-life works of architecture. For example, the 2013 releases, Pokémon X/Y, are set in a region meant to represent the Republic of France and many important areas encountered in the game, such as places where major boss battles occur are designed to reference the Cathedral of Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, and the Palace of Versailles among other locales.

Another game I played later in life that struck a chord with me was the 2015 release of Fallout 4, a post-apocalyptic survival game that has its setting in here in Boston. Being a native of Boston, it was very satisfying to see the landmarks I grew up visiting in a new, albeit fictional, lens. As I travelled in game through a nuclear-radiated Boston, I was astonished at how much detail was put into making the city look as real as possible. This was also during my second year of architecture school, so it had a lasting impact what I thought could be possible in realm of video game design.

Although the developers of the game took many creative liberties in their depiction of the city to fit the theme of the series, you can still see a lot of research had been done to be an accurate representation of many of Boston’s landmarks, some of which you might recognize. Some of these include the Boston Public Library, Faneuil Hall, and the Custom House Tower.

Overall, I think videogames have a unique function in design because of their representational characteristics as well as their inherent interactivity. Video game developers are in some ways the pioneers of the VR/Virtual Reality programs that are emerging in our own industry and I’m glad to say that I was able to witness the development of it in a recreational context during my childhood.