For those of you who recently joined the RL Architects in Second Life group, welcome! I sincerely hope this will become a worthwhile and productive group. There are so many opportunities and challenges in this particular niche, it seems a timely and worthwhile effort to begin discussing what works, what doesn’t work, and what tools we need to make our work more efficient.
I think we all agree that a virtual platform has the potential to transform our industry. Most architects already spend a great deal of time working in 3D environments, and are constantly walking the line between the real and imagined. The emergence of a seamless and dynamic virtual platform, bridging the gap between real and virtual would be profound.
However, there are definitely roadblocks that prevent most RL Architects from joining in full force. I hope this blog will encourage an important dialogue and become a part of the force that derides those challenges.
Surely we’re in the midst of a natural evolution, whereby a few early adaptors will begin fighting their way through the current limitations to get in on the ground floor. First and foremost, I would like to blog all about those early adaptors, and share their stories.
A step beyond this are those who have not yet engaged SL as a professional tool, but are on the sidelines waiting for the technology to evolve before taking the leap. Some of the most inspiring conversations I’ve had are with these architects who are lurking behind the scenes in SL, watching and waiting. I’d like to find out why they’re not using SL professionally yet, and what changes need to take place before they’ll jump in.
Then there are the futurists, or metaverse evanaglists. Architecturally trained or not, there are lots of people who ‘get it’, and have visionary ideas about how the real and the virtual will come together for architecture. I want to blog about their ideas, and ask everyone in this group to share their vision for how virtual reality will evolve during the next decade and beyond.
Architects who quit their day job to build in SL exclusively? Why did you decide to make this shift? Do you plan on rejoining RL architecture once SL can more effectively support it? There are a curiously high percentage of architects in SL who have gone this route. If you’re one of these people, and wouldn’t mind sharing your story, I’d like to write about it.
In all, I think we’re on a pretty steep collective learning curve, and I hope this blog will help bring together a meaningful dialogue to help us understand where we are now, and where we want to be. Eventually I would like to see this group/blog host in-world events, podcasts, seminars, forums, classes, outreach programs, competitions and more. I welcome anyone’s ideas as to content, events or any directions we should be exploring. Please email me at jbrouchoud@lakefield.net, or IM me in-world, Keystone Bouchard, to share your ideas, or just say hello!
