This course will explore the use of game engines and gaming environments as a new medium of architectural expression that grants agency to users, thereby opening new digital horizons for the direct experience of imagined spaces beyond traditional forms of architectural representation.
Each student will select an architectural project of historical or cultural significance to explore as a case study for this new mode of representation. The catch is that the selected project should either not exist or is no longer extant, meaning that it is either an unrealized project or has since been demolished. Works to be considered include “paper” projects that have rhetorical value or wellknown structures that have since been torn down due to disrepair, disinterest, or disgrace. Students will then translate their research and interpretation of the underlying visual, historical and narrative materials of their chosen work into experiences within the virtual environment of a game engine.
This course will instruct students in the use of Unreal Engine 5 to develop their projects within a gaming environment for delivery as fully immersive VR, a video game using a variety of gameplay modes (such as third person or side scrolling), or as cinematic sequences or animations.