The Architecture of 2nd Life

Well - its here, its not perfect - but 2nd Life and virtual space (including BIM) apprear to be the next frontier for architecture and planners of all types.

The limitations with the technology restrict design to template approaches. However, there are interesting experiements in this meta-universe exploring design, collaboration, business models and social networking.

"Architecture's Second Life" provides an excellent review (click here) of the potential and current limitations within Second Life. Please take a look at LOL Architects - a virtual business producing real life products.

"Tor Lindstrand is RITS professor and founder of LOL. His research deals with performance, architecture and networks, offline and on. Much of his work is explored through International Festival, "a long-term project that operates between architecture and performance, emphasizing the performative potentiality of space and relations."

Operation MIndshift - Political? Hmmm.

How do we align all of the competing interests; end-user, developer, architect, general contractor, vendors and society? Is this at heart a political operation? Are we able to achieve a system with intrinsic motivation or simply a modification of extreme extrinsic motivation?

"Some designers will argue that we design according to the preferences of our target market; British academic Steven Lukes, who posited the theory of preference-shaping would say that leaders do not merely respond to the preferences of constituents--leaders also shape preferences. (Industrial designers might find themselves using design to reinforce the "maleness" of power tools, for example.)

As design educator Katherine McCoy says, "Design is not a neutral value-free process." ' She contends that corporate work of even the most innocuous content is never devoid of political bias."

"Crucially, good user-centred designers look at a problem from the point of view of the user, not the priorities of the system, institution or organisation. You could say that user-centred design is a political standpoint in itself. Designers observe people in context to understand the complex experiences, needs and wishes of individuals, and are able to represent and champion those needs throughout the design process. "

"Most debates on sustainable design revolve around this question. When asked, many designers say that their job is to do what the client wants. But as Rick Poynor points out, this is an abnegation of responsibility. "The decision to concentrate one's efforts as a designer on corporate projects, or advertising, or any other kind of design, is a political choice."6 If you fulfill the brief, you choose to agree. "

"So yes, design is political. It's about values, power and preferences, about ideologies and consequences. And the good news is that there's a growing breed of designers who are political with a small p. They're not campaigning, but problem solving; they're not "master-designers," but democratic in approach. They're using their skills as designers to illustrate, create and demonstrate opportunities for social change. But the reason for their emergence is that the politics of design itself has changed."

Operation Mindshift begins by uncovering the deeper intrinsic and extrinsic motivations behind all of the value members. As Bill Black pointed out - we need a new lexicon, a new metric and a new way to look in the mirror.