I’ve said before that virtual worlds like Second Life represent the future for the architectural field, as it provides a platform where the architect and client can interact with a design, making adjustments and gaining feedback in a more efficient manner.

The thing is, anyone can be an architect in Second Life. In fact, many builders in Second Life who have no architectural background are much better designers than actual real world architects operating in Second Life.

Architects would have a hard time admitting that, for pride reasons. But the fact is, Second Life offers a world where anybody can design structures and be creative in expressing their builds.

Keystone Bouchard, a real life architect in SL, recently held a lecture talking about just this. The plethora of talent in SLarchitecture is immense and amazing, and although not everyone feels they have the necessary building/texturing skills, the concepts of designs in themselves are stunning.

Although the real world architect won’t be going anywhere, the prominence of design within Second Life shouldn’t be dismissed at all when it comes to the real world viability.

And at the same time, residents should keep building and creating to show that it’s not just architects who are able to design amazing architecture.

In 1925, Le Corbusier proposed to flatten entire sections of the city of Paris to make way for identical tower blocks that would solve many of the city problems with housing and slums.

In 1944, Lord Abercrombie proposed a plan for Greater London which would see medium-rise residential blocks and double the amount of green space, as well as completely new road networks that would revolutionise living in London in the post-war era.

All three of these bold plans failed. To take an entire city, flatten it, masterplan and rebuild it is expensive, time consuming and unpopular. People don’t like major changes like these, and hence they were always dismissed.

European cities like Paris and London were essentially vast spaces of land which over the course of 2000 years, have been developed in a manner which has very little coherency. This lack of logic puzzles today’s planners who like coherency and order.

Second Life’s mainland is essential a European city at the dawn of time. A few roads were built by the early developers, and then the land was opened up and it became a free for all. People started building and before you know it, the whole area is a mix match of fantastic views and great spaces for exploration, and areas which look ugly, and a blight on the landscapes.

So essentially what we have on the SL Mainland is the virtual version of a European city in development. Residents have started calling for Linden Labs to act, and help clean up mainland, and so now we start to see the early forms of “Planning”.

Jack Linden has announced plans for Linden Labs to take a more active role in Mainland, which says to me that like in the modern age of London, there is a move towards controlling the land and creating a more stable environment. The expansion of London outwards meant that older ‘brownfield’ sites in the heart of the city became neglected, and this was bad for the image of the city. In Second Life, such sites are often purchased by advertisers, and as a result the land values in these regions become depressed.

So Second Life’s mainland very closely follows the pattern of real world cities – not just the good aspects, but the bad.

In London, a large section of land where the docklands used to be became available, and this opened up the opportunity for commercial development. Canary Wharf is where the heart of London’s financial sector lies today. The Linden Department of Public Works opened up a new development called Bay City. Like Canary Wharf, this region was carefully planned out first (in both cases using an American grid-iron style) so as to make sure the balance between the various functions were evenly spread out.

The result was that land values in both Canary Wharf and Bay City skyrocketted. I find it interesting to draw parallels between the real world and the virtual world, as they are both following the same pattern, and have grown the same way, and I think will continue to evolve in the same way.

A plan to completely redevelop the SL mainland would never work for the same reasons as in the real world.. it’s simply too complex and the structure of it makes such an undertaking impossible, without completely brassing off the SL residents.

So while a virtual world where the entire mainland looks like Bay City would be aesthetically pleasing, you would lose all the culture that has built up over the past 5 years. From a geographic, social and psychological point of view, Second Life offers the very basis of the development from bare open land with plain textured builds and limited functions, to the evolution of highly detailed structures, beautifully produced landscapes and numerous technological advances.

And all this just touches on what what the future may bring. As the real world develops, so will the virtual world. To quote Bachman-Turner Overdrive, “You ain’t seen nothing yet!”.

The first key rule is easily being able to critique your own work. You need to know when something you’ve just designed sucks, and you need to know that it sucks, because frankly nobody in Second Life is going to tell you it sucks. For that, you need to go to Architecture school in real life. I’ll never forget the student who was told in their critique: “This is your work? Really? I can only compare it to masturbation.. only you enjoyed making it.”. If someone says that to you amongst your peers, there’s only two ways to take it – you cry and quit, or you become the best damn architect the world has seen.

By the way – that guy quit.

So you need to fully believe that what you’re designing and making is the best of the best. If you think there’s better examples of architecture out there, then you’re not pushing yourself to the limits yet.

So then, the next (and perhaps more obvious) step is knowing how to design. See this image to get it right:

In order to be able to design, you need to need to be riding a horse in your bikini. Hey, you just can’t make this stuff up.

You probably realised that I totally just side stepped the issue there – I’m getting good at that. Design is difficult to teach though – you need to explore, learn and expand your mind. Those who think outside the box and dare to try something different, are the ones who succeed. That said, don’t be stupid and start coming up with zany ideas that don’t make sense. Leave that to Frank Gehry.

You’re entitled to a certain amount of pride in your work, but always aim for your next build to be better than your last. There’s never a ceiling in architecture – you can always do better. And you don’t need to be a real life architect to be an amazing builder in SL. Anyone from an Illinois high school teacher, to a 14 year old Canadian slavemaster (hehe – credit to Charlotte Bartlett for that one) can do it. All you need is an open mind, a belief that you can design something special, and some know how.

Know your prims – play about with the various options and “prim torture” the prims to hell and back to see what shapes you can come up with. Then develop a style – a key to success in SL architecture is when someone can look at a design and instantly think that you were the person who built it. Your style will be unique to yourself, and it’s best when it’s what you enjoy in real life (from my own experience). If you’re a huge fan of country-style furniture, perhaps building Gor castles isn’t your thing?

Or maybe it is.. hey – I’m not here to judge.

Point is this – if it’s not you, don’t do it. Your world, your imagination.

Okay, now I’m going to say something really odd. Well, it’ll be odd to anyone who knows me: Don’t take on more work than you can handle.

No seriously.. don’t bite off more than you can chew. I’m sure a few people will choke when I say that, because I’m guilty of this. It’s not uncommon for me to juggle 4 projects at once, but I can actually handle it.

As a builder, you need to be aware of your own capabilities. As a professional architect, I’m used to being able to work on several projects at once, at varying stages of completition. Others who aren’t as experienced may not be able to.

This is how it works: you need to put time and effort into building a brand in Second Life. You need a unique identity that meets the needs and demands of your niché market. Don’t build something with texture overlaps and bad colour schemes and then wonder why it’s not selling. You know it’s because your competition are walking all over you. The key to success isn’t watching what your competitiors are doing – it’s working out what they’re not doing.

My own niché was to create high quality modern furniture that were original designs, as opposed to copies of real life furniture. I had this idea about the same time as the lovely ladies at The Loft did, so we’ve both risen to prominence as leading modern designers at about the same time. Beautiful, and well built designs are our trademarks, but because we’ve worked in different paths, we’ve both developed our own unique styles. The talented Colleen Desmoullins has a great quote in her profile from Albert Einstein: “The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.”. I just thought I’d throw that out there.

You then have two routes. One is easy, one is hard. The easy route is throwing a lot of your own money at SL on promoting your products – SL classifieds are probably the most effective way of grabbing attention. This can be risky though, and you need to be 100% certain that your products will sell.

The second way, which is the way I went, is to work yourself up from the bottom, and use hard work and graft to sell your wares. I started off doing free builds for myself and for friends to get a portfolio together. As I got more noticed, I started to attract paying clients – not big money to start off with, but we all have to start off somewhere.

As your portfolio grows, you need to start working on your reputation. I decided to build up a reputation that spanned many fields in Second Life – entertainment, fashion, photography, etc.. the more people who are aware of who you are and what you do, the more attractive building commissions you’ll get. It takes a lot of time and work, and you need to maintain your focus on the big picture at all times, as there will be a lot of people who will tempt you into other directions, or try to bring you down. Second Life is just as ruthless as the real world, but believe in yourself and your talents and always strive to improve yourself, and you’ll make it.

Pictures from Mirage Studio 7.

1. Pay attention to your site! It sounds obvious, but before you even contemplate building, imagine the direction the build will be facing. You don’t want to be building huge bay windows on all 4 sides if 2 of those facades will face onto ad farms. Architecturally speaking, you will want to have at least one “closed” wall to give a space some definition.

2. Know your build. What are you building? If it’s a house, you want it to feel warm, comfortable and relaxed. If it’s a store, you want something which is open and easy to naviagate. Make sure you know exactly what you’re designing, and the specifications of what is needed before you even start planning what it will look like.

3. Develop a concept. A concept is key to any successful design – it needs to reflect your design instantly. The concept is what will distinguish your build from being a pretty box into being a truly inspirational design. This is where you really need to get in touch with your originality and creative streak. Designing a structure that has soul embedded into it, and that has a design that is aesthetically beautiful is difficult to conceive. Remember that a building doesn’t have to conform to what is socially acceptable in real life – being bold with forms and really pushing the boundaries of your building skills can create something truly special.

4. Draw a sketch! It doesn’t matter that you’re not Leonardo Da Vinci.. this sketch is just for you to know what is where. Look at your plot and measure the widths of the axis so you know how much land you have. Then sketch down a layout for what you want where. Don’t waste good views on kitchens with small windows – open them up with large glazed facades coming off lounge spaces. By planning your layout beforehand, you avoid any small awkward spaces which will just look like an afterthought.

5. Floor-ceiling heights. Whenever you build, make sure you reset the camera height to its default, if you’ve changed it. The vast majority of SL users will have the camera floating above and behind their heads, and your build needs to reflect this. As a general rule, a floor to ceiling height should be approximately 7m high to give sufficient space. In real life, this would often be excessive, but in Second Life, this is simply to counter in the camera height. If your camera zooms close to your head while you move around, your ceiling height is too low!

6. Think Prims! Envision your sketch in your head and think of it in terms of prims, and make a rough estimate of how many prims it will use. Ideally, the build will use about 20-25% maximum of the prim allowance of the plot you’re building on. You’d be suprised how quickly you use prims when you’re furnishing and landscaping!

7. Be your own worst enemy. Don’t be afraid to admit when you’ve got something wrong. I’ve scrapped entire buildings in the past because I know they’re not up to the standard I expect, even if someone else would be astonished by it. Simply put, you’re building for yourself, to your own standards. So accept your own critique and always keep trying to improve. In reality, a building is never really finished, but you have to draw a line somewhere when you just have to ‘let go’. That said, don’t go overboard with your building.. it’s very easy to want to try and make a bold statement with a build and go too far with it. Overly-dramatic buildings aren’t very wecoming and don’t make very conducive environments to be in.

8. Develop a mood board/texture scheme. Pick a selection of texture/colours that are harmonious and compliment each other. I don’t care who you are or what you’re building, Green and Purple just don’t work. Accept it and move on. Have a look around on the internet if you need help picking out the right colour schemes.

9. Give the building some “flow”. The tranisition between one space should be nice and smooth. Moving from a small cramped room into a large atrium space is something of a no-no, and you should avoid doing it. Also, bear in mind the ambiences as you move spaces.. moving from a concrete wall room into something with a lot of wood and glazing would need some pretty good justification. Navigation of the building must be simple too – people will need to be able to find what they want to easily, without the need for teleporters to take them there. Teleporters are a convenience, not an alternative.

10. Stick to what you’re comfortable with. Don’t start designing things if your heart’s not in it. It’ll show that there’s a lack of effort, even if you think it doesn’t. The best designs in both worlds are those where the designer has truly loved what they were making, and the soul and character of the build will really come out. Be true to yourself, and your talents will shine!

So that’s a beginner’s guideline to making the underlying concepts behind a build come to life.. you can teach someone all the skills your want, but they need to know how to design first, which is difficult to teach. Take the points made above, and use them to really make your builds come to life!

So what about using a virtual worlds? Certainly, some architectural practices are starting to cotton on and realise the power of a virtual world. The drawback on a standard 3D model is that you can’t interact with it very well. You’re essential navigating in first person mode, and it doesn’t give you a great “feel” about a structure.

Enter the metaverse.

Now, Second Life has its flaws. For a start, its graphics engine isn’t as high quality as the architecture industry is used to. When you build in SL, there’s little in the way of rendering for lighting and shadings. So you have to do it all yourself manually in Photoshop.. and that will take a while!

But you can create an avatar for the client, and they can remotely walk around the building, move furniture around and interact with various aspects of the building, and then offer you feedback and make changes accordingly. All this, and you’ve not even ordered the materials yet!

Second Life would benefit from a more powerful lighting and rendering focus.. yes: even more powerful than Windlight, as stunning as that is.

Y’see.. when it comes down to it, Second Life is all about aesthetics. New users won’t spend long in a virtual world which doesn’t look very aesthetically pleasing. Although there are some real architectural gems out there, there is also a lot more.. well, anarchic building going on.

There’s only a handful of people in Second Life who can build and texture using perfect shading to make a build seem real. Their skills are much in demand, but it is very much a platform where anyone can, and anyone will build. This is a great concept, but Linden Labs really need to work out a method for raising the bar on build aesthetics, or it’s going to be looking “noobish”. And nobody is going to be attracted to that when other metaverses arise.