Architectonics of Game Spaces

Andri Gerber, Ulrich Götz (eds.) Architectonics of Game Spaces Architecture | Volume 50 Andri Gerber (PhD), born in 1974, is Professor for the History of Urban Design at the ZHAW in Winterthur. He is an expert of metaphors in the context of architecture and urban design. His research interests turn around the concept of space, from a phenomenological, a political and more recently from a cognitive perspective. Ulrich Götz, born in 1971, is Professor at the ZHdK Zurich University of the Arts, heading the ZHdK Subject Area in Game Design. Trained as an architect, he discusses comparable strategies of spatial design in architecture and game spaces. He has built up extensive experience in research and development of serious and applied games. His university teaching focuses on the analysis and design of game mechanics, game concepts, motivation design, and spatial design in virtual environments. Andri Gerber, Ulrich Götz (eds.) Architectonics of Game Spaces The Spatial Logic of the Virtual and Its Meaning for the Real An electronic version of this book is freely available, thanks to the support of libraries working with Knowledge Unlatched. KU is a collaborative initiative designed to make high quality books Open Access for the public good. The Open Access ISBN for this book is 978-3-8394-4802-1. More information about the initiative and links to the Open Access version can be found at www.knowledgeunlatched.org. Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Na- tionalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No- Derivatives 4.0 (BY-NC-ND) which means that the text may be used for non-commercial purposes, provided credit is given to the author. For details go to http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ To create an adaptation, translation, or derivative of the original work and for commercial use, further permission is required and can be obtained by contacting rights@ transcript-verlag.de Creative Commons license terms for re-use do not apply to any content (such as graphs, figures, photos, excerpts, etc.) not original to the Open Access publication and further permission may be required from the rights holder. The obligation to research and clear permission lies solely with the party re-using the material. © 2019 transcript Verlag, Bielefeld All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Cover concept: Kordula Röckenhaus, Bielefeld Cover illustration: Max Moswitzer Proofread by Lindsay Blair Howe Printed by Majuskel Medienproduktion GmbH, Wetzlar Print-ISBN 978-3-8376-4802-7 PDF-ISBN 978-3-8394-4802-1 https://doi.org/10.14361/9783839448021 Contents Introduction Andri Gerber, Ulrich Götz | 9 PART 1, INTERVIEWS Taking Risks! Werner Oechslin | 27 Invisible (Game) Cities Paolo Pedercini | 47 In-World Realism Konstantinos Dimopoulos | 59 Video/Game Johannes Binotto | 71 Games as Provinces of Meaning Silke Steets | 85 Free your Imagination! Philipp Schaerer | 95 A Fascination for Empty Rooms Francine Rotzetter | 111 Towards an Architecture of Desire François Charbonnet and Patrick Heiz | 119 PART 2, ESSAYS A. TOWARDS A DEFINITION OF GAME SPACES The Architectonics of Game Spaces Or, why you should Play and Design Video Games to become a better Architect Andri Gerber | 135 Virtual World Weariness On Delaying the Experiental Erosion of Digital Environments Stefano Gualeni | 153 The Lived Space of Computer Games Stephan Günzel | 167 The Architectural Continuum Choropoietic Media and Post-Physical-World Environments Constantinos Miltiadis | 183 B. SPATIAL TRANSITIONS BETWEEN ARCHITECTURE AND GAMES From Asteroids to Architectoids Close Encounters between Architecture and Game Design Ulrich Götz | 201 Piercing all Layers of the Anthroposphere On Spatialization and Architectural Possibilism in Hitman Marc Bonner | 215 Creating Fascinating Spaces The Assignment for Designers of both Virtuality and Reality Sinem Cukurlu | 233 Augmented Play, Art , and Space The Cognitive Coupling of Avant-Garde Games with Unexpected Mental Spaces Margarete Jahrmann | 249 C. THE POTENTIAL OF GAME SPACES FOR A NEW ARCHITECTURE Play the City Dungeons and Dragons for Cities Ekim Tan | 265 Democracy, Video Games, and Urban Design Minecraft as a Public Participation Tool James Delaney | 277 Video Game Urbanism How we Design Virtual Game Spaces to Engage new Audiences with the Architecture of Tomorrow Luke Caspar Pearson | 293 Bibliography/Ludography | 313 Image Copyrights | 331 Authors | 335 Introduction Andri Gerber and Ulrich Götz “The decisive question of how a free human be - ing—the homo ludens—will live his or her life can- not be adequately answered until an idea about the artificial world is formulated—the world that these humans will build when they are not required to work.” Constant, 1964 INTRODUCTION LEVEL ONE: PRESS ARCHITECTURE TO START Let us begin with something that might sound far-fetched: the children’s book King Nutcracker and Poor Reinhold, by Heinrich Hoffmann. In this story, a poor, sick boy is visited by an angel on Christmas Eve. The angel leads the boy away from his home, into a room with a small box full of wooden building blocks. Reinhold takes the blocks out of the box; after stacking them with the church in the center of his city, the blocks began to grow until they surrounded him—toy buildings that became “real.” In this fantastic city, Reinhold encounters a series of strange and unusual inhabitants, including a king who introduces the boy to his subjects. Later, the angel takes Reinhold back and announces that “the game is over.” Upon returning home, he falls asleep—and when he wakes up next 1 | Constant Nieuwenhuys, New-Babylon: imaginäre Stadtlandschaften (Krefeld: Scherpe, 1964). 2 | Heinrich Hoffmann, König Nussknacker und der arme Reinhold (Frankfurt am Main: Literarische Anstalt Rütten & Löning, 1851). Hoffmann was psychiatrist and children’s author, and the creator of the famous character of Struwwelpeter. 10 Andri Gerber and Ulrich Götz morning, he discovers a wonderful Christmas tree, alongside the toys he had played with the night before. Play opens the door to fantasy and illusion. The etymology of “illusion” originates from the Latin in-ludere, referring to “play”. Games demand illusion: we either play with the image of a game in our minds—like the German expression Gedankenspiel—or by literally jumping into the game. While at first, the Heinrich Hoffmann example may seem off-topic, it il- lustrates the agenda of this book: It reminds us that play, in fact, has a long history, and by playing, we are transported into the world of games. This world is always related to our everyday reality—and yet it is of another dimension, in which a different set of rules, perhaps better or fewer ones, take control. Fig. 1: Hoffmann, Heinrich, König Nussknacker und der arme Reinhold, 1851 Architecture defines spaces, which unfold before us and envelop us. Ar- chitecture is a complex discipline, yet also one of the most “solid” disciplines ever, as its results manifest themselves in bricks and mortar. At the same time, architecture has always been plagued by contradictions and crises—the resulting instability of it all is a wonderful paradox indeed. Be- cause of this fundamental condition, architecture has always been open to external discourses, embracing new directions and definitions in search of its own nature—as it has never been able to answer this central ques- Introduction 11 tion on its own. Since architecture primarily expresses itself in the form of spatial structures, it has always had to share concepts of “space” with related interpretations from other disciplines, and in a complex entanglement with society. From movies to literature, philosophy, technology, sciences, politics, the military, economics, even music—all have made seminal con- tributions to the evolution of architecture and its discourses, often shift- ing the focus from purely architectural questions to hybrid applications. Yet some of these interdisciplinary shifts may have served as more of an escapist movement than an actual attempt to translate the findings back into architectural designs. In contrast, other strategies tend to ex- plain architecture through architecture, which often results in sterile, self-reflecting monuments—almost like architectural mirrors. These ten- dencies lead either to a condition of heteronomy that removes architecture from its foundations, or to a state of autonomy, making genuine commu- nication with society equally impossible.« As a consequence, architecture has created various forms of “utopia”: playgrounds of both the introverted and extroverted, fantastic possibili- ties, all of which avoid a true confrontation with reality. By its own nature, architecture has a longstanding tradition of creating virtual spaces, of searching for its own forms of virtuality—particularly within the design process itself. Even though, in many ways, architecture was the precursor of digital metaphors (such as networks, clouds, or flows), its referential qualities remain. Architecture has always had virtual doubles—spatial structures in disguise. On one hand, these doppelgangers served to blur the concept of architecture itself; on the other, they helped to better understand it. Because of this complex condition, we decided to borrow Immanuel Kants term architectonics for this book. Kant presented the phenomenon of an “im - possibility of architecture” in his Critique of Pure Reason (1781), naming this “architectonics”: in order to fulfill all criteria of architecture, it would have to be designed, planned, and built at the same time—which is, of course, impossible. According to Kant, this impossibility of existing while simultaneously being created will never result in architecture, but rather, in ruins and failure.

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