Architecture students design interactive virtual neighbourhood

Students from the BA (Hons) Architecture course have built a brand-new, experimental platform for their virtual neighbourhood. Here, virtual visitors will be able to walk around inside student’s architectural projects and neighbourhoods and discover the students’ design process.

Tutors and students worked to overcome the limitations of lockdown and build an interactive world where students’ work is placed ‘front and centre’. The impact of Covid-19 encouraged students to think deeper into the wants and needs of a community and to design sustainable, exciting interpretations of London hotspots such as Bermondsey and Hackney Wick. The launch of the virtual neighbourhood coincides with the release of the new architecture course website which is a platform for projects, virtual neighbourhoods and a space to share ideas for the future of architecture.

Student Joshua Dalsan, who is a first year representative for the BA (Hons) Architecture course, said that, “coronavirus has forced us to stop and reflect, but to also look forward, and begin to reimagine what the future can look like.” Speaking of how the lockdown helped to shift him and his peers’ thinking, Joshua says, “being stuck at home has provided us with a different sort of challenge, one that will bring us together, albeit virtually.” He explains that the interactive aspect of the neighbourhood allows people to “visit the individual projects, as if they were to buy a meal from a free-standing kiosk, and explore the narratives that have been imagined by Ravensbourne’s newest students.” The new website and the virtual neighbourhood have the ability to act as an ever-changing online platform with course updates and new work to regularly display. As a project, Joshua anticipates that it will, “grow and expand, just like the city around us, and will act as a virtual utopia, that moves in adjacency with the direction of the course.”

The project has been overseen by Associate Programme Director, Dr Paolo Zaide, who commented, “rather than showcasing the student work in a virtual building, we decided to build the projects in a software called Unity.” By doing so, “this will enable you to walk around inside of the projects and through the neighbourhoods that were designed by our students.” The neighbourhood provides an excellent alternative degree show, which in light of Covid-19, will no doubt be presented virtually by most institutions this year.

It is a great accomplishment for our Architecture students to think outside of the box and be able to produce such a high-class virtual neighbourhood for their architecture projects, despite being faced with extraordinary challenges during their final months.

Keep an eye out for the Ravensbourne Online Degree Show which will be available to view in the coming weeks. The show will exhibit a wide range of exciting design and media work produced by our very talented students.