We recently wrote about a gorgeous architectural concept video by architect and designer Paul Nicholls called "The Golden Age: The Simulation". The video was the product of a conceptual graduate class at the Bartlett School of Architecture called Unit 15 where students strive to combine the use of film, video, animation and motion graphics in envisioning architectural futures under the visionary direction of professor Nic Clear.Unit 15 aims to question traditional architectural certainties—traditional forms, structures, architectural representation and value systems. By exploding conventional ideas of what buildings can look like and how they can be constructed, Clear and his students float new ideas that have been hitherto unexplored within the architectural realm. Each of the students brings to the table an individual style that is equally imaginative and unique in their approach to form and structure. From Second Life to robot ghettos, it is both an entertaining and intellectually stimulating glimpse into what the future of this design medium might look like.Here’s a Unit 15 show reel from 2010 put together by Nicholls:
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We’ve selected some of the most provocative designs from the video above to give you a more in-depth look at these concepts and the ideas behind them:Kibwe X-Kalibre Tavares‘s work imagines the future of Brixton as a "disregarded area for a new robot workforce, built and designed to do all the tasks humans don't want to do." You’ll likely notice some similarities with our creator Spike Jonze‘s short film, I’m Here, which also envisions a future where robots are the new “working class.”Khatarina Heiger seeks to explore the possibilities of architecture in virtual worlds. Computer simulated environments such as Second Life provide new ways of thinking about architecture that are entirely impossible in the real world. Because of its malleability, Heiger believes Virtual Architecture shouldn't simply mimic the structures of the real world, but strive to create entirely new structures that are native to the virtual world they inhabit.In contrast to Heiger’s work, Jonathan Gales takes the real world as his source of inspiration. Speculative Landscapes is a short animation that digitally reconstructs a train journey evolving the environments that it travels through into a suggestive re-representation of the existing and possible future. Original footage was recorded on the Maglev train in Shanghai and used as a base from which the film was constructed using a 3D data map.Chris Lees’s film is a blend of hand drawn animation and digital animation with a heavy video game aesthetic. It is a surreal mashup of old and new technologies and what happens when they are fused and piled on top of each other.