Living the Architecture – Porchdog in Second Life

As we saw in yesterday’s post on Real Estate Goes Virtual Second Life can be viewed as ‘Living the Architecture’. Despite limited import tools using site plans it is possible to group build and create a representation of the architecture that can indeed be ‘lived in’ albeit virtually.

Keystone Bouchard of the ever excellent The Arch Blog has modelled the Porchdog house by Marlon Blackwell Architect in Second Life and with it taken the concept of Living the Architecture near to completion.

The movie below provides a good overview of the process from origional CAD rendering to drawings lined up in Second Life and finally the completed building:

The Porchdog was developed as part of Archtiecture for Humanity, the concept is a raised residence for areas at risk of climate impact such as New Orleans.

The proposition of raising a home 12 feet above the ground introduces several issues that challenge the traditional notion of the Gulf Coast streetscape and affiliated porch culture. Among these is the very concept of having a porch that is an extension of the interior space.

In addition, the massing of a proportionally tall house speaks more of isolation than of the construct of a meaningful social space through a series of houses enclosing the street. The Porchdog house addresses these challenges while providing the requisite protection from a potential Category 4 storm surge event.

Read more about the Porchdog in reality on Open Archtiecture Network and in Second Life on The ARCH.

We will have more on The Arch and their new project ‘Wikitecture’ soon…