A Simulation of Reality

Sprawling mansions with grand entrances that would make an engineer laugh. Ridiculous landscaping with an unrealistic expectation of maintenance. Oversized rooms with extensive tasteless décor and no doors. Kitchens without extraction or extinguishers. Pools without ladders and a blatant disregard to any building code. If you don’t know where this is going, maybe you’re normal.

We take a step back into the late 90’s/early 2000’s where the line between playing outside and playing online started to become blurry. She sits in her room on a bright, sunny afternoon, staring closely into the dark, fragmented version of reality that is her computer screen. She clicks her mouse and life is paused. She presses some keys and suddenly, she is rich. This is where it all begins.

She’s shaping structures, building worlds, and creating communities.

In a world where everything is a construct and anything is possible, The Sims allows her to explore endless shapes, forms, junctions, spaces, and ideas. No, the game itself is never actually played; who wants to spend their free time trying to build relationships or going to ‘work’, anyway? It becomes a test to see if every single material can be used, a challenge to buy all the empty lots and maximise the footprint whilst still having the largest pool in the neighbourhood. “Rosebud” and “Motherlode” will forever be imprinted in her brain – if only it was that simple to get extra cash in real life. Here, there is no real goal, there is no budget.

Safe to say, the first semester in an actual Architecture degree a few years later is a reality check. Fabricating bridges out of straws? Removing bubbles out of concrete with a vibrator? And who is Gordon Harris?

She throws herself into photoshopping, researching, writing, modelling. Commits herself to all-nighters, design crits, team projects, learning. The foundation of what she thought architecture was, is expanding and evolving. Is her life dictated by the endless hours in studio, or is she trying to form a future based off what she is learning? She crams article, essay, lecture after lecture into the black hole of her brain and chases it with a borderline healthy balance of late-night library sessions and student nights on the town. C’s get degrees, right?

University is a blur, and it turns out that building relationships is essential for surviving this rollercoaster. There is a lot more to architecture than she realised, as well as many paths that provides multiple opportunities and invokes countless decisions. Yet, she holds onto the level of freedom that The Sims indulged her with but at a larger scale through unsupported underground train stations, dystopic island hotels, and toppling towers of glass.

Architecture, to her, slowly becomes more than just an idea: this is real, this could be something. The struggle of containing a concept within constraints has not yet presented itself to her. She has not yet discovered clients, contracts, or construction methods. As she stumbles through the course, the paraphernalia of design is collected then promptly set aside to be forgotten about.
And then she enters: The Real World.

Architecture is completely different! There is a schedule of almost everything, from programmes to quantities. There is even more to uncover – one does not simply look at a building and understand what architecture is. Details need to be drawn, framing needs to be set out, and memories such as “Rosebud” fade quickly. The joy of architecture almost dissipates as ‘work’ and the mundane becomes routine. Wandering through a predetermined society, she sometimes wonders if she is the Sim. When does she get to create her own world? The new challenge is finding new aspects and working around restrictions to deliver the best outcome, it is no longer about having the fanciest pool. There is now a deadline, and a cost ceiling. Where grand entrances once used to scoff at the idea of engineering, there are now a multitude of consultants that get involved and provide opinions.

Fantasising about recapturing the magic, she sets out to rediscover what architecture means to her. The scale is magnified once again, rapidly. Group projects and coordination as part of a modular housing delivery system; modelling existing schools, houses, developments, apartments, so they could be remediated; researching Passive House techniques and thermal bridges and breaks; learning about sustainability, carbon footprints, environmental product declarations and designing to minimise waste and energy. The types of timber treatment, the countless joinery profiles, and never-ending building code updates. She gains invaluable experiences, qualifications and continues the perpetual crit of her journey. But there is so much to absorb in seemingly so little time. The ‘what if’s and ‘should have’s build, the inevitable crash looms.

Unsurprisingly, the repetition of entering the same office day after day, with its subpar fluorescent lighting, broken down ventilation system and lack of natural daylight had begun to take its toll. Nothing is as simple as cantilevering the entire floor out over a common space or adding walls within 1m of a pool anymore. This is the antithesis of The Sims! All around her, friendships crumble and form, careers are changed, babies are born, and vows are said.

It’s too much! Where is this going? What is the point?!
She struggles to remember why and where this started.
She breaks down.

Amongst the turmoil, there is one constant that provides her shelter and comfort. Home, not one place but a collection of spaces that she has built over the years that until now, had unknowingly been embedded into her memory. The old 90’s style kitchen with the ugly green cabinetry at her parent’s that always smells like baking. The sun-drenched corner with the small but comfortable window seat at her local library.

Home, where she feels at ease and almost content. She realises she had lost herself during her internal struggle, but setting foot in any of those locations allowed her to take a much-needed breath. The atmospheric, oak panelled bar with the wobbly stools and characters that provide endless hours of entertainment. The gym studio with the threadbare carpet, intimidating floor to ceiling mirrors and overbearing sound system.

Slowly, the realisation of how architecture can shape experiences and evoke emotions deeper than an appreciation of the structure itself, helps shift her mentality. It could be worse. She reflects on how far she has come and all the knowledge she has gathered. All the relationships she has founded, and the work she has completed. She reminds herself of the people she has helped by advising, designing, and collaborating.

She now looks at architecture with a completely different meaning. It can be more than a shell; it can be a sanctuary. Factors such as light, sound, texture and depth work together to create an interactive exploration rather than just a visual.

She grasps that notion, throws herself back into the journey and begins to intertwine it into every aspect possible. She’s back on track and eager to see where it takes her.

She’s shaping structures, building worlds, and creating communities.

Image generated using Dall·E