BORDERLESS ENTRY: Green Building Enters Cyber Realm

Ever hear of these prefab homes:  the Lanta House?  Doomak House?  Simphan House?  Without knowing better, you might guess that these prefabs were designed by Michelle Kaufmann Designs or Marmol Radziner + Associates.  Well, they're not.  In fact, the above prefabs don't even exist in the real world.  They were created for use in the on-line game Second Life.  That's right, a prefab, created on-line for use in a computer game, with a small environmental footprint but sold for cash.  Confused? 

Second Life is an Internet-based virtual world that was launched in 2003.  Users download the program and interact with each other via motional avatars.  Users or residents, can socialize, participate in various activities and create and trade virtual property or other services.  Well, recently, green buildings have been popping up on Second Life and so I thought I would check them out.  It won't be long before a building created for the virtual world will become a part of our natural world.

 

Modahome is a guy who creates and designs prefab homes for Second Life.  Not only does he create these buildings but he sells them through his on-line store in the Second Life world "Luxe Minimalist."  To blur the reality line even further, he creates an on-line prefab building and then sells it for cold hard cash.  Second Life's virtual currency is the Linden Dollar (Linden or L$) and is exchangeable for US Dollars in a marketplace consisting of residents and real life companies.  Crazy but cool!   

In fact, Flickr has a forum dedicated to modern design and green architecture in Second Life called "Second Life - Architecture."  I have attached some pictures below.  Who knows, pretty soon we'll start seeing more of:

• faster load time than traditional .jpeg created images
• created with recycled, solar-powered Dell computer
• uploaded via FTP powered 100% by wind energy

instead of:

• harvested using recycled materials
• energy star appliances used throughout
• solar panels installed on the roof

with respect to green features of a home.

I definitely think the structures created for on-line use (including SL) could eventually give inspiration to the design and construction of real-life green buildings.  Right now the renderings are pretty simple but they are bound to get better, more detailed and more cutting-edge.  There's no doubt that the line between real-life and virtual-life has definitely gotten blurry!

 

Doomak House

Lanta House

Simphan House

Other Prefab Renderings

++ModaHome's LuxeMini Page [Flickr]