“The time has come” the Walrus said, “to talk of many things…”

It’s been a long time since I practised as an architect. Around fifteen years ago, like many of my generation, I was what you might call computer struck and proceeded to immerse myself in the world of bits, bytes and silicon, and never looked back. Until now that is. Rather than looking back however, I am peering rather nervously into the not too distant future.

What I see, both excites and scares the hell out of me. If I or anyone else for that matter, had been told fifteen years ago what the future was going to hold, I would have buried my nose in my science fiction novel and shown the poor misguided soothsayer to the door.

If anyone thinks that this new world of on-line virtual reality ushered in by Worlds Inc. is just another incarnation of the ubiquitous computer game, then they had better go and take out a life subscription to the Flat Earth Society. Alpha World gives us a taste, albeit a strong taste of the next millennium. The way we develop and use this technology may well determine the future of our progeny for centuries to come.

OK, I know what you’re thinking. Why is this mad Englishman prattling on about our responsibility and the future of mankind. What is he? Some kind of twentieth century luddite. What about Sherwood Towne and architecture...and his appointment as probably the first official town architect in a Virtual Reality world!

Well if you think this column is going to be just about color, shape and the height of doorways then find yourself a professional builder!

Architecture is more than the inelegant and drab boxes in which most of us are unlucky enough to find ourselves. Genuine architecture is about dreams and aspirations. It reflects the feelings and emotions of its inhabitants and defines the envelope of our existence. Begotten of love and hate, war and peace, contentment and misery and, last but unfortunately not least, mankind’s preoccupation with God.

Architecture you see is more about fundamentals than practicalities. When I started a new design project I would begin with a large wad of blank paper and write WHY? in big letters on the first sheet. I would then go away, make a cup of tea, read the Daily Telegraph and ponder the meaning of life, the universe and everything. I was only too aware that conjuring up a habitat out of thin air for my fellow human beings was at best an ad hoc process. My mood, the weather, the political situation in Angola and even the current contents of my stomach would be instrumental in determining aspects of this habitat which may well be influencing peoples’ lives long after I was gone.

Before building a new world in Virtual Reality we should look at the fundamentals. We need to ask some basic questions about the nature of our endeavours and what we want to achieve. Only then will we be able to build an authentic environment that truly reflects its inhabitants and their aspirations, rather than one that just mimics a less than perfect reality from whence it was born.

In mainstream reality we squander our opportunities time and time again. Take London, the city of my birth and where I have lived for over forty years. Half a century ago much of it was razed to the ground. Taking the ‘every cloud has a silver lining’tack, we had a unique opportunity to restore it to its former glory. Unfortunately the result makes most Londoners secretly wish for another aspiring megalomaniac to bomb it all over again. Only this time to do it on a weekend that everyone’s out of town.

So fellow citizens of Sherwood. I hope that this column will offer you some inspiration for your efforts in building Sherwood Towne into an exemplary virtual community. If I manage to create an awareness of the deeper issues that this new world opens up for us and the role of Virtual Architecture in dealing with them, then I will have succeeded in my task. I look forward to meeting you all down-town at some time in the future.
Stuart Gold Bsc.(Hons) Dip.Arch RIBA

Sherwood Towne Architect

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Sherwood Towne
TheU Virtual University
The Contact Consortium

©Bauer Gold Associates - 1996


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