Virtual Neighbourhoods
Ravensbourne 2019 - 2020
The Department of Architecture at Ravensbourne University has launched their end of the year exhibition entitled “Virtual Neighbourhoods”. The interactive display features work across architecture, interiors and urban landscape and takes a playful approach to overcome the challenge of designing collaboratively during the global COVID-19 pandemic.
Initiated by tutors Sara Martinez, Era Savvides and Paolo Zaide, the idea for the “Virtual Neighbourhoods” website was to develop a set elements and guidelines that would allow each student to participate in the co-creation of the display of imagined streets, spaces and future communities.
Visitors are invited to take a tour through the virtual promenade and buildings of the exhibition and to play/post their own drawings that can be created with the website’s movable tiles.
Parameters for a Virtual Co-design
The design for the Virtual Neighbourhood was established on principles of co-design that would allow all participants – from students, tutors to visitors – to collaborate in the making of the neighbourhood experience.
At the start of the design process, a set of parameters were defined that would allow for virtual collaboration. Each student was made responsible for an individual ‘pixel’ of the Virtual Neighbourhood and had to mediate the boundaries of their project with their adjacent neighbours. In collaboration with the tutor team, surrounding landscape elements were added to create the unique character of the neighbourhood’s street and spaces.
Architecture at Ravensbourne Y1:
The virtual format of this exhibition breaks away from the traditional ‘pin up wall’ and ‘model-table stand’ showcase, and fully explores the potential of translating architectural work into the virtual realm. Projects in this showcase are presented at a ‘real’ scale in form of a series of immersive neighbourhoods, streets and building interiors, and visitors can freely walk and wander around the projects and the world that has been created for them.
In this process the visitors are seen as co-designers, who can engage with a range of interactive elements that encourage them to create their own experiences and journeys. Embedded into the “Virtual Neighbourhood”, for example, are playful pixels, coins and tiles that provide ways for visitors to experience the neighbourhood, as well as provide ways to be creative and test the ideas of the projects.
Crafting a community
Commenting on the making of the “Virtual Neighbourhood” First Year student Josh Dalsan, says that the “coronavirus has forced us to stop and reflect, but to also look forward, and begin to reimagine what the future can look like.” Reflecting on lockdown, he says “being stuck at home has provided us with a different sort of challenge, one that will bring us together, albeit, if it is virtually.” He explains that the interactive aspect of the neighbourhood allows people to “visit the individual projects, and learn through selected imagery, the narratives that have been imagined by students from Ravensbourne.”
The “Virtual Neighbourhood” platform can be visited by going to www.architectureatravensbourne.com. It will continue to act as an ongoing experimental platform to test future projects and craft architectural ideas for the wider community.
Architecture at Ravensbourne Y2:
Project Credits
Curators: Sara Martinez, Era Savvides, Sonia Madgdiarz, Paolo Zaide
Project Team: Gintare Kapociute, Reece Murray, Joshua Dalsan, Beccy Waite, Jaime Bravo