Reimagining London in Fortnite

Architecture and video games are kindred fields, with people educated in the former designing environments for the latter, with books and exhibitions devoted to the virtual worlds of video games, and with world-building games like Minecraft being some of the most popular types of video games. While they are important elements in video games, architecture and the related fields of landscape architecture and urban planning are rarely the subjects of such games, at least outside of such classics as SimCity. 

So last week's news about the collaboration between ZHA and Epic Games is as surprising as it is welcoming. As explained in the below video by The B1M, Fortnite players combine variations of six different modules, or voxels, to create residential, commercial and office buildings, as well as parks, walkways and freestanding structures, placing them within one of four London districts — Puddle Dock, Trig Wharf, Blackfriar's Bridge, and Bankside — that are modeled on the existing city. How the voxels are placed next to each other and other physical elements determines the scoring in the game. Ultimately, Epic Games hopes the user-generated environments “inspire players to envision how future cities could be more walkable, vibrant, green, and sustainable.”