Pretending Architecture: The Journey Towards Verne Station

Abstract

This is a record of pretend architecture, a journey of fabricating fantasy in the form of a virtual environment that is an authentic fake. This is an exploration inspired by the many fictional stories that I have encountered in order to create an interpretation of a space station. Framed by the harsh reality of space and contrasted by idealistic viewpoints in film, literature and video games, the end result presented is a far cry from initial expectations. It is a means to an end; a way to explore architecture in outer space with the use of constructs.

Verne Station exists as fragments of experiences; attempts to understand and discover the intoxicating ideals of a limitless frontier ruled by the harshest of living conditions. By use of the machine, one has the ability to create complex virtual environments to simulate and visualize space architecture concepts; a field that has historically been inaccessible to many. By simulating different scales of artificial gravity design, the real-time exploration of designed spaces can facilitate a clearer understanding and more effective visual feedback of potential space architecture designs.

This is a thesis about coming to terms with not arriving at your original destination, the one you imagine and expect to reach, but instead, the real one which you never quite anticipated.