Abstract
This paper considers how certain abstract aspects of design might effectively be brought over from the domain of architecture and planning into virtual world design. Two issues are specifically investigated, the management of ‘awareness’ and encounter in shared spaces, and the ‘grounding’ of the virtual space onto a real geographical site to assist in the legibility of the space. Both considerations inform the sketch design of a shared space to support distributed working in an organisation, in which the user is aided in ‘chance encounter’ with others, and in which the culture of the space is made more visible. Finally, these two issues are integrated in a manner which acknowledges the increasingly local use of the Internet, and the possibilities for virtual worlds to help support physical communities. The main concern that arises is the importance of encounters with others that are unplanned, but also appropriate, be they for work or for social reasons, resulting in face-to-face meeting.
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Huxor, A. (1998). Grounding & Awareness Management: Two Architectural Principles for Collaborative Virtual Worlds. In: Göbel, M., Landauer, J., Lang, U., Wapler, M. (eds) Virtual Environments ’98. Eurographics. Springer, Vienna. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7091-7519-4_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7091-7519-4_7
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