Its been a busy couple of weeks. Thought I’d fill ya’ll in on one project I’m doing just for the intrinsic rewards. I’ve been enlisted as a designer for a Second Life project that intends to create a virtual model promoting a concept of sustainable urban housing units called Alley Flats. The Basic Initiative, from the University of Texas (Austin), established this concept that developed a model for housing units that would essentially fit in the back yards of existing homes and result in smaller sub-houses that front the alleys between the main roads. The home owner could then either rent the smaller house or move in and rent their main house. This essentially adds to the available housing while at the same time providing income opportunity while maintaining the character of the existing neighborhoods.

I’ve been working at creating a Second Life rendition of one of the two flats that are actually going to be built in Austin, TX. The intent of the SL project is to provide a center of information about this project that can be shared with communities around the world. Here’s the SLURL, but I’m not sure if the area is opened up for visitors yet.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Educators%20Coop%201/155/105/21/

I’d say I’m about half way done with a lot of work left to do. Turned out to be a much bigger commitment than I anticipated, but its pretty interesting and I’m gaining a lot of experience building - a skill set I’m sure could come in handy. And its kind of therapeutic as well. Open house event scheduled for December 6th

This entry was posted on Friday, November 23rd, 2007 at 10:42 pm and is filed under Second Life, social discourse. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.