VARC - A District for All things Architecture

[iillee]

Title: VARC - A District for All things Architecture Description: VARC will be a district for Architectural professionals, students, hobbyists, and admirers. I envision this district having many roles and projects under four main categories: Presentation, Education, Design, and Commerce. Project Lead: Luke Escobar, lukeeescobar@gmail.com Team: Just me so far Goal: Explore the possibilities VR and Decentraland provide for for the general field of architecture. Category: Public LAND Needed: Unsure, TBD Startup Costs: Unsure, TBD How will funds be raised: Unsure, TBD How will contributors see a return value: The VARC community will be able to showcase architectural portfolios for their own professional development as well as advertise their skills for hire to other users wishing to develop land. Attachments / Designs / Budgets : Coming Soon

VARC - A District for All things Architecture

VARC will be a district for Architectural professionals, students, hobbyists, and admirers. I envision this district having many roles and projects under four main categories: Presentation, Education, Design, and Commerce.

Presentation The Presentation sector of the VARC district will focus on using the virtual world to promote real-world projects and showcase work for professional development. This sector can be used to:

• Showcase 3D portfolios of individuals applying to architecture firms or schools.
• Showcase and archive 3D portfolios and projects of universities and architecture firms.
• Act as a meeting place between architect and client for design meetings and discussions over ongoing projects with a 1:1 scale walkthrough visual aid.

Education The Education sector of the VARC district will focus on building a library of resources to be used and referenced by architects, students, or enthusiasts interested in building design. This sector can be used to:

• Create a library of 3D 1:1 scale architectural details as a tool for understanding/studying how real-world buildings are constructed.
• Showcase and study the lessons of some of the greatest architectural buildings by building/showcasing virtual 1:1 scale replicas.

Design The Design sector of the VARC district will focus on facilitating in-world and real-world design projects. This sector can be used to:

• Explore, showcase, and document emerging architectural styles and needs in Decentraland.
• Host and curate project submissions for real-world design competitions both local and international.
• Discuss and document Decentraland's urban growth and sprawl. Theorize about new schemes and potential building codes and design standards for tiles/districts.

Commerce This sector of the VARC district will focus on selling skills and advertising products. This sector can be used to:

• Advertise virtual architects skills as designers and 3D modelers in-world to other users looking to develop tiles.
• Act as a virtual catalogue for real-world companies to showcase and promote products. For example, a lighting fixture manufacturer can upload 3D blocks of their products with its specifications to be used for in-world modeling or downloaded for a real-world project in the future.

I believe the VARC district can play a key role in linking the virtual world to the real world while creating a community of return users who will continually create content to be used in-world. I am not claiming I know how to make all these projects a reality right off the bat, but with the right community, this is my vision of what I see VARC becoming.

If you are interested in being part of this district or have ideas for other architecture focused projects please comment below.

[dclancy13]

That's a great idea! For consistency and to allow contributors to asses projects equally, could you include at the beginning of your proposal a filled in "District Proposal Framework" Thanks so much for your contribution!

District Proposal Framework

Title: Name of Project Description: Discuss in a paragraph the details of your Proposal Project Lead: Name and Email Project Team :Name / Email / Roles of each committed team member (list no more than 5 members) Goal: What does this District want to accomplish (i.e. generate revenue for its owners, act as a public gathering place, just be for fun) Ownership: How will ownership of the district be distributed? LAND Needed: How Much LAND will be required to successfully launch this District Startup Costs: How much (in ETH) will be needed to fund building the District (pay for developers / designers / marketing) How will funds be raised: Explain how startup costs will be raised to complete and launch the District How will contributors see a return value: Explain why others would want to participate in this District Attachments / Designs / Budgets : Upload any supporting files.

Many District proposals may be too early on in the development process to answer all of these questions but the idea is to establish a common rubric for submitting a proposal, to get contributors to start thinking about how they intend to execute on their projects and to give potential supporters an idea of how far along in the development process each particular proposal is. This will help them make a well informed decision in choosing which project to participate in.

[uvizhe]

@iillee your proposal looks interesting to me so I'm thinking to participate. However I've a few questions:

1. How do you envision a land owning in the district? Whould it all be a common property so it's use would be a subject to voting among stakeholders? Or anyone can use their land for their purpuses until it does not violate the district idea?
2. Why didn't you allocate any MANA for the district yet? How much parcels do you plan to get yourself? I ask because it seems there's still no other interested people and I wonder how big the district can grow if this won't change and we are just two landowners.

[iillee]

@uvizhe thanks for the comment and the interest.

This district proposal started as a summary of what I would like to do with my personal LAND. I created the proposal to gauge others interest and hopefully gather those with similar goals in one general area. To be quite honest, I have been spending the majority of my free time the past few weeks learning A-Frame at the expense of this proposals development, though there are still 2 months remaining to work out the district details.

To answer your questions,

1. How land is developed, planned, and governed will be determined by those who reserve LAND. As of right now that is just me. But if you should chose to join the project, you will have an equal say in how this district develops and is organized.

To begin, I envision the district is structured fairly loosely. Every person who stakes LAND will have the freedom to do as they please with their own LAND.

The only public LAND the district will have in the beginning will be a central Archive or Library. This Archive will house a commons of 3D models which will be viewable and usable to all members of the district. I want to structure and organize this Archive like any real-world library with stacks and shelves. Perhaps like this with traditional books:

or like this with miniature models:

or more abstract like this or the archive scene from the new Blade Runner film:

Each book, item, or object on a shelf will link to a 3D file, which once activated, will load into and overtop the space that was previously the interior of the Archive building. Hopefully something like the transition in this scene from X-men:

https://youtu.be/xxWXxa2nDPw?t=112

This Archive will be the heart and backbone of the VARC district and will be the structure that all 3D libraries are stored in and accessed from. This will be the first public project of VARC and one that I am working towards prototyping for the terraforming event in December.

2. I hadn't staked any LAND as i have been focusing on learning A-Frame and not too much on district development. As of today I have staked seven LAND tiles which I plan on using for the above mentioned Archive building.

I hope I have answered your questions. I am curious to learn why you are interested in this district and what you plan on using your LAND for if you join VARC? Which fork of the architecture or 3D modeling field motivates you most?

[uvizhe]

@iillee thanks for answering the questions.

I have a general interest in the architecture. I'm not an architect or a designer but I'm interested in urban planning and how we humans are being affected by the architecture and the urban space. So I want to experiment sometime in the future with different design ideas and the VR is perfect for a quick feedback since there are other people just like in ordinary street.

Let's proceed in rocket.chat or slack. I'm uvizhe there.

[QuillzLouis]

I'm interested in Chobury Collaborating with you on the archive, pls message me on rocket chat

[iillee]

Hello any contributors following,

Please fill out this contact questionnaire so we can meet and begin planning the VARC District.

I've set up a Sketchfab account for the district so we can upload, remix, and share model ideas while we are familiarizing ourselves with the SDK. Once you have filled out the contact form I will share log in information for the account.

If you haven't already, please join the VARC district channel on the decentraland discord and I will add you to the private channel.

[iillee]

For anyone following this page and not on discord:

======================================== VARC Startup Plan Vote Announcement

Decentraland has officially released the voting dApp for district startup plan votes.

Voting for the Decentralnd approved VARC Startup Plan runs for 2 weeks.

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Here is Decentraland's blog post on the voting dApp https://blog.decentraland.org/announcing-decentraland-agora-6004daec7dff

Here is the dApp. https://agora.decentraland.org/

Here is a copy of the development plan being voted on: VARC_DISTRICT_DEVELOPMENT_PLAN.pdf

Don't forget to vote with your MetaMask wallet signed in with the account from which you contributed. If you contributed from more than one wallet, vote from each one.

You can change your vote while the voting period remains open.

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