Architecture Games
Architecture games are the video games that let a player build the buildings and the spaces of the discipline of architecture, and they are the games in which the act of designing the building is the play, not the backdrop of it. The field has 3 families of these games, the sandbox builders, the city builders, and the design and renovation games, and each one teaches a different part of the work of the discipline of architecture. This page lists the popular games in the 3 families and says what each one teaches about the building.
Architecture is a design field that shapes the places people live and work in, and a plain-language reference to the practice of that field is what the pages of this site set out to be, so the games on this page read as 3 levels of the same work, the block, the plan and the room. The sandbox builder draws the building in the small unit of the structure, the city builder draws the work of the field in the large unit of the land, and the design and renovation game draws the field in the unit of the space, which is the form of the discipline of architecture at the scale of the room. The games are the form of the field in play, and the building that the player raises is the building that the discipline of architecture designs at the scale of the game.
The sandbox builders
The sandbox builders in the architecture games are the games where the player places blocks on a grid to raise the building, and they are the games that teach the logic of the structure at the scale of the block. Minecraft is the game of the family, and it has been sold by the hundreds of millions of copies, and it builds the building from a single unit of the block, which is the same unit logic that the modular building of the discipline of architecture uses. The player of the game learns the structure of the building by the way the block connects, and the game is the form of the building in the small unit that the Architecture in Chinese page of this site carries when the tower of the courtyard is raised in the layer of the wall. The sandbox builder is the game that teaches the unit of the building, and the discipline of architecture is the field that the game of the block draws in the small unit of the structure. The 3 families and the scales they teach sit side by side in the table below, so the player can read the level of each game before picking one up.
The scale of the block
The scale of the block is the level at which the sandbox builder works, because the game places one unit of the block on the grid at a time, and the building stands when the unit of the block connects to the next unit of the block. The grid of the game is the form of the module of the building, and the player learns the logic of the structure at the scale of the block.
| Family | Scale | Lead game | What it teaches |
|---|---|---|---|
| The sandbox builders | The unit of the block | Minecraft | The unit logic of the structure |
| The city builders | The plan of the city | Cities: Skylines | The order of the place |
| The design and renovation games | The space of the room | The Sims | The space that the person moves through |
The city builders
The city builders in the architecture games are the games where the player lays out the plan of the city, the streets, the blocks and the land, and they are the games that teach the work of the field at the scale of the place. Cities: Skylines is the game of the family, and it puts the plan of the city in the hand of the player, who sets the use of the land, the line of the street and the place of the building, which is the work of the urban planning that the Architecture and the Landscape page of this site describes. The player of the game learns the order of the place, because the building of the city is set on the plan of the land, and the game is the form of the discipline of architecture at the scale of the city. The city builder is the game that teaches the plan of the place, and the discipline of architecture is the field that the game of the city draws in the large unit of the land. The digest of the games that this page lists in the 3 families is what the Architecture Digest page of this site keeps current, so the player who follows the field in play has the page that carries the new release of the game.
The design and renovation games
The design and renovation games in the architecture games are the games where the player works the inside of the building, the room and the space of the house, and they are the games that teach the work of the field at the scale of the room. The Sims is the game of the family, and it has been sold in the hundreds of millions of copies since the first release in 2000, and it puts the design of the room in the hand of the player, who sets the wall, the door and the place of the furniture, which is the work of the interior design that sits inside the architecture of the building. The player of the game learns the space of the room, because the design of the building is the design of the space that the person moves through, and the game is the form of the discipline of architecture at the scale of the room. The design and renovation game is the game that teaches the space of the room, and the discipline of architecture is the field that the game of the house draws in the unit of the space. The page that opens the field to a new reader is the A plain-language reference to the practice of page, so the player who wants the practice behind the game has the page of the site to turn to before the game of the room.
The 3 scales of the field
The 3 families of the architecture games are the 3 scales of the field, the unit of the block, the plan of the city and the space of the room, and each one teaches a different part of the work of the discipline of architecture. The games are the form of the field in play, and the building that the player raises is the building that the discipline of architecture designs at the scale of the game. The table above keeps the 3 scales side by side, so the player can see the level of the building that each family draws before choosing the game of the level.