These Architects Are Using Video Games to Rethink Modern Living

How the future of building might very well emerge through Minecraft and other popular gaming platforms.

Image courtesy Fletcher Studio | Edited by Michael Stahl

Near the small town of Point Arena, about three hours north of San Francisco, there’s a new kind of memorial ground being built. It’s not for the 450 folks who call the town home today; it will allow people to spread their loved ones’ ashes in the roots of a tree that will stand among the towering redwood forests. The goal of these new “spreading forests,” as they are called by Sandy Gibson, founder of Better Place Forests, the company that is building them, is to replace the bleak environment associated with death with the peaceful experience of a hike in the woods.

In 2015, Gibson’s company Better Place Forests hired Fletcher Studio to design their first spreading forest in Mendocino County. Tasked with designing something without precedent, principal landscape architect David Fletcher, 50, approached the design like he does most projects now: by using video-game development software.

Fletcher’s preference for designing in a game…