Daniel Singh started studying architecture in Innsbruck in 2018. After graduating from the bachelor program in summer 2021, he decided to start studying comparative literature additionally to enrolling in the master program in architecture. He is interested in chthulucenic human-animal coexistence, which he investigated in his architecture bachelor project, but also in popular culture, fantasy literature and game studies. He held talks student conferences “Studientag der allgemeinen und vergleichenden Literaturwissenschaft 2023” at Bergische Universität Wuppertal and „Studierendenkongress Komparatistik 2024“ at Freie Universität Berlin. He currently writes his master thesis titled “Einsatz und Wirkung historischer Architektur in Videospielen”.
Of romanticised ruins and provisional shelters: Architecture in games after the fall of civilisation.
FROG 2024 – Talk
The first part of the talk (5 min) offers a general overview of different types of architecture in post-apocalyptic games, focusing primarily on ruins and shelters. I will draw on theories originating from cultural geography and architectural theory, as well as game studies. In order to understand how architecture functions as sign and how it relates to its real-world counterpart, I shall refer to the semiotic theories proposed by Eco and Barthes.
Ruins are very much present in contemporary popular culture, according to DeSilvey and Edensor, they are associated with both disastrous futures as well as tension, exhilaration, and excitement (see DeSilvey, Edensor, 478). According to Hill, they combine both fragmentariness and monumentality, and additionally capture human imagination, making recipients envision a past – or a future – for them (see Hill, 294–295).
Provisional shelters, on the other hand, are an architectural form which only emerges after an apocalyptic event, resulting in the necessity to ensure one’s survival. With the shelter, humanity’s claim to control the environment is rendered ridiculous. It is possible for players to build their own shelters in certain games.
In the second and longer portion of the talk (15 min) I will examine three post-apocalyptic games based on their architectural structures, following the mentioned theories.
Horizon Zero Dawn contains mostly modern or contemporary ruins, having been built during the last 150 years. Some of them are easily recognizable landmarks, serving as witnesses to a failed or defeated humanity and increasing dystopian atmosphere (see Bonner, 41).
Players can construct their own shelter in Fallout 4. These buildings always follow the aesthetics of makeshift shelters, demonstrating not only the scarcity of resources but also the population’s will to survive and their uncertainty about the current situation.
The ruins in Elden Ring are inspired by architectural styles that have been out of use for several centuries. According to Burström, this creates more distance than Horizon Zero Dawn’s modern ruins, since recipients are unaware of their appearance and feel when in active use (see Burström, 122). Furthermore, distance and monumentality create an aura of sublimity associated with the lost, pre-apocalyptic era.
Bibliography:
Bonner, Marc: Offene-Welt-Strukturen. Architektur-, Stadt- und Naturlandschaft im Computerspiel. Marburg 2023.
Burström, Mats: Creative Confusion. Modern Ruins and the Archaeology of the Present, in: Ers, Andrus, Ruin, Hans (ed.): Rethinking Time. Essays on History, Memory and Representation. Huddinge 2011, 119–128.
DeSilvey, Caitlin, Edensor, Tim: Reckoning with ruins, in: Progress in Human Geography 37.2013, 4, 465–485.
Elden Ring. Tokio Bandai Namco Entertainment, 2022, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series.
Ers, Andrus, Ruin, Hans (ed.): Rethinking Time. Essays on History, Memory and Representation. Huddinge 2011.
Fallout 4. Rockville, Maryland Bethesda Softworks, 2015, PlayStation 4, Windows PC, XBox One.
Hill, Jonathan: The architecture of ruins. Designs on the past, present and future. London, New York 2019.
Horizon Zero Dawn. Santa Monica Sony Interactive Entertainment, 2017, PlayStation 4.
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