Architecture is molded by society and society is shaped by its built context.  A feedback loop ties cultural media to architecture. This symbiotic relationship has been at play for millennia. However, over the past 150 years, the emergence, proliferation, and accessibility of new media such as recorded audio, cinema, comic books, and personal computing have accelerated this cyclical relationship. The fanciful projections of a galaxy far, far away are not too difficult to find literally and figuratively formalized in current architectural praxis. More recently, video games have rapidly become an interactive, visual medium with revenues that surpass those of the film and music industry combined. With such a rapid traction, what will the impacts of this emergent medium be on architecture?

In this Olio, we will examine how video games as a medium have enlightened the public about the built environment of the past, offered heightened awareness of our current urban context, and presented inspiration for the future directions of architecture. A relatively nascent medium, video games have rapidly transitioned from cultural pariah to architectural prophet over the past 50 years. That video games serve as an interactive proxy for the real world is merely a gateway into just how pervasive the medium is. It influences how we form our opinions and expectations of our built environment. If architecture is a synthesis of cultural value and video games are a dominant cultural medium of today, how will they influence the architecture of tomorrow?