Kansas to Cairo

By David Sokol

With the whir of his fax machine, life changed for David Denton, AIA, three years ago. A message had come to the Marina del Rey, California—based architect from the Cairo design firm PUD Consultants, announcing its consideration of Denton as international partner to submit a planning proposal to the Egyptian government. PUD firm owner Amr Attia soon formalized the relationship with Denton while he was traveling stateside on an Eisenhower Fellowship, and the two studios have collaborated on several projects since then.

Just as Denton and Attia were embarking on designing the 130,000-square-meter mixed-use property Reflections, the American had learned about the virtual world Second Life. “It hit me like a thunderbolt,” Denton says, still smitten by the discovery. He recalls asking Attia whether he would consider using Second Life as a place to continue developing Reflections when they couldn’t work face-to-face.

After returning to Los Angeles from a five-week tutorial in Cairo, Denton’s and PUD’s avatars would meet for several hours daily and design in real time using Second Life’s embedded tools, which PUD then regularly recorded and ultimately translated into working drawings. The team brought those documents to Reflections developer Mohamed Abou el Enein for final approval, but the client needed only a Second Life flythrough to be convinced of the design’s quality. “He said he really understood the scheme in a way he had not understood [design] before,” Denton says. Currently, Reflections is under construction in El Sheikh Zayed City.

Denton says he and Attia both feel immensely satisfied by Second Life, too, noting the speed with which design takes place in that medium, especially compared to the wire-frame software Denton had been using. The pair had considered introducing the technology to Attia’s students at Ain Shams University, in Cairo, and were galvanized to do so after Barack Obama’s June 2009 speech at nearby Cairo University, in which the President envisioned forging online educational and internship opportunities between young people in Kansas and Cairo.

In January, Denton launched a Second Life—based class at the USC School of Architecture in Los Angeles alongside Attia at Ain Shams. Comprising eight American students and 40 Egyptians, the group has master planned a site nestled between the Giza pyramids and the forthcoming Grand Egyptian Museum. Most of the semester, students have eschewed the classroom, their avatars swapping knowledge of New Urbanism and historic public spaces. With funding from the U.S. Department of State, last month five of the Ain Shams participants traveled overseas to show off their work to live audiences.

While the Egyptian students are excited to use Second Life as a supplement to real-world design, Denton says the American students, facing poor employment prospects, may consider seeking commissions directly in Second Life. As universities and companies hold classes and do business online, someone has to be hired to create virtual storefronts and conference centers; Denton had designed just such a facility for McKinsey & Company, in fact. Denton says, “A whole new generation of Americans and Middle Easterners get to know each other at an early age, work together at an early age, and see one another in a more neutral environment.” 

 

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