Author(s): Farre Nixon
The digital twin – a virtual representation reflecting the state of a physical entity – is rapidly becoming an indispensable tool across several enterprises including architecture. While many investigations into commercial applications of the technology are underway, little to no research demonstrates its potential as a pedagogical or community-engaged tool. This paper explores an innovative approach to digital twin implementation conducted by graduate students within their local community. The approach enlists the technical proficiencies of landscape architecture students towards the “twinning” of a series of local neighborhood blocks. Students were challenged to collect memories from people living and working onsite, and to creatively incorporate them into the digital twin. Further, students engaged in worldbuilding by leveraging the interaction and virtual reality capabilities within Unity to contextualize their digital twins. This way, rather than serving solely as a tool for optimization, the digital twin becomes a platform for storytelling. This approach reveals another potential for digital twins: serving as archives of the observable and embodied aspects of the built and natural environment, from both human and non-human perspectives. This paper presents examples of student work as outcomes of this approach, and concludes with additional reflections on pedagogical methods, emerging inquiries, and next steps.
Volume Editors
ISBN
978-1-944214-49-4