Inhabiting Space in Digital City Models. Exploring Immersive Design in Futuristic Digital Environments

Juana María García Ladrón de Guevara; Eduardo Roig Segovia; Federico Luis Del Blanco García

doi:10.31637/epsir-2025-1318

Authors

Juana María García Ladrón de Guevara Universidad Politécnica de Madrid https://orcid.org/0009-0002-1621-8453
Eduardo Roig Segovia Universidad Politécnica de Madrid https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1984-808X
Federico Luis Del Blanco García Universidad Politécnica de Madrid https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7907-6643

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31637/epsir-2025-1318

Keywords:

Spatial analysis, Open world, Cyberpunk 2077, Digital Design, Virtual environment, Virtual city, BIM, Parametric Design

Abstract

Introduction: Nowadays we find numerous virtual environments that challenge the limits of the imagination. An example of this challenge is the video game Cyberpunk 2077, whose scenario recreates a futuristic environment based on a vertical distribution scheme. In contrast to the horizontal distribution schemes that we normally observe in open-world digital environments, a new field of analysis opens up on how high-rise virtual cities are shaped and designed. Objective: The aim of the research is to extract and understand the design keys that allow the space to be experienced in the most dynamic and immersive way possible in these virtual spaces. Methodology: The methodology uses the case method and seeks to defragment the design codes that make up this digital city, extrapolating them to the physical experience of real architecture. Results: By decomposing the video game and its contents, a whole mapping of information is extracted that allows us to understand the established design links. Discussion: It is observed how the visual language graphed in plan is insufficient to understand the multiplicity of levels that the futuristic city presents, being relevant presence of the elevation when it comes to understanding the space and the magnitude of its interconnections.

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Author Biographies

Juana María García Ladrón de Guevara, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid

Juana María García Ladrón de Guevara is an architect with a degree from Polytechnic University of Alicante, specializing in computer graphics for architecture from Polytechnic University of Madrid, focusing on architectural 3D design and visualization. As a PhD researcher in architectural communication at Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM), she is interested in the digitalization and graphic representation of architecture, and how it relates to technology and video games. Her thesis involves comparing virtual and physical worlds using a methodology that extracts video game design guidelines based on quantifiable architectural, urban, and social parameters.

Eduardo Roig Segovia, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid

Eduardo Roig is qualified as architect (2003) and PhD architect (2014) by the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid UPM, his thesis The Augmented Environment has been selected to be part of the Spanish Pavillion in the 17th Biennale di Venezia. He is a tenured associate professor in the Department of Graphic Ideation in Architecture (DIGA) at the School of Architecture (ETSA) in Madrid, UPM. He is also in charge of the Virtual Project at the Master on Architectural Communication and is currently member of the DOCA PhD Programme at UPM.

Federico Luis Del Blanco García, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid

Ph.D. in Architecture from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. Courses in Computer Science at MIT and Professional Certificate in Computer Science (Harvard). Excellence Scholarship from the CAM. He is currently the coordinator of the BIM and Computational Design workshops at UPM. He has been the coordinator of the Master's in Computational Design at UPM and a visiting professor at the Architectural Association in London. Previously, he has collaborated with entities such as Toyo Ito & Associates, NH Hotels, Real Madrid C.F., and the Madrid City Council.

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