Skip to main content

Serious Games Exploring A Virtual Library Before It Is Built


Via: Santa Clara University's New Learning Commons & Library
and NMC Virtual Worlds - Case Study: Santa Clara Island

Santa Clara University's new library building won't be completed until the autumn of 2008. But people on the campus can experience what it might be like inside the building, and offer advice to its designers, by exploring a three-dimensional model of the library in Second Life.

This model was created by the New Media Consortium, a higher-education-technology group. Santa Clara decided to let people use the virtual interior before the inside was actually built.

The essential challenge posed by Santa Clara Island was to design and build a faithful replica of the Information Commons and Library of Santa Clara University — then in the early phases of construction, that could be used by students and faculty at Santa Clara University to explore innovative ideas for the interior spaces.

The interior of the Information Commons and Library was designed to allow experimentation with ideas for a reference desk, classroom and theater spaces, group study and reading areas, a store, a multi-purpose studio space, and a café.



The entire process was timed so that it could inform the actual real-life development of those spaces. To fulfill that part of the project’s goals, the Information Commons was designed to faithfully match the exterior of the building using blueprints and architectural renderings to guide the work.

Northwest View
Looking from the Alameda Mall. Main entrance tower at right


And again...


Construction Updates - Saturday, Sep. 15, 2007

This site tracks the progress of Santa Clara University's new Learning Commons & Library. It contains photos of the current architectural model for the exterior of this new facility, information about major donors, the current estimated schedule for construction of the building, and a weekly chronicle of the construction.

Northeast View


Southwest View