Interpreting and exploiting narrative as a sketch design generator for application in VE

The research in this paper focusses on how a narrative text can be the generator of an architectural drawing, or other architectural representation, such as an Architectural Virtual Environment. The drawn physical sketch has traditionally played that role. A particular approach to narrative has been important for some notable architects and their architecture. Ian Ritchie (2014), for instance, celebrates the use of poetry to describe the essential spirit of a scheme before any drawing is done. The work in the paper here describes the proposition to capture such narrative text in a systematic and structured way. We describe foundational work on how the captured narrative text has been translated into a contemporary, computer-mediated, design development environment. Different narrative accounts recalling a now demolished house form the focus case study. This case study is the vehicle through which the initial principles establishing how best to move from narrative to virtual representation are established and tested.