Microsoft Unveils Minecraft Model of New Campus > ENGINEERING.com

Microsoft Unveils Minecraft Model of New Campus
Emily Pollock posted on November 07, 2018 |

Minecraft character Steve explores the build of Microsoft’s upcoming campus. (Image courtesy of Microsoft.)

Minecraft is widely popular for its open-ended structure, allowing players to mine, build, fight baddies or explore to their heart’s content. That structure has made it a surprisingly popular choice for modeling real-life buildings, including Microsoft’s new digital version of its upcoming campus.

Microsoft’s campus in Redmond, Wa., covers 500 acres of land and includes over 100 buildings. The campus is undergoing a renovation, slated to be finished in 2022, that will see 18 new buildings, several new sports fields and retail shops. During the design process, Riku Pentikainen, former Microsoft director of global workplace strategies for its real estate and facilities group, was inspired by watching his son play Minecraft, especially how simple and intuitive it was to create builds and walkthroughs.

Microsoft worked with Blockworks, a company that uses Minecraft to model real buildings, to create a digital version of the new campus that employees could walk through and familiarize themselves with.

While Minecraft is less accurate and naturalistic than other CAD and BIM applications, it lets players move easily and somewhat naturally through buildings, as well as make buildings quickly and without advanced training.

“When you build in Minecraft, you…

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