A short effort at searching for architecture simulation in virtual words yielded no meaningful results, which means I failed to reject the null hypothesis that this isn’t a new idea. So while I can I’m going to claim that its my innovative idea of the week.
I’ve already written about using virtual worlds as economic testing grounds, but I think they’d be useful for testing physical design as well. A talented architect designs a building that not only looks good but also works well. The flow of people and objects within and around the building works. There are surely principles that guide designing around people movement and space, but until an idea is tested how can it be validated? And it’s hard to test a behavioral response if there’s no replicated environment.