A flashy new concept design has demonstrated what the top gaming houses might look like in the future.
Design firm Populous showed off the idea at Wired Live the Tate Modern in London in November.
The house includes sections for pro esports players to live in and other areas for fans to experience and watch matches.
Firstly, at street level, there’s a landscaped area for the public which includes a skate park and climbing wall. This is designed to draw people in on non-event days. Inside there’s an ampitheatre in the foot of the building will host esports events for fans, with big screens showing the action. Then there’s ‘The Cave’ which allows fans to watch esports matches on ‘an expansive LED surface which envelops the hippodrome’.
The players themselves would be housed in ‘The Egg’, a room suspended from trusses in a hollowed-out theatre building, set adjacent to the main structure.
The two-tower design would incorporate two pre-existing buildings: one, a former cinema reconfigured to house an events space, interactive exhibition and retail experience; and two, the team’s business headquarters.
To counteract the fatiguing effect dimly-lit rooms can have, the living spaces in the gaming house of the future are designed to be ‘open and flooded’ with daylight, and there are two garden areas for players.
Populous’ Christopher Lee presents the Gaming House of the Future at #WIREDLive https://t.co/Cg0agrQpl3 pic.twitter.com/20eQssJeru
— Populous (@Populous) November 1, 2018
The gaming house of the future would also have ‘Refuelling and Healing Stations’. Players would follow a nutrition programme and be cared for by a team of specialist doctors, physiotherapists and sports psychologists.
Populous also designed the multi-million pound Esports Stadium Arlington in Texas, which opened its doors the other week.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
