Okay, so this blog post is a bit of a deviation from the norm. See, the building I want to talk about doesn’t physically exist – it’s from a video game. However unrealistic and impractical this structure may be, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to write about Alcamoth, the floating city from the video game Xenoblade Chronicles.

To give some context to those of who haven’t played this game (which I would highly recommend, by the way), this city is the capital of a technologically advanced empire, and I think the design of it communicates that quite well. The obvious focal point is a lofty, bright white tower, which looms over the group of smaller disk-like sections of the city. It’s a fitting metaphor for an empire dominating over other regions (though by this point in the game it’s clear that the empire is not nearly so powerful). Plus I just love the concept of a city floating above the rest of the world. It was worth taking a break from the in-game goal at hand just to look and wonder at Alcamoth.

Again, it’s not a real building, but it’s a real design and I think it’s a cool architectural example of what kind of aesthetic can be accomplished without real-world limits. Here are a few more images, without the main character standing in the way: