Illustration 1: Screenshot of a „Architect’s Post“ in the video-game Pharaoh (1999).
In the isometric city-building game Pharaoh, originally published by Sierra Studios in November 1999 and created by Impressions Games (a remake of the video-game has been released in 2023 by Triskell Interactive and Dotemu) the „overseer“ – the human operator – manages culture, economy, taxes, debts and reputation of the virtual city. Besides „food structures“, „entertainment structures“, „health and sanitation structures“, „industrial structures“, „religious structures“, „educational structures“, „military structures“ and „storage and distribution structures“ there is the category of „municipal structures“ – the public administration buildings. As the category already suggests: buildings in this category function in a municipality (in a local government area or territoral authority). The juridiction is confined to a specific region or district of responsibility. Next to the „village palace“ which is the main building of the virtual city to control tax and finances, there are the „firehouse“, the „police station“ and the „architect’s post“.
The inspection area of an Architect’s Post is not defined by a fixed grid radius. Instead, it depends on the patrol routes created by the road network. The coverage is determined by how far the inspecting architect can walk along connected roads from the post. To ensure good coverage, it is best to place the architect’s post centrally in high-density areas.
Once placed and plugged to the city, the „architect’s post“ has one single function: „Architects patrolling the city’s streets repair structural flaws before disaster strikes“ (See Ill. 3). Neither are the virtual Egyptian architects needed in order to create (advanced) buildings, nor do they have private clients. The architects post and its workers are not required for new structures; they do not build. The architects are exclusively responsible for keeping the local surroundings intact. The architect’s post sends out inspectors who ensure that structures in the city do not degrade over time and collapse. If a structure is not in reach of an architects post, it is at risk of deteriorating and eventually breakdown. In Pharaoh „Architect’s Posts“ are maintaining risk prevention facilities.
Considering the common association of ancient Egypt with grand monuments and architectural gestures, the virtual architects in Pharaoh are not spatial authors at all (unlike the operating human). In game, the architect’s post does not contribute to the construction of pyramids or mastabas (the „house of eternity“ pr-Djt in ancient Egyptian and مصطبة, meaning „stone bench“, in Arabic, is a type of ancient Egyptian tomb characterized by a flat roof, rectangular structure, and inward-sloping sides, typically constructed from mudbricks or limestone.). Pyramid and mastabas construction is managed independently through „work camps“ and „bricklayers‘ guilds“. One challenge in the construction of pyramids in Pharaoh is worker strikes. Beyond the strategic organization of supply chains and infrastructure, workers must be sustained by providing food, entertainment, and access to religion. Notably, architects in Pharaoh, unlike construction workers, do not go on strike.
Illustration 2: Screenshot of a scene in Pharaoh (1999). The description of the selected „Architect’s Post“ reads: „Our architect is hard at work. We have a day or two before our overworked architects are back out on the street.“
Illustration 3: Screenshot of a scene in Pharaoh (1999). The help index of the „Architect’s Post“ reads: „Large structures like storage yards, mines, granaries, temples and temple complexes, are prone to collapse. Architects patrolling the city’s streets repair structural flaws before disaster strikes. Architects are based in Architect’s posts.“
Illustration 4: Screenshot of a scene in Pharaoh (1999). The virtual architect „Salatis“ complains: „There are so many places in poor condition, I can barely keep up.“
However historically accurate, the reception of the ancient Egyptian architect in the video-game Pharaoh (1999) contains information about the conceptualization of the profession of architecture: The architects are described as permanently „overworked“ and can barely keep up with the „many places in poor condition“. But more importantly, their main vocation is to repair the local commons. Instead of making grand city plans – this part is up for the human „overseer“ – the architects in Pharaoh take care of the local structures and intervene (if necessary) case by case. The architects in Pharaoh are situative maintainers.
The roles of an architect as maintainer and locally engaged spatial care taker and their purpose of repairing buildings after their initial construction are reoccurring themes in today’s debates in light of ecological planning, the climate crisis and limits of growth. For whatever reason, the developers of Pharaoh conceptualize the role of an architect in the context of ancient Egyptian society not as planners of grand gestures (even though Egyptian architecture arguably is often thought of as consisting of almost unreasonably symbolic spatial articulations and ornamentation), but as yet another practitioner within a social structure alongside the administration, the police, and the fire station.
The „Architect’s Post“ itself has the smallest possible building size in the game: a single square in the city grid. It costs 30 deben (Db). The „Architect’s Post“ (the architectural practice or office) accommodates up to 5 employees. „The overseer of workers could shift some labor“ (See Ill. 2) to places that have less than the required employees. The employment status relies on the population of the virtual city and the relation between structures of production and reproduction. The income of the virtual city is dependent on taxes (which are adjustable between a spectrum from 0% up to 25% maximum), gold mining, and trade with other „Kingdoms“. The popularity of the „Kingdoms“ depends on the access to food, the tax rate, and cultural offerings including the festive pleasing of ancient Egyptian gods. Lack of maintenance, town fire, flooding and economical unbalances can lead to unpopularity, unemployment and debt. No matter how many „Architect’s Posts“ one builds, the city seems to be in constant „poor condition“. A local and equal distribution in every sector of the city, however, helps to prevent buildings from collapsing after time.
At the 2023 Venice Biennale, the German Pavilion promoted a similar vision of the occupational profile of architects as the developers of Pharaoh (1999). According to the accompanying texts in three magazine issues by the pavilion’s organizers, ARCH+, and its many academic assistants from several German universities, the professional practice needs to be reformed. Rather than focusing on constructing new buildings, the current state of the city needs to be maintained and repurposed for new ends. It was an attempt not only to critique the current state of architectural practice but also to formulate a positive program: REPAIR.
The video game, however, also raises doubts about the widely celebrated notion of architecture as repair or maintenance. In Pharaoh, architects are „just“ one of many municipal service providers contributing to stabilization. Stripped of their social role as political actors, artistic avant-gardists or infrastructural planners, architects in Pharaoh, as agents of repair, become relatively irrelevant. In the same category as the „firehouse“ and the „police station,“ the „architect’s post“ merely smooths the wheels of production and consumption facilities. What if repair is not as progressive as many contemporary architectural academics envision it to be? What if repair is not an alternative deepening of architecture’s social and critical dimensions but rather a neglect of them? What if it is not a counteraction to capitalist developments but instead aligned with the very tasks that capitalist development has stripped away from architecture—another division of labor? Deprived of its previous tasks, emptied of its political dimensions, and stripped of a social project, architecture struggles as a meaningful profession. Without planning and artistic autonomy, maintenance—however well-intentioned ecologically—becomes a social service devoid of the capacity for anticipation and material change. The construction and organization of the city and its society in Pharaoh are reserved for the „overseer,“ the managing player, rather than the repairing architects.
At the end of the final mission in Pharaoh’s „King of the Gods“ campaign, the player has achieved Egypt’s greatest architectural triumph and gloriously completed their reign as Pharaoh, thanks to the architects‘ role in maintaining structure—but entirely without their involvement in growth and construction.