This paper discusses the built environment of the Warhammer 40,000 universe through a number of architectural, anthropological, and cinematic theories. The aim is to underline the uniqueness of this setting, grounded firmly in British popular culture to its status as a global phenomenon. In addition to this, the paper examines the hobbyists’ engagement with modelmaking and its parallels with the physical architectural models used in professional practice.
There are several facets to the architecture of the setting of Warhammer 40,000. This has evolved over time, but grounded in the artwork of a range of early contributors such as John Blanche, Ian Miller and Jes Goodwin.
The use of scale models in architectural practice intersects with the hobbyists of Warhammer, and a practice of model-making – whether from kits sold by Games Workshop – or designed and built by gamers and model-makers has emerged. The literature around architectural models discusses the status of these objects, but rarely considers non-professional and non-design aspects of models and their uses.
The concepts of joy through making and re-enactment or mimesis are introduced by anthropologist Petra Kalshoven’s ethnographic study of tabletop wargaming (2012). Modelling terrain is a sophisticated and nuanced skilled practice within the wider hobby, with aspects such as design and materiality, conforming to gaming rules and accommodating the properties of the miniatures themselves, as well as secondary markets including 3D printing.
Much of the Imperium’s architectural language is rooted in Gothic and Gothic Revival architecture often extrapolated from early artists’ representations of the setting. Further examples make use of pod and capsules reminiscent of the work of Archigram in the 1960s or scrap welded together in extreme adaptive re-use such as is found in Earthship construction techniques. The arcologies of Paolo Soleri appear in the guise of Hive Cities, and the industrial aesthetic has a common ancestor in the British High Tech architecture movement with the external pipes and exposed structure of Richard Rogers and Norman Foster’s early work.
The paper will discuss the symbolism of the Warhammer 40,000 fabula, making use of theories of narrative and validation through production design from film studies where a combination of the uncanny and familiar allows film viewers and by extension gamers, to find a stable hook for how this dystopian future universe might work beyond the confines of their games.
Author bio
Ray Lucas trained as an architect and has a PhD in Social Anthropology. He is Reader in Architecture and International Lead at Manchester School of Architecture (MSA). Lucas is Author of Research Methods for Architecture (Laurence King, 2016); Drawing Parallels: Knowledge Production in Axonometric, Isometric, and Oblique Drawings (Routledge, 2019); and Anthropology for Architects: Social Relations and the Built Environment (Bloomsbury, 2020). Lucas is co-editor of the volume Architecture, Festivals and the City (Routledge, 2018). His current project is an illustrated monograph on the architecture of Japanese festivals for Bloomsbury (2024).
