Tag: Linden Homes

On Thursday, March 3rd, Linden Lab released the Newbrooke theme of Premium Membership Linden homes.

Our concept of a modern container home community is stylish, warm, and inviting, while being nestled in a contemporary setting of rolling hills peppered with small lakes, ponds, and public pools.

All of the Newbrooke regions are offered in both 1024sqm and 512sqm sized parcels.   In total, there are 8 stylish house models to choose from, and the smaller 512sqm parcel homes can also be placed on a 1024sqm parcel, giving you a larger outdoor area.

from the announcement on the release

The Newbrooke was first previewed in December 2021 during the Christmas Expo (see: Previewing the Linden Homes “Newbrooke” theme) only to be somewhat quickly withdrawn for “update” following some unfavourable feedback. I’m not sure what the problem was with the theme – whilst somewhat reminiscent of the Meadowbank theme of the original Linden Homes, I personally felt this theme have a good amount going for it.

I’m not entirely sure what has changed with the theme since its preview; from my wandering around I couldn’t see that much that has changed (keeping in mind the preview was just a single region, so hard to judge the overall environment). Certainly, the houses all appear to be the same models – a total of eight styles, split between four designs requiring 1024 sq m parcels and four that can be used on either 512 sq m parcels or on the 1024 sq m parcels:

Styles available for both 512 sq m and 1024 sq m Parcels

• Denver: a single-storey rectangular design with a central front entrance directly accessing a large main room with doors to the side aspect covered terrace, and a front hallway accessing two further rooms.
• Ender: a two-storey property featuring a large open-plan ground floor with a single bedroom upstairs, together with a large landing that provides access to a balcony at the front of the house.
• Faraday: a single-storey house with central front entrance opening onto the main central room with doors to the rear patio.  This main room is flanked by two rooms to one side and an open-plan space to the other, which also provides access to a third room.
• Gatewood: a two-storey house with front entrance and vestibule opening onto the main room, with a smaller room opening off of it to one side. A staircase leads up to a single bedroom with doors opening onto a large rooftop balcony with views to three sides.

Styles Requiring 1024 sq m Parcels

• Bradbury: a single-storey house with a large central main room with multiple doors to the rear aspect accessing the patio and an open plan extension to one side that could be split into a separate room. Two further rooms open off of the other side of the front door for additional space.
• Aldridge: a boxy, two-storey house with a patio running the full length of one side and two-thirds of a second side,  each side providing access to the main ground floor room together with the front door. The latter accesses the room via an open-plan vestibule that incorporates the stairs and a door to a single ground-floor side room. The L-shaped landing at the top of the stairs provides access to three further rooms.
• Coniston: a single-storey unit with front entrance accessing a large central room with four rooms / spaces opening off of it. There is a small room with a view to the front aspect, two rooms with views to one side, one of which has doors to the rear patio – as does the main room. Facing these two rooms from across the main room is an open-plan extension that could be divided into a separate room, if required.
• Heaton: a large two-storey house with the front door opening onto the main room with two sets of doors to the rear patio. Dogleg stairs provide access to an upper hall with two rooms opening off of it with views to the rear. A ground floor hall with windows to the front aspect provides access to an open-plan space with a further room opening off of it to the front.

Given the split of houses, when ordering through the website, make sure you request the correct parcel sizes to suit your needs!

As I noted in my preview piece, whether or not these “container” style homes are somewhat inspired by Meadowbrook or not doesn’t really matter; I personally rate them as light and airy builds in terms of their interiors, with plenty of windows. The floor plans tend to lean towards a more open-plan design with several of the styles, which might a reflection on the popularity of the open-plan variants of some of the previous Linden Home themes that have been released.

One thing I have changed my mind on is that while seeing the houses on the preview region left me feeling as though they would not appeal to me personally, having seen them in situ, I’m very tempted by the idea of grabbing one and having a play with the various styles.

The new theme is located on its own “island” group of regions, located of the west side of the Chalet regions as they have off the southern tip of Satori. This gives the estate room to grow west and north (with some relocating of private regions), leaving the Chalet estate free to progress to the east, should either / both require expansion.

Unlike the Fantasy theme – which marked the theme released prior to Newbrooke, this theme comes complete with its own community centre, rather than having to wait for one to be built. At the time of writing, this sits at the northern end of the new estate, occupying a large island linked to the rest of the estate by a trio of bridges. And, at the risk of giving Patch a reason to growl, the first thing that structure me about this latest community centre is that it appears to be heavily modelled upon (if not outright lifting elements of) the Welcome Islands variant unveiled in 2021.

There is nothing inherently “wrong” in doing this – but I admit that in lading in the community centre, and having visited the Welcome Islands design, I was momentarily spooked by a strange feeling of déjà vu, and half expected Gaius Baltar and Six stroll by discussing the idea that “all this has happened before, all this will happen again” (yes, an obscure sci-fi reference, just to see if you made it this far!) – which, given the faint Meadowbrook vibes to the houses, actually all isn’t that out of place for Newbrooke (and I really do not mean that negatively!).

In fact, if I can grab a Newbrooke 1024 in a location I like, then I likely will make the hop!

SLurl Details

• Newbrooke Community Centre (Newbank, rated Moderate)

Update: December 7th: The preview region has been closed pending an “update”, apparently due to the negative responses the Lab have received.  A forum note from Patch reads:

We have heard your feedback and we have decided to shut down the reveal region for an update.  It seems that this may not have been representative of our best foot forward approach we have taken with the homes over the past.  So I am here to make sure that everyone knows that we have not changed course, lessened our quality, mindfulness or retracted any of the heart and soul we put in to making these homes, themes and community building areas.  

Proof of the fact that I feel less present is actually due to how busy we are with continuing to do more, which is taking more and more of my time.  I am still present, we all do still participate in everything we can in world within Bellisseria, and we are always trying to find new ways to engage on everything we can, including some great Resident run efforts and projects that I know many are involved in.  

That said, the reveal region will be back Really Soon™ after we’ve put some touches on it to make sure our imagination is still reflected in our work. 

Thank you everyone from the team and I for being involved!

– Patch Linden, December 7th, 2021

On Monday, December 6th, 2021, Linden Lab unveiled the newest (at the time of writing) theme for the Premium Membership Linden Homes. I’m not sure what the official name for the theme is, but I’m coming to call them “Newbrooke” for now, as that’s the primary title given to them in their descriptions.

Comprising eight individual styles of Home, this theme has what might have once have been (still is?) called a “contemporary” look in the USA (and possibly elsewhere), and is interesting on a couple of counts:

• It offers a mix of houses on 512 sq m parcels (4) and 1024 sq m parcels (4), marking it as the first theme to mix parcel sizes since the release of the Trailers and Campers in 2019.
• The “contemporary” look to the houses, coupled with the general design of the landscaping around them is suggestive of an urban setting that carries something of a throwback to the Meadowbank style of original Linden Homes.

Given that the Newbrooke design is more developed in terms of landscaping, and the texturing suggestive of concrete and brick, rather than the wood of the old Meadowbank, the latter point is purely a surface resemblance, but it is one that tends to be enhanced by the trees used within the preview region, which brought to mind the Linden trees still available via the Library – although these are clearly nothing of the kind.

512 sq m Parcels

• Denver: a single-storey rectangular design with a central front entrance directly accessing a large main room with doors to the side aspect covered terrace, and a front hallway accessing two further rooms.
• Ender: a two-storey property featuring a large open-plan ground floor with a single bedroom upstairs, together with a large landing that provides access to a balcony at the front of the house.

• Faraday: a single-storey house with central front entrance opening onto the main central room with doors to the rear patio.  This main room is flanked by two rooms to one side and an open-plan space to the other, which also provides access to a third room.
• Gatewood: a two-storey house with front entrance and vestibule opening onto the main room, with a smaller room opening off of it to one side. A staircase leads up to a single bedroom with doors opening onto a large rooftop balcony with views to three sides.

1024 sq Parcels

• Bradbury: a single-storey house with a large central main room with multiple doors to the rear aspect accessing the patio and an open plan extension to one side that could be split into a separate room. Two further rooms open off of the other side of the front door for additional space.
• Aldridge: a boxy, two-storey house with a patio running the full length of one side and two-thirds of a second side,  each side providing access to the main ground floor room together with the front door. The latter accesses the room via an open-plan vestibule that incorporates the stairs and a door to a single ground-floor side room. The L-shaped landing at the top of the stairs provides access to three further rooms.
• Coniston: a single-storey unit with front entrance accessing a large central room with four rooms / spaces opening off of it. There is a small room with a view to the front aspect, two rooms with views to one side, one of which has doors to the rear patio – as does the main room. Facing these two rooms from across the main room is an open-plan extension that could be divided into a separate room, if required.

• Heaton: a large two-storey house with the front door opening onto the main room with two sets of doors to the rear patio. Dogleg stairs provide access to an upper hall with two rooms opening off of it with views to the rear. A ground floor hall with windows to the front aspect provides access to an open-plan space with a further room opening off of it to the front.

Overall, these are light and airy builds in terms of their interiors, with plenty of windows. The floor plans tend to lean towards a more open-plan design with several of the styles (again typical of the Meadowbrook), which might a reflection on the popularity of the open-plan variants of some of the previous Linden Home themes that have been released.

Whether the invocation of the Meadowbrook design (also noted in the related forum thread on the preview) is intentional or not, I’ve no idea. While it doesn’t – at first look at least – appeal to me, I have no problem with the Lab looking back at their own history for ideas as well as looking elsewhere. Who knows, maybe it will encourage some of those retaining an old-style Linden Home to finally ditch it and make the move to Bellisseria, once these houses are officially launched and available.

I’ve no idea when these houses will be made available – presumably some time in early-ish 2022, if past releases are a reasonable yardstick – but in the meantime, the preview region will be open through until the end of the Xmas Expo on December 14th, 2021.

SLurl Details

• Linden Homes Preview region (Linden Reveal, rated Moderate)

It’s taken a while to appear, but the Community Centre for the Linden Homes Fantasy theme has opened within the Bellisseria sub-continent established for the theme. And not only does it form a community city, it sits on the region found at the end of the sea crossing that links the sub-continent to the rest of Bellisseria; and area I had noted as needing a little TLC when I first made the crossing – well, now I know why!

Given its position, this is perhaps the most visually impressive of all of the community centres that have accompanied the deployment of each major Linden Home theme; whilst not in any way specifically “Tolkien” in style, with its piers extending out into the waters of the crossing, and the way it climbs to stand above the surrounding houses, it does tend to bring thoughts of Cirdan and the Grey Havens to mind when arriving.

The piers splay outward finger-like from a landing point that sits as a broad piazza at the foot the the grand stairway that leads up to the centre itself, which is a truly magnificent structure. At the top of the stairway are two tall-roofed pavilions that might at first be taken as guardians to the rest of the building as they stand on either side of the stairs. However, they are far from being built for defensive purposes: one offers comfortable seating for fellowship and the other a vignette scene that might be used for photographic purposes – but whether this had been placed as a part of the dressing for a wedding celebration so recently held at the centre, I’ve no idea.

Beyond the pavilions a bridge spans the waters of the channel that encircles the centre, reaching out to join with further stairs that rise to the main building. The first part of this might be seen as a reception area, two larger open-sided pavilions sitting before the entrance to  main hall, each with a curving stair that climbs to the terraces that flank the sides of the hall. Open to the sky, these terraces are themselves marked by the sweeping forms of two great stone arms that curve outward from the towers of the hall’s main entrance and then back to meet with its egg-like domed roof.

At the time of my visit, this circular hall was still set out for the aforementioned wedding, a nicely ornate alter and walk in a decidedly elven theme (as seen in the 2nd image in this article). I’ve no idea how long this will remain at the centre, but it certainly fits the overall theme. With or without it, lit as it is by a mix of candles, lanterns and glowing tubers, and with runes glowing along stonework, the hall – the building as a whole – is a place that has a genuinely magical feel to it, something that is enhanced by the local soundscape, making a visit both breath-taking when first encountering it, and also restful.

This is also a place with a hidden secret. Below it, and reached via the encircling waters (which also connects it to the rivers of the continent), is a carven of glowing crystals that only lacks one or two seating spots to make it a perfect cosy hideaway.

I have always enjoyed exploring the various community centres around Bellisseria. Each one has (obviously) had its own particular look to match the general theme in which it sits, and its own points of interest; however, as noted above, there is something particularly attractive / enchanting about this one that does mark it as a place that both impresses and leaves the imagination stirred.

Note: at the time of my visit, the centre was under the cover of night; as such, I opted to use a selection of daytime EEP settings to offer views of it in daylight. 

SLurl Details

• Fantasy Home Community Centre (Eyrie, rated Moderate)

The Sub-continent of the new Fantasy theme of Premium Membership Linden Homes started coming on-stream on Thursday, August 12th, with an initial three regions being release, those with more being made available from the 13th onwards.

These new Homes have generated a lot of interest since there initial unveiling at the SL18B event in June, 2021. As indicated during Patch Linden’s Meet the Lindens session, these homes not only have their own styling, they are set within regions that have very different landscaping to the rest of Bellisseria, together with a custom ambient environment across all of the regions, which includes seasonal variations to go with the passage of the year.

All of this being the case, the decision was made to keep the Fantasy homes to their own sub-continent, separate from, but still a part of (in terms of naming and location) Bellisseria. As such, the new regions ley south of the Bellisseria extension that initially housed the Log Home theme, and eastwards of the Victoria Homes extension that allowed Bellisseria (with the aid of additional houseboat regions) to connect to Jeogeot. This position gives a fair amount of room for southward expansion, should it be required.

The theme encompasses four primary styles of home which, as I’ve previously described, are:

• Amberbrooke: a large, open-plan central room with stairs to the upper level and front and rear access, flanked by two additional rooms. Upstairs are three rooms, with the central room featuring a balcony overlooking the rear of the property.
• Mistbrooke: a large, single-level house with central entrance hall flanked by two rooms on either side, the two rearmost of which each provide access to a small terrace / patio sitting between the wings of the house.
• Rosebrooke: central entrance hall, flanked by a large room to the right with access to the rear of the property, and a smaller room to the left. Stairs from the hall provide access to a landing with a room to either side, each with skylights.
• Stonebrooke: a turreted entranceway provides access to a large main room with access to the rear of the property and further access to an inner hall / room that in turn leads to three further rooms.

At the time I wrote about these style, I speculated whether these might also be offered in open plan variants as well, as happened with the Chalet Homes – and this was confirmed by Patch. Whilst the initial release will be of the the styles noted above, their equivalent open-plan variants will, I believe be:

• Angelspell: a variant of the Amberbrooke, which combines the large central room with one of the two flanking rooms to provide a large ground-floor space with a second room to one side. Upstairs, a wall has been removed to provide a large landing / open room  with balcony access, whilst retaining the rooms on either side of it.
• Moonspell: a version of the Mistbrooke, with a single large L-shaped room, and a single separate room in one of the rear wings.
• Ragespell: a variant of the Rosebrooke, presenting a large open-plan ground floor room with stairs and access to the rear aspect, a single ground-floor side room, and upstairs a single large room accessed directly from the stairs, and a smaller side room.
• Steepell: a version of the Stornebrooke, again with a single large room off of the turreted entrance, and a smaller front room.

In my original piece on this theme, I critiqued it for being a little too “English Cotswolds meets Lord of the Rings”. in form, and felt that – accepting the unique ambient environment (that tends to make itself felt more at night) – this theme was more tinkering at the edge of fantasy ideas rather than embracing them. In response to that comment, a couple of people noted that as they are, these homes occupy a comfortable middle-ground. Their general styling and environment means they are likely to appeal to Fantasy lovers whilst being reserved enough so that those seeking somewhere that is comfortably “different” and which does not belabour the “fantasy” element might also find appealing – and that’s a fair point to make.

When previewing the theme, Patch Linden indicated that some means needed to be found to allow passage between the rest of Bellisseria and the Fantasy sub-continent without actually physically adjoining the regions. At the time he suggested that some form of mystical teleport portals or similar might be used to waft people from one to the other. Placed within the community areas of the various Bellisseria themes, something like this would actually work. Currently, however, the selected method of reaching the new continent without using a direct teleport is on or over the water – a channel has been set-up linking Rigamarole to the new sub-continent. From here, one can either fly, or use the rezzing point if they wish to use a suitable vehicle to make the trip.

Linden Homes Fantasy ThemeBut route is not all plain sailing / flying: head away from the Log Theme coast and the shy darkens, particle clouds pepper the air, lightning arcs and rolling waves churn (well, as effectively as they can in SL!) whilst flotsam and jetsam float on the water and sharks await the unwary. It is all very The Fantastic Journey-ish, but it also works, as beyond the storm, you emerge into glowing skies and “calm waters”, with the fantasy realm sitting before you (although the bay in which you arrive could perhaps do with some TLC). I didn’t note any similar passages on the west side of the sub-continent, but I’m assuming they may come in time, together with a community centre for the new theme, which a certain Garden Mole whispered to me would also be coming…

It will be interesting to see what kind of take-up there is for these homes. At the time of writing, pockets of 15-20 avatars were popping up on various regions within the sub-continent. I suspect those who enjoy home-hopping and like to try out the new styles as they arrive will be keen to try things out. I’m also curious as to how many who have thus far resisted a move from the current Linden Home might be swayed by this environment – or indeed, how many might be persuaded to take a newer-style of Linden Home in general, now another Theme has arrived. Certainly, I understand that things have now reached a point where there are now sufficient Linden Homes to ensure that supply of most styles can in general keep pace with the demand.

Anyway. The Fantasy Theme is here, and the layout of the regions strongly suggests more are to come (and the sub-continent will hopefully get a coastline over time). So if you’re interested, go take a look. Or even if you’re not, you can still look at the Map and play, “spot the franchise / series / mythology” with the region names 😀 .

Links and SLurls

• Fantasy Homes release announcement
• SL18B Meet the Lindens: Patch Linden – a summary with video and audio
• Rigmarole pier and rez zone (Fantasy Theme sub-continent due south)
• Second Life Premium Membership page