Author(s): Mariam Tharwat, Chris Perry & Carla Leitao
Commonly understood as the ‘spatial and immersive’ internet, the Metaverse has become a hackneyed term in technology and design. For architecture, the Metaverse has become a tabula rasa for experimentation, in which the conventional constraints of gravity and geography are nonexistent. However, there is a lack of critical discourse as to how it will be designed and the types of architectural expertise that will be applied to its development, which raises interesting questions regarding architecture’s agency as a new space of design practice in the Metaverse. As a response to such questions, the research outlines a methodological approach developed in three parts: examining current architectural practices, comparing virtual architecture precedents, and implementing a final design project. Architectural projects in the Metaverse generally take the form of virtual buildings and landscapes, thereby replicating the design of the physical world. However, the research aims to move beyond a conception of the digital world as a simulation of its physical twin, focusing instead on the development of a new spatial paradigm for a different kind of virtual architecture. For context, the research examines historical precedents in architecture, alongside contemporary forms of experimental design thinking that underscore the importance of conceiving architecture as a generalist discipline capable of moving across disciplinary boundaries. The resultant project from the research introduces a new interdisciplinary archetype as a means of rethinking architectural space in the Metaverse. Ultimately, the purpose of the research is to develop new and innovative ways of thinking about and producing architectural space in virtual reality. The lack of such innovation in the Metaverse represents the most recent opportunity for the discipline of architecture to establish new forms of practice in an increasingly digital age.
Volume Editors
ISBN
978-1-944214-49-4