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Architizer’s 12th Annual A+Awards are officially underway! Sign up for key program updates and prepare your submission ahead of the Final Entry Deadline on January 26th.

In the most simplistic terms, the built landscape is a tactile, physical construct. It is real to us; we can reach out and touch it, feel its envelope, and affect our senses. Yet architects and designers are starting to shift their gaze beyond the tangible realm, pushing applications of architecture into new frontiers.

The term ‘metaverse’ first appeared in the 1992 dystopian novel Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. It refers to a virtual reality world that millions of people participate in via digital avatars, complete with its own economy. In more recent years, fiction has truly become (virtual) reality. The theoretical concept of the metaverse has spawned into a palpable world of its own — a three-dimensional digital playground where users can interact with each other in real time amid immersive, rendered environments.

As the industry navigates an untrodden and ever-changing digital terrain, architects eagerly explored the design potential of the metaverse. Accommodating everything from social events and virtual tourism to business meetings, marketing and educational endeavors, this new landscape has myriad functions. These six compelling projects recognized in the Architecture+Metaverse category of the 11th A+Awards demonstrate the creative possibilities of architecture untethered from the material world.

Yet, innovation is ever-accelerating, and architects are already focusing on the new frontiers of digital design (to reflect this, Architizer introduced the Architecture +AI category in the 12th Annual A+Awards). However, the following projects prove there may be life in the metaverse yet…

By XMArchitect

Jury Winner, 11^th Annual A+Awards, Architecture +Metaverse

Metacity by XMArchitect This metaverse masterplan is designed for a futuristic, dystopian world in which global warming has flooded the Earth, rendering it uninhabitable. The Metacity will consist of five cities, the first of which will take the form of a Möbius strip, hovering above the ocean. The city will function as a self-contained eco-system, featuring a gravity-coated surface that generates perpendicular gravity.

In this pioneering co-creation platform, users have free rein to build their own structures — it’s a malleable surface where imaginations can run wild. What’s more, the decentralized model rewards users who contribute to the construction of the Metacity through integrated Build2Earn and Design2Earn gameplay. This immersive, otherworldly environment challenges the parameters of space as we know them, encouraging users to build in extraordinary new ways.

By HOOMAN ALIARY X VELIZ ARQUITECTO

Popular Choice Winner, 11th Annual A+Awards, Architecture +Metaverse

THE AGENCY METAVERSE By HOOMAN ALIARY X VELIZ ARQUITECTO One of the unique draws of the metaverse is its ability to bridge the voids of geography. You can share the same virtual space as someone thousands of miles away — no arduous traveling required. It makes sense then to leverage this new realm as a business and networking tool.

Designed for global real estate brokerage The Agency, this ground-breaking commercial space is nothing short of astonishing. Embracing fluid, organic lines, the sinuous structure is a celebration of cutting-edge architecture, blurring indoors and out and experimenting with scale, light and porous materials. It’s an evocative backdrop against which the firm’s realtors can talk business and convene with clients and potential buyers.

By Unusual Design Studio

Finalist, 11th Annual A+Awards, Architecture +Metaverse

Unusualverse by Unusual Design Studio Defined by its amethyst hues and the glass globe at its heart, the Unusualverse is conceived as a plain of artistic community. A reaction to the The term ‘metaverse’ first appeared in the 1992 dystopian novel, but in more recent years, fiction has truly become (virtual) reality. of the physical world, this new virtual reality universe offers a space for creativity to flourish, at a distance from the pressures of society and day-to-day life.

The globe houses a tree of life, an anchoring force symbolizing rebirth, a stark contrast to the barren moonscapes outside. Within the globe are exhibition halls where artists can share their work, their spatial configurations morphing and shapeshifting as required. This virtual cultural hub is a portal to a realm of unfettered creative freedom.

By UKAssociate

Finalist, 11th Annual A+Awards, Architecture +Metaverse

Nature Bloom in Metaverse by UKAssociate A car showroom with a difference, this innovative concept space deftly combines reality and virtual reality. In contrast to the other projects in this round-up, the exhibition hall was designed for a real-world location: Yongsan-gu, Seoul. Created to promote eco-friendly vehicles, the metaverse fuses with the material fabric of the space, conjuring up new horizons of exploration.

The project has a streamlined spatial flow, seamlessly guiding users between various exhibition zones. Model cars merge with VR technology for realistic driving simulations, holograms illustrate materials processes and the infinite lifecycle of natural resources is brought to life through immersive 3D technology. This collision of worlds ensures environmental lessons, so vividly illustrated in the metaverse, resound across the physical realm too.

By HWKN Architecture

Finalist, 11th Annual A+Awards, Architecture +Metaverse

PAXTON by HWKN Architecture HWKN Architecture was chosen to design a virtual cultural hub by metaverse company Pax.World. Dubbed a metaserai, the concept was inspired by caravanserais, which were roadside inns and trading posts peppered along the ancient Silk Road.

Nestled within a rolling desert topography, the geometric structure is fantastically whimsical. Its architects were careful to pair the futuristic with the familiar — recognizable architectural elements ground users, while revealing an extraordinary new social plain. Checkered ramps traverse the levels. From the vast events amphitheater where virtual tickets can be purchased, to the glass-walled art gallery, open-air conference rooms, rooftop sports areas and gardens, the digital architecture elevates the experiential.

By ATRIUM

Special Mention, 11th Annual A+Awards, Architecture +Metaverse

ATRIUM Virtual Gallery by ATRIUM A virtual gallery showcasing the work of architecture firm ATRIUM, this dynamic, cave-like space envelops users with its curvilinear lines. Forming a rippling, multi-layered terrain, pale pink blurs into hot pink hues across the floor and walls, before cooling to white across the ceiling, where architectural elements hang in the air.

The walls’ irregular geometries ebb and flow around the exhibit pieces, which range from models of a skyscraper and a residential complex to intricate furniture designs. Ingeniously, users can view the furnishings in augmented reality through their phones, transporting items into their own interiors. An ingenious branding tool, the gallery expresses the firm’s architectural approach with captivating clarity.

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The long-held debate of hand drawing vs. computer-aided design may never come to a close, and in many ways, the conversation has only become more confounding with the plethora of computerized tools now on the market today. This debate sees a split down the line, with many continuing to champion hand drawing while others advocating for the huge benefits of working with digital graphics. James Wines, a big proponent of hand drawing, speculates that the reluctance of some to embrace digital mediums has to do with a “deep-seated psychological resistance to the cybernetic world.”

Despite the broad range of opinions and beliefs within the architectural profession, the overriding consensus is that both drawing styles have a place within the design world, and that their coexistence is totally possible. There are benefits and downsides to both: for example, the precision found in digital tools is unbeatable, whereas, the slower process of hand-drawing can encourage a deep understanding of form and ideas. Whatever your preference, designers can undoubtedly benefit from products that blend pen and paper-style sketching with advanced digital tools. Cerulean Labs has developed one such solution to this unremitting debate: The Spaces iPad app.

Whether it be drawn or digitally designed, the forefront of a successful project is the initial drawing that brings an idea to life. Accordingly, Cerulean Labs’ Spaces version 2.2 app continues the brand’s maintained effort of improving the conceptual design stage. The beauty of an app like Spaces is its merging of old-school sketching with modern-day technology. Pen and paper lovers don’t have to say goodbye to their trusted hand-held tool — they simply have to say hello to the Apple Pencil.

The Spaces app is built entirely for the iPad, meaning users can sketch directly on the iPad’s smooth interface. Users do not have to sacrifice the tactility, freedom and speed of hand drawing; in fact, they gain a dynamic set of new capabilities. While users sketch, the app works behind the scenes to create a workable building model.

“From the outset, sketching has been in our DNA, and the further we have developed Spaces, the more power we’ve been able to add to our sketching engine.” – Campbell Yule, Spaces Founder

The Spaces app encourages the traditional method: draw, revise, keep and throw away. Many conceptual design tools on the market require a certain familiarity with modeling, which makes the drawing experience far less fluid and natural. The Spaces app mimics hand-drawing by allowing users to sketch as they please, deleting what they don’t like and saving what they do. While users sketch away, real-time building and site data is being calculated, reported and projected as a workable model. If a user changes an angle or slope, the app automatically resizes the plan and provides updated calculations and measurements. The app does all the work so that users can tap into their creative minds and draw.

Once drawn, users benefit from a series of parametric design tools. Architects can add cladding, leverage the app’s Open Street Map data or elevate their project using precise sun studies among other tools. The conceptual phase – especially when drawing by hand – is an iterative process, and this app celebrates the beauty of trial and error.

The app’s numerous settings and features can all be managed quickly and swiftly, allowing the designer to focus on their creative ideas rather than the technology. Hand-drawing advocates often complain that navigating technology poses an unwelcoming distraction from the design process. Thankfully, the Spaces app’s clear and simple interface poses little distraction from sketching.

The app’s new digital sketchbook feature allows users to document their ideas as they traditionally would on tracing paper. Whenever and wherever an idea comes to mind, designers can document a note or sketch directly on the app. Equally, creatives can embellish and rework their designs by tracing over their models using the Apple pencil. Designers can even send snapshots of their models to the sketchbook and rework their design at their own pace. The app revives the incredibly useful tool of trace paper, but makes it more efficient, precise and hassle-free.

Once sketched and modeled, designers can then leverage the app’s project management tools. Spaces comes with tools to organize design briefs, create reports and develop project concepts directly on the app. Users can even import key site data onto the app to ensure their concept design is as precise and well-planned as possible. The Spaces app delivers professional results while not compromising creativity and fluidity.

Spaces champions architecture’s oldest tools, a pen and paper, and integrates them perfectly into a straightforward app suitable for all architects and designers. If you remain to be convinced by sketching in the digital age, give the Spaces App a go and see for yourself. The Spaces app celebrates the nonlinear nature of conceptual design by encouraging exploration and creativity, and is set to become one of the industry’s go-to applications as a result.

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