THE SEARCH FOR AN ELYSIAN PLAIN.{#A01}

Exploring for the Curious Designer.

F.D.I

Mar 11, 2022

“The Elysian plain...where life is easiest for men. No snow is there, nor heavy storm, nor ever rain, but ever does Ocean send up blasts of the shrill-blowing West Wind that they may give cooling to men.”

That’s an excerpt from the Greek writer Homer’s epic, “odyssey” which recounts the struggles of a relentless man fighting against all odds to make it to his home. While Architecture might draw some philosophical lines to the story and whatnot, the reason for my fascination with this part of the book is that with all the struggles Homer went through, at a point he looked forward not to home or family, but to a fabled plain where life was the easiest for men. Enter THE METAVERSE.(not really but to each his plain).

WHAT IS THE METAVERSE.

Derived from a 1992 sci-fi novel “Snowcrash”, “Metaverse” which was first used by Neal Stephenson as a sequel to the Internet, it encompasses Stephenson’s vision of how a digital world might evolve in the near future. This world would supposedly not be bound by the laws and rules of reality we all have come to be familiar with, but by a never-ending, ever-evolving set of 1’s and 0’s that would make the seemingly impossible un-seemingly simple, an endless open sea (winks) of limitless possibilities, and to architects who have always converted dreams and distant thoughts to well-planned and tangible reality, the sandbox (winks again) of creativity has been pushed so far that thinking in the box would literally now be impossible for even the least sharp minds… A playing field where we all get our own playing field with a black hole leading to everyone else's field. A universe transcending limitations and throwing them right out the window. But enough with my sensationalism.

WHY IS THE METAVERSE RELEVANT TO ARCHITECTS.

Michael Beneville opened his design studio in the Flatiron district of New York City ten years ago. The renovated two-floor office has 20-foot-high ceilings, custom furniture, and a wall of arched windows. Beneville and his team haven’t been inside the studio together regularly for months—at least not physically. The employees of the small creative studio, known for its design work on immersive experiences like Las Vegas’s mega–entertainment complex AREA15, are scattered across the country, but they regularly gather in a virtual replica of the studio for meetings, sitting around a digital table, their avatars carrying digital cups of coffee.”1

Architecture is one of the basic elements in the Metaverse world. In the virtual world, people can walk around in digital form and chat and interact with other users. Architecture is the basic scene of these activities. The three-dimensional properties and design methods of the building itself determine the natural connection between the building and the 3D visualization technology, and also make the building one of the elements that are easiest to migrate from the real world to the virtual world. Virtual buildings existed long before virtual worlds existed. Architectural drawings present 3D space. The construction industry uses design software to make three-dimensional drawings. With the development of computer technology, it is gradually integrated with software such as CAD and 3DMax. The computer model drawn in this process is actually a virtual architectural form. But the biggest difference between the virtual building in the design process and the virtual building in the current Metaverse context is whether it is interactive. The virtual building in the early architectural design process is to assist the construction process in the physical world. The virtual building itself is not a purpose, and the virtual building only exists in one direction and cannot interact with other people; while the virtual building in Metaverse is A scene where digital users interact.

In the virtual world, the character image will not be tired. Therefore, the use function of the furniture decoration in the building will be diluted. Their existence is more to provide users with as real experience as possible and create the atmosphere required for the scene. feel. For example, in a rooftop bar, virtual outdoor tables, chairs, and hanging baskets are not as important to virtual characters as they are in real life. Virtual characters composed of codes will not be exhausted by standing for a long time, but these furniture are very important for virtual characters. It is very important to create a relaxing party atmosphere. These designs will make the virtual building closer to the experience people get in real life.

For architects in the virtual world, they will need to study and pay attention to how they can expand people’s feelings in specific spaces. XR immersive experience expands the scope and possibilities of this experience to a certain extent, allowing the entire environment, experience, atmosphere, and other complex factors of architectural design to be included.

In the real world, the most basic function of architecture is to serve human social activities, including housing, leisure, and social entertainment. Technological advancements have made it possible to replicate physical space on a visual level. However, in the virtual world, since the virtual avatar of humans no longer needs to consider topics such as eating and living, the function of the building will also change.

NFTs In Architecture.

Digital products are currently a $10 billion market, and for virtual assets to have genuine, enduring value, they must exist independently of an organization that can decide to delete or deactivate the thing at any time. As a result, NFT (Non-fungible tokens), the most recent use of blockchain technology, appeared on the market. The term “non-fungible” refers to the fact that it is one-of-a-kind and cannot be substituted with anything else. As a result, they regarded the significance of NFTs to be confirming the production of the digital thing as “exceptional.”

And that virtual creation may be anything, including digital architecture. Krista Kim, a Toronto-based artist, has sold the first NFT-backed digital house for more than $500,000. In many North American cities, this is more expensive than a genuine house.

Another popular trend in the cryptocurrency realm is investing in virtual real estate. As a part of the NFT market frenzy that began in early 2021, the value of a blockchain-based real estate in virtual worlds has skyrocketed. A plot of virtual land in the cryptocurrency online realm Decentraland was sold for more than $900,000 on the open market. People may showcase their NFT art collections, wander around with buddies, explore buildings, and attend an event in virtual environments such as Sandbox, Decentraland, and Somnimum Space.

Many people believe this is a scam, and the framework may be early, but it is an intriguing and potentially lucrative arena for designers to utilize their design abilities in the real world and expand them into the virtual world.

To Close… (for now)

Lara Lesmes of Space Popular believes that architecture creates a new language in virtual space. Take virtual characters participating in online activities as an example. These participants may not need digital tables and chairs, but “code and atmosphere are necessary. This is architecture as a language. Virtual buildings and furniture do more than just let us sit To protect us from the weather, they also convey a lot of environmental and atmospheric information.”The virtual environment is bringing architectural design to the forefront of architectural design, really critically thinking about the role of architecture in symbols,” she said.

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 Take the NFT encrypted art exhibition as an example. It is difficult for encrypted art to be exhibited offline, but online, virtual characters can get an immersive NFT encrypted art exhibition experience in the virtual art gallery.There is a certain intersection between physical space and virtual space. In this context, the scene in which human activities can be built is expanded; architecture, as a profession may have its connotation expanded and creating a virtual environment may also become architecture. One of the designer’s job content, the qualifications of the architect will also appear new changes. Virtual reality is not only a tool for modeling and visualizing the physical world. With the development of XR technology, virtual reality will also become an integral part of the building itself. With the development of real-time game technology based on the new 3D Internet, the boundary between architects and web designers in the 21st century will gradually blur. When designing houses in Metaverse, architects naturally have the advantage of 3D thinking ability, because all objects in XR are 3D, and architects are good at keeping these environments in their own imagination and processing them, therein lies our advantage. And we would need to take it jealously to control our professional duties and applications in the new digital frontier.

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THE ELYSIUM LETTERS.

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