The idea of immersive virtual environments and online interactions is not exactly new. Talk of the so-called metaverse has come forward in a big way in recent years and captured the popular imagination. Writers, futurists and technologists have posed the idea for decades, but it has always seemed a bit out of reach and felt like the stuff of science fiction. In fact, that is where the idea first originated.
“The term ‘metaverse’ was first coined in a 1992 science-fiction novel by Neal Stephenson called Snow Crash,” explains Ritika Kapoor, senior design professional with HOK. “The term described a virtual-reality-based internet that is evolving and is more immersive and populated by avatars. Today I would say the metaverse is 3D virtual spaces where users can shop, play, work, socialize and attend events. It is basically an extension of our physical realm into a virtual realm that we can experience using VR headsets, augmented reality or, maybe in the future, holograms.”
“At the highest level, I’d describe the metaverse as the un-flattening of the internet,” explains Andrew Lane, cofounder of digby, a technology and innovation consultancy for A&D. “We’ve become so used to two-dimensional internet experiences that they’ve become the norm. It’s taken a few decades for technology to reach the place where we can begin to experience the kinds of capabilities the internet unlocks for us, fully in three dimensions. Moving forward, the metaverse will offer more opportunities than ever to seamlessly intersect with and add value to our physical experiences in work and in leisure.”
Movies, like “The Matrix”, portray a virtual environment that is indistinguishable from reality. Of course, current metaverse technology doesn’t have us anywhere near that, but many might be surprised to discover how far it has come.
“If you would have asked me about the metaverse six months ago, I would have said I don’t want to get involved in something that’s just emerging,” says Matthias Hollwich, founding principal of HWKN, a global architectural design firm. “Then I was invited to give a lecture at Pax.World [a platform that enables the creation of metaverse environments]. I entered the environment and was walking around other avatars. I had to walk down a flight of stairs to get to my lecture hall. It was such an authentic experience. People gave applause and there was engagement about my lecture. There was a seating area and when I came up to a group of people, a camera would pop up and you could then speak directly in real life to some- one in another country.”
At that moment, Hollwich truly absorbed the potential power and utility of this technology, recognizing that the metaverse as a concept doesn’t have to be photorealistic to have utility.
“During the pandemic, we all became accustomed to the experience of two-dimensional video conferencing, but entering a 3D immersive experience can really bring us closer together in different parts of the world,” Hollwich says. “Obviously it is different from the real world, which I would call a 100 percent experience. Video conferencing is maybe a 20 percent experience, and I’d say the metaverse is 65 percent. And it’s still emerging.”
“The COVID pandemic really led to a loneliness pandemic, where people felt isolated and depressed,” Kapoor says. “There could be an opportunity for people to feel more connected as these kinds of technologies and even augmented reality and holograms evolve.”
In Practice
As with any new technology, the metaverse has the potential to impact the way architects and other construction industry professionals do their jobs. This may range from functional items, like providing new ways to look at plans—all the way to impacting the way we approach design in general.
“Technology already impacts how we interact with clients. You cannot show them a drawing anymore. I haven’t presented a drawing to a client for many years. It’s all 3D now,” Hollwich explains. “In that way, we use something like a micro metaverse in our presentations, but in the future we could go bigger. One person might be in New York and another in Washington, D.C., and you can walk through the same model together.”
