Raphael Thys
Architects and interior designers are turning a discerning eye to the metaverse.
Architecture studio Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), known for its innovative and imaginative creations, designed a virtual office in the metaverse for Vice Media Group. Opened in Decentraland in March 2022, the digital structure brings avant-garde design into the virtual realm, with a sleek exterior featuring rounded cutouts. The first floor will serve as an NFT gallery, and the upper levels will be reserved for meetings and presentations.
Viceverse. Courtesy of Vice Media
One of the creative perks of designing in the metaverse is that gravity and the laws of physics don’t apply, said Morten Grubak, global executive creative director of innovation at Vice Media's creative agency Virtue Futures. “The brief we gave BIG was to present something that is pushing the boundaries of physical constraints,” Grubak told Dezeen. “The creative opportunities within the metaverse are hugely exciting.”
Grubak emphasizes the importance of aesthetic in the metaverse. “It's not about just getting in there and planting a flag,” Grubak told Campaign magazine. “We wanted to do it in style.”
Roar Meta Space
Emirati architecture and interior design studio Roar also believes in designing with style for the metaverse. The studio purchased land in Decentraland in February to open Roar Meta Space, a digital showroom which will include a commercial art gallery, furniture store, creative and business event space and an “experimental hotel of the future.”
Zaha Hadid Architects is another renowned architecture firm bringing its design chops into the metaverse. Known for its award-winning, eye-catching futuristic designs, the firm created an entire city in the metaverse in March 2022. All buildings in the “cyber-urban crypto incubator” are designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, including a city hall, plaza and exhibition center. The virtual structures feature the firm’s signature design elements of “curvaceous, sinuous forms and rounded corners,” Dezeen described.
Creativity is hitting new heights thanks to the metaverse. Digital tools have “activated an entirely new world” of creativity—one where “creations can transcend physical limitations,” Helena Dong, creative technologist and digital designer, tells Wunderman Thompson Intelligence.
Consumers around the globe agree: 91% believe that technology opens up a whole new world of creation. Kerry Murphy, founder and CEO of digital fashion house The Fabricant, echoes this sentiment. When designing in the metaverse, “we’re not bound by physical limitations like gravity and material durability,” Murphy tells Wunderman Thompson Intelligence. “It's the cliché that your imagination is the only limitation. If you can think it, [digital designers] can make it for you.”
