The
Design Guide
to the
Metaverse
We’re all trying to wrap our heads around the metaverse, the emerging network of virtual worlds focused on social connection, commerce, gaming, and much more. Designers are already expanding that network and will continue to do so. Will we end up creating a world that mirrors our own or something completely different? Will it be a place of freedom, equality, and self-expression, or one of corporate control and environmental and social degradation?
Here’s our regularly updated guide to the evolving role of design in the metaverse.
How to Design in the Metaverse
Find inspiration and provocation here as you get ready to explore design’s new digital frontiers. Dive into the key questions and new concepts that will help you create delightful, safe, accessible, and sustainable immersive experiences.
The Rising Stars of the Metaverse
Meet the out-of-the-box creators and tech magicians who are shaping the future of the 3D internet. Discover how they are changing the business of design, pioneering new aesthetics, and building bridges between the metaverse and our physical world.
Profiles
For Multi-Hyphenate Designer Alex Proba, No Surface Goes Untouched
Founder of Portland, Oregon and Brooklyn-based Studio Proba sits down with Metropolis to discuss her expansive practice, marketing product design in digital…
Profiles
French Designer Audrey Large Aims to Challenge Perceptions of Reality
Large talks to Metropolis about the difference between digital and physical exhibitions, “vibrant matter”, and designing objects using cinematic processes….
Profiles
The Founder of Zyva Studio Talks Trans-Design and the Metaverse
Anthony Authié discusses recent work, his experience making NFTs, and the relationship between body, architecture, and…
Projects
For Andrés Reisinger, Dreamscapes Are a Necessity
The Argentinian artist and designer known for his 3D visualizations launches a new collection of work through an online exhibition and…
Projects
A Neon Pink Structure Rises in the Metaverse
Digital designers Benny Or and Cyril Lancelin discuss their four-story NFT environment, The Meeting Place, and the potentials for metaverse…
Profiles
New Talent: EXTENTS Expertly Weaves the Digital and the Physical
Through installations, conferences, and teaching, the Michigan-based studio engages critically with…
Profiles
New Talent: Space Popular Mines the Distant Past and Imminent Future
The kaleidoscopic studio reflects upon the ways technology changes our relationship to the world, history, and one…
Viewpoints
Six Virtual Experiences Worth Getting Lost In
Designers, manufacturers, and curators continue to come up with imaginative solutions for experiencing design—without leaving your home.
View StoryVR, AR, and New Layers of Reality
Virtual and augmented reality tech is opening up new possibilities for equity, collaboration, and access in architecture, interior design, and construction. Read our continued coverage of how architecture and design can respond to our new digital reality.
Learning from Game Design
Gaming is the birthplace of the metaverse. Find out how gamers have been driving a revolution in digital experiences—and shaping a whole generation’s relationships to space, buildings, neighborhoods, and cities.
Profiles
The Makers of Monument Valley are Creating Architectural Puzzles in VR
Designers Peter Pashley and Ken Wong are making a name for themselves in the gaming world by tapping into new portable and wearable…
View story
Viewpoints
For a Community of Gamers, The Sims Is a Gateway to the Real World of Architecture
Drawing inspiration from iconic architects like Frank Lloyd Wright, many fans of the popular life-simulation game are using it to design virtual…
View story
Viewpoints
Q&A: Konstantinos Dimopoulos on the Virtual Cities of Video Games
The game designer and academic speaks with Metropolis about how fictionalized video game cities can help spark more thoughtful urban…
View story
Architecture’s Digital Journey
The metaverse is the latest milestone in a long history of digital architecture. Digital renderings, BIM, social media platforms like Pinterest and Instagram, and world-building in video games—each development in technology has fundamentally shifted the practice of architecture.
Header Image: Designers Space Popular created Camera Balla, a 3D digital experience, to accompany an exhibition at the Maxxi museum in Rome about the Futurist artist and poet Giacomo Balla. The experience is available for all to access at cameraballa.net.
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