When you talk to folks who work in the metaverse, one comparison often comes up: “It’s like the Wild West.” Take what you will from that. Is it a brand-new frontier for those looking to strike it rich? Unlawful territory? a location distinguished by the mysterious and cut off from the rest of society? Or all of the aforementioned. However, it is certain that folks in the Wild West did not spend $650,000 in cryptocurrencies on a virtual yacht.
Real estate speculation is rife in the metaverse, a burgeoning collection of immersive virtual online environments where users can live and play. Investors are placing their bets on Web3, a decentralized version of the internet that its proponents claim would usher in a paradigm shift in how we use the internet.
However, the value of real estate has been unstable. Winston Robson, CEO and co-founder of metaverse analytics business WeMeta, claims that land prices have decreased by 50 to 80% this year across the four major metaverse platforms: The Sandbox, Decentraland, Cryptovoxels, and Somnium Space. He cited issues with the bitcoin market and the real-world economy as causes of the decrease.
However, if you look beyond the figures, you’ll find that entire professions, from architects and designers to developers and real estate salespeople, are changing. Their endeavors there aren’t only limited to the metaverse; they’re already having an effect on reality.
Yorio said that although the designers were committed to the idea of having “no physical constraints,” almost all the homes have a sofa inside. courtesy Alexis Christodoulou/Everyrealm Everyrealm shared a first look at The Row in a series of renderings and videos. American artist Daniel Arsham’s design included an interpretation of classical sculpture. Polished exteriors contrast with a raw clay-like interior, where old and new classic designs meet. courtesy Daniel Arsham/Everyrealm A cantilevered home by Alexis Christodoulou Studio, which has made a name in 3-D design and has clients including fashion house Kenzo and Microsoft.courtesy Alexis Christodoulou/Everyrealm A close up of the Six N. Five design for The Row. This is only the latest luxury metaverse project from Everyrealm. The company, previously known as Republic Realm, sold 100 private islands in The Sandbox, called Fantasy Islands, and a superyacht called The Metaflower for $650,000 in cryptocurrency in 2021.courtesy Six N. Five/Everyrealm A close up of the Six N. Five design for The Row. This is only the latest luxury metaverse project from Everyrealm. The company, previously known as Republic Realm, sold 100 private islands in The Sandbox, called Fantasy Islands, and a superyacht called The Metaflower for $650,000 in cryptocurrency in 2021.courtesy Six N. Five/Everyrealm Everyrealm shared a first look at The Row in a series of renderings and videos. American artist Daniel Arsham’s design included an interpretation of classical sculpture. Polished exteriors contrast with a raw clay-like interior, where old and new classic designs meet. courtesy Daniel Arsham/Everyrealm Andres Reisinger & Alba de la Fuente imagined their property nestled in a wooded area with floor-to-ceiling glass. courtesy Andres Reisinger & Alba de la Fuente/Everyrealm The Row’s homes are sold as an NFT (non-fungible token), and architectural plans can be recoded and redeployed in other metaverse platforms.courtesy Andres Reisinger & Alba de la Fuente/Everyrealm American designer Misha Kahn created a property full of extruded shapes with a busy, maximalist design similar to his real-life sculptural work.courtesy Misha Kahn/Everyrealm Inside is a bricolage evoking a variety of textures and materials. Kahn frequently uses found materials in his work, but it being the metaverse, everything in The Row is made from scratch.courtesy Misha Kahn/Everyrealm Hard Architects designed a pill-shaped property dubbed “The Pearl” — perhaps named after what lies inside its simple and striking exterior.courtesy Hard/Everyrealm “In the real world, (property value) comes down to things like views and how high a floor you’re on and how expensive the finishes are,” said Yorio. “In the metaverse, you don’t have that. So what we can give (buyers is) amazing design.”courtesy Hard/Everyrealm
Building for the future
When George Bileca, CEO of Voxel Architects, was given some land in Cryptovoxels to play with, he was pursuing a career in automotive design after studying architecture and design. He utilized it to create a dealership at the outset of the pandemic to sell NFTs (non-fungible tokens) of digital automobiles created by his friend. After two years, Bileca now employs 25 people full-time in the metaverse.
According to the CEO of Voxel Architects, which has offices in Portugal, the company has created over 100 metaverse projects, including venues for fashion week, galleries for the auction house Sotheby’s, and an NFT production facility for the American artist Tom Sachs. The next step is an authentic Elvis Presley experience in Decentraland and The Sandbox.
According to Bileca, the initial stages of designing a building for the metaverse are very similar to those used in the actual world. An architect or designer meets with a client and creates computer or paper sketches of ideas. Once a design has been decided upon, it is 3D sculpted using conventional design tools while adhering to the design specifications of the metaverse it will inhabit (different metaverses use different building blocks, and have different texture and color ranges).
Coding then starts. Bileca said, “The build is nothing more than an empty carcass. We layer functionality, such as the ability to interact with artwork, access doors, and construct bespoke user interfaces, gaming quests, and other interactive features, on top of that shell. It is then deployed into a metaverse once finished.
The studio charges an hourly rate for its work, with some projects costing hundreds of thousands of dollars. According to Bileca, who would not name the customer, the most expensive project costing close to $500,000 was for planning, developing, and deploying a development in The Sandbox.
