Archinect - News

Refik Anadol's Machine Hallucinations generative AI piece acquired by MoMA

2023-10-11T15:59:00-04:00

Refik Anadol has made history as one of two prominent digital artists to have their works acquired into the permanent collection of the 94-year-old Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City.

The museum announced its acquisition of Anadol’s 2022 Generative AI piece Unsupervised – Machine Hallucinations, along with the blockchain-based piece 3FACE. 2022 from artist Ian Cheng, this week. Anadol's work was a gift to the museum by the 1OF1 Collection (which is led by Ryan Zurrer) and the RFC Collection, which is led by Pablo Rodriguez-Fraile and Desiree Casoni.

Writing on Instagram, Anadol commended the museum’s curatorial decision, saying it “inscribes a historic chapter as MoMA welcomes the first Generative AI and tokenized artwork into its esteemed permanent collection.” The work was one of three made for last year’s special solo exhibition using a machine learning algorithm to interpret publicly available data taken from the museum’s collection to produce reinterpreted images that...

Maya Lin unveils 'Ghost Forest Seedlings' generative art project

2023-08-18T13:06:00-04:00

The artist, architect, and environmentalist Maya Lin is set to release her inaugural generative art project. Titled Ghost Forest Seedlings, and produced by Pace Verso with Web3 art innovators E.A.T_WORKS, the work will be released on September 18 to align with Climate Week NYC.

Ghost Forest Seedlings builds on Lin’s 2021 Ghost Forest installation, which saw 50 Atlantic white cedar trees placed in Madison Square Park to highlight Earth's fragility amidst the climate crisis. The latest artworks, each priced at $1,000, depict a seed or group of seeds that grow into an intricate root pattern over a predetermined amount of time. Each of the 500 unique works from the project will include three components: a signed print of the final root system, a generative NFT that shows the seedling’s evolution in real-time, and a video timelapse tracing the seedling’s complete growth pattern.

Portrait of Maya Lin. Image credit: Pace Gallery

“With Ghost Forest Seedlings, Lin explores the organic growth ...

OpenSea is now hosting a Nakagin Capsule model NFT auction

2022-08-17T18:29:00-04:00

Tokyo’s beloved Nakagin Capsule Tower may be getting its speculated second digital life after all thanks to a new metaverse project from the firm of its original designer Kisho Kurokawa Architect and Associates (KKAA) and the NFT platform OpenSea.

In an exclusive collaboration with the LAETOLI Corporation’s KABUKI-X venture, the firm is now auctioning off the rights to reconstruct their founder’s most famous Metabolic work in both the physical and digital realms only a few months removed from the neglected tower’s ongoing demolition, which began formally at the end of April. Bidders will have the chance to reconstruct the tower inside the metaverse and at the global site of their choice using CAD data and a digital model of the tower produced in Revit by design partners BDP.

Image courtesy OpenSea

Restrictions are limited to the local zoning laws and regulations of the country the holders of the ‘real space’ rights select to build in. This otherwise allows for the potential resale ...

PLP Architecture teases concept metaverse design for upcoming 5,000-piece NFT collection

2022-08-02T13:06:00-04:00

The cadre of high-design firms creating on-demand virtual architecture in the metaverse has grown recently with the announcement of PLP’s upcoming 5,000-piece NFT skyscraper collection, which they debuted earlier last month with help from VerseProp, a virtual property platform.

Ostensibly in keeping with trends indicated by its expanding digital client base, the London-based firm says its collection is meant to “bridge the gap between those interested in both digital and physical real estate.” An opportunity to design your own building alongside a PLP staffer is on offer as well, and they promise each building will have a “valuable commercial utility.”

Image courtesy PLP Architecture

Up for grabs are the owning rights to a digital token derived from a concept building design that PLP says will come embedded with exclusive content such as webinar access and even physical artworks. The firm is pitching this as an exploration into not only the digital design of buildings but also the ap...

Tony Hawk enters the metaverse with 'largest virtual skatepark ever made'

2022-07-19T19:13:00-04:00

After conquering the X Games and video games, Tony Hawk has set his sights on his next frontier: the metaverse. The legendary skateboarder this week announced plans to partner up with The Sandbox — an online game built on the ethereum blockchain where players can spend cryptocurrency to buy virtual land — to build the “largest virtual skatepark ever made,” the company said in a Wednesday press release.

Called Tony Hawk LAND, the virtual space is being developed through a partnership between Tony Hawk Inc. and The Sandbox. NFT production company Autograph will design purchasable avatars based on Hawk, along with his most iconic skateboards, equipment, and apparel, including a digital replica of the skateboard he used at the X Games in 1999.

Screenshot of the ramp-building feature. Putting those CAD skills to good use!

“I have been a fan of new technology all of my life — from the first videogames and home computers with CGI capabilities — so I am fascinated by the metaverse, and excited to bring our culture into the virtual landscape of The Sandbox,” skateboarding pioneer and entrepreneur Tony Hawk said in a statement.

Other recent metaverse creations and proposals that made the Archinect news included a virtual version of Liberland by Zaha Hadid Architects, BIG's virtual HQ for Vice, Grimshaw-designed blockchain spaces for pax.world, and this NFT of the Tower of Babel by Dewan.

Pr...

Refik Anadol's Casa Batlló NFT sells for $1.38 million

2022-05-11T11:32:00-04:00

A landmark of the Art Nouveau style is on center stage after Refik Anadol’s NFT of the Casa Batlló sold for $1.38 million at Christe’s 21st Century Evening Sale last night.

Titled Living Architecture: Casa Batlló, the piece was commissioned by the group responsible for managing Gaudí’s converted House of Bones last year and is currently on display in a larger format outside the Christie’s Rockefeller Plaza headquarters until May 13. It was also the lone digital-only lot to sell in the auction house’s marquee New York spring sales events this week.

Previously on Archinect: Refik Anadol unveils ‘first-of-its-kind’ AI artwork NFTs

A spokesperson with the Casa Batlló named Gary Gautier called Anadol a “perfect fellow traveler” and told reporters that his work “resides between art and technology, expands the possibilities of architecture and brings a new outlook beyond space and time.” Gautier also commented that the Turkish-American artist “connects past, present and future, reminding u...

Populous announces a new esports arena and NFT collection in its hometown

2022-04-29T20:03:00-04:00

Sports arena mainstay Populous is venturing into new territory after its announcement of a new five-part NFT collection in partnership with their hometown esports franchise aptly named the Kansas City Pioneers.

According to the firm, the collection is meant to showcase a prototype future home for fans of the increasingly popular potential future Olympic competition.

Image courtesy Populous

The new project represents the firm’s third official foray into esports following their 100,000 square foot Esports Stadium Arlington and the planned $500 million Toronto hotel and entertainment complex being developed in collaboration with OverActive Media.

Previously on Archinect: Populous and OverActive Media unveil updated plans for performance venue in Toronto

Pioneers co-founder Mark Josey says it will “[provide] access to authentic, personalized experiences, and build connections to a community here and beyond.” The new digital arena can be accessed via the metaverse platform OpenSea and pla...

Another day, another architectural design for a decentralized crypto republic

2022-04-06T17:49:00-04:00

A self-declared “crypto paradise” is coming to a remote island nation in the South Pacific featuring designs from Hong Kong-based firm James Law Cybertecture for what is billed by developers to be the world’s first blockchain-based democracy.

Located in Vanuatu, the 800-acre private island is named after Bitcoin inventor Satoshi Nakamoto and will be subdivided into seven separate “NFT zones” and 21,000 individual parcels that can be purchased exclusively as NFTs. The Satoshi Island development will feature a range of sustainability measures like solar panels and a specialized waste management system that combine with a goal of 100% self-generated power in a move away from the energy-intensive mining process involved in crypto.

The architectural design of Satoshi Island is based on a configurable modular base, which can be scaled up to allow for different building types and non-residential construction.

Residential structures on the island come in a vaguely Midcentury modular prefabri...

Why does the metaverse look so ordinary, UCL researchers ask

2022-04-04T10:32:00-04:00

Last week, our editorial team had some fun with the metaverse. While light-hearted in nature, our April Fools article was nonetheless inspired by the serious interest shown by our community, the architecture world, and society at-large in the metaverse and how architecture and design intersect with virtual space.

Now, a new article by UCL researchers Luke Pearson and Sandra Youkhana puts forward the thesis that the metaverse doesn’t appear as disruptive or radical as the underlying technologies it is often associated with, be it blockchains, cryptocurrencies, or NFTs.

Instead, the team argue that the architecture and urbanism of the metaverse appears to follow real-world principles of design and construction, despite the freedom given by virtual space to transcend these principles.

“People have always imagined cyberspace to look like a version of real urban space,” say Pearson and Youkhana. Th...

Lumber shortage hits the metaverse, leads to construction delays

2022-04-01T08:00:00-04:00

A new report released today by the industry group Lumber Supply Research Group (LSRG) reveals a dramatically increased scarcity of lumber in the digital realm as demand for the sought-after material has skyrocketed within the last quarter, leading to significant price hikes and delays in construction projects throughout the industry.

According to the report, average rates per cubic pixel of digital lumber have increased by 73% since the beginning of the year, marking a three-fold price jump compared to the beginning of Q2 2021. Throughout March alone, prices soared to unprecedented levels, leaving wholesale traders of the coveted commodity often without inventory and contractors stranded.

"What the market has been experiencing over the past months can be attributed to two major factors," says LSRG analyst Michael Chen. "One reason is the unregulated deforestation in Minecraft which has left entire stretches of old-growth forest barren without sustainable concepts in place to replan...

BIG unveils designs for Vice's new virtual headquarters 'Viceverse'

2022-03-02T18:17:00-05:00

Two giant names in the world of architecture and online media are now teaming up to take over the metaverse as Vice Media Group has announced a new partnership with Bjarke Ingels Group for a new virtual office space called the Viceverse.

The newly-opened space is hosted by the popular Decentraland platform where it will serve as a kind of virtual innovation lab for the company’s digital creative culture agency, Virtue.

Through its creation, the company says, Virtue will now be able to pursue innovative new ways of collaborating with clients that include brands like Coca-Cola and Beats by Dre.

Image courtesy Decentraland

“It's not about just getting in there and planting a flag, we wanted to do it in style with aesthetics and ideas when creating, so we teamed up with BIG,” creative director Morten Grubak told Campaign magazine. “It just made sense to make a space for ourselves where we can invite clients and collaborators to dip their toes in that space without actually doing a big-...

Now Central Park has a (temporary) solid gold cube installation courtesy of a German artist

2022-02-02T17:30:00-05:00

This morning, joggers in New York’s Central Park may have come across a curious, rather illustrious sight. A cube composed of 186 kilograms of pure 24-karat gold, conceived by the German artist Niclas Castello who has billed it as a conceptual “socle du monde” (base of the world) sculpture for our time, was wheeled out to the Naumburg Bandshell this morning at around 5:00am.

The one-day installation has its own security detail and will sit aptly in the Gilded Age landmark designed by Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted before a turn as the guest of honor at a special celebrity-laden private dinner being held later this evening on Wall Street. A special kiln had to be created in order to pour the tremendous volume of 2,012° F melted gold ore required for the 410-pound piece. The dimensions of the cube are about the size of a typical footstool, although its weight means it is worth over $11.7 million according to Wednesday’s market prices.

Photo: Sandra Mika/HoGA Capital AG

The installation coincides with the launch of a new NFT and not-at-all gimmicky cryptocurrency that the artist calls The Costello Coin. The project is meant to “be seen as a sort of communiqué between an emerging 21st-century cultural ecosystem based on crypto and the ancient world where gold reigned supreme.” Some might view its viral social media reaction as a preview of the splas...

Dewan's NFT of the Tower of Babel offers infinite spiraling exhibition spaces

2022-01-21T14:33:00-05:00

Dewan Architects + Engineers have unveiled Babel 4.0, a project which the firm with headquarters in the UAE describes as “the first architecturally-inspired NFT from the Middle East.” A reinterpretation of the mythical Tower of Babel, the project speculates on the role of architects and designers in shaping futuristic metaverse landscapes.

Babel 4.0. Image by Dewan Architects + Engineers.

Available now on OpenSea, the project consists of an infinitely-propagating helix form. Visitors to the tower begin at a communal space at ground level, before ascending anticlockwise through exhibition and museum levels which exhibit user-generated NFTs in a virtual museum. The public exhibition spaces are currently reserved for 100 invited members, which may be extended at a later date.

Babel 4.0. Image by Dewan Architects + Engineers.

The silos are intended as a platform to promote interaction between digital artistic communities, building on a renewed popular focus on the metaverse. “Babel 4.0 i...

ONE Sotheby's unveils new digital twin NFT home project

2022-01-07T16:37:00-05:00

Together, ONE Sotheby’s International Realty and Voxel Architects, along with general contractor and NFT collector Gabe Sierra, are introducing the first ever ‘MetaReal’ mansion that includes a real-world home and a virtual counterpart in the metaverse. The virtual home will live within The Sandbox metaverse. The buyer of the NFT asset will also acquire ownership rights of the physical home, set to be completed in Miami in Q4 of 2022. This is the first time something like this has been done.

The company picked the up-and-coming virtual design firm that has rapidly gained a reputation for its metaverse designs hosted by platforms like Decentraland. Under a licensing agreement, the real estate entity leases its name from the -year-old auction house, which itself has dabbled rather extensively in virtual architecture since the trend began to take hold of the art world.

The digital twin created by Voxel will serve as the basis for the physical home, which will be completed by the end of the year. The transaction will be completed using Etherium according to a firm-sponsored Medium post about the project.

Decentraland's Max Stealth Gallery. Image courtesy Voxel Architects. From the recently published article, "Decentraland is playing host to six-figure deals as architects begin to embrace the metaverse"

“In the future, we think it will be commonplace to have a metaverse extension of your home,” virtual realtor Gabe Sierra explained. “As experiences become more and more imme...

NFTs will be at the (i)heart(blob) of the Tallinn Architecture Biennale

2021-12-17T11:49:00-05:00

The hot new trend sweeping the art and design communities will be at the center of next year’s Tallinn Architecture Biennale. The festival released its 2022 list of exhibitors on Thursday, which includes an installation program highlighted by a virtual metaverse space from the web-based studio iheartblob.

Touted as the world’s first-ever blockchain-funded pavilion, the installation "Fungible Non-Fungible Pavilion" has a specific focus on the concept of slowness similar to the overall theme of the biennial, which this year is “Edible; Or, the Architecture of Metabolism.”

Image courtesy iheartblob

The installation was named the de-facto winner of this year’s installation competition after another exhibitor, the fungi-inspired team called Simulaa (previously on Archinect), dropped out due to unforeseen circumstances. iheartblob nonetheless won for its crowdfunded and sourced entry that they say will empower local communities towards craftsmanship in specifically AI and NFT-based hybrid...

Decentraland is playing host to six-figure deals as architects begin to embrace the metaverse

2021-12-13T18:55:00-05:00

As part of the design community’s incorporation of talent into the nascent, ever-growing world of blockchain technology and digital architecture, more spaces are cropping up that have the potential to do outsized business opportunities with ramifications in the metaverse and beyond.

One of those spaces is the relatively new Decentraland, a 22-month-old 3D platform that currently plays host to over 90,000 parcels of land subdivided into individual 9-square-mile plots which can command prices as high as $2.43 million as the cost of digital land has boomed in unison with the rise of NFTs.

Metapurse HQ. Image courtesy Voxel Architects.

Thus far, Decentraland has featured some headline-grabbing projects, including a functional digital twin of the auction house Sotheby’s London headquarters. The display of NFT art has become one of the most predominant forms of building in the metaverse, followed by gaming, retail, and other forms of entertainment like blockchain casinos that have users li...

Zaha Hadid Architects' NFTism exhibition at Art Basel Miami proposes a new standard in digital architecture and the metaverse

2021-12-03T19:36:00-05:00

As Art Basel Miami Beach draws to a close this weekend, the twin buzzwords of NFTs and the metaverse have been left ringing throughout the convention hall with the notion that the oft-dismissed digital art platform will invariably become an art fair mainstay as the critical acceptance of the works and their medium continues to grow.

Going into this year’s rendition, many attendees and other interested observers were eager to see how Big A architecture might respond to the new mandate for metaverse spaces with showcase designs that offer real-world locations to host and display the blockchain technology.

Image courtesy Zaha Hadid Architects

Zaha Hadid Architects took up the mantle with a virtual gallery that houses a dynamic multi-artist exhibition its curator compared, favorably, to a Trojan Horse. The studio says its spatial design focuses on the user’s experience and interaction with one another along with the theatrical presentation of the virtual exhibition itself.

Image courtes...

Artist JR's latest installation transforms the Great Pyramids of Giza, a top-ical new NFT

2021-10-22T19:02:00-04:00

As part of a new exhibition at Egypt’s Great Pyramids of Giza, French artist JR has transformed the 4,500-year-old World Heritage Site into a haunting levitated mass, done over in steel and mesh, that will also be minted as a 4,591-piece NFT representing his first foray into the newfound digital realm .

Titled Forever is Now, the exhibition is put on by Art D’Egypte with support from UNESCO and the country’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.

“Egyptian culture is a gift to humanity, and the purpose of this exhibition is to showcase these treasures in a dialogue with the contemporary on an international scale,” Art D’Egypt founder Nadine A. Ghaffar said in a statement. “Ancient Egypt has influenced artists from around the world, and so we bring the world to Egypt and Egypt to the world through art.”

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Art D’Égypte (@artdegypte)

JR says his latest installation is in some ways an expansion on his 2016 Louvre installation...

Savio Firmino unveils chair collection inspired by architectural landmarks, underwritten by the Blockchain

2021-10-01T12:42:00-04:00

Italian furniture and interior design studio Savio Firmino has unveiled a collection of 16 chairs inspired by some of the world’s most iconic architectural landmarks. Titled CITYNG, and designed in collaboration with artist Cosimo De Vita, the collection was exhibited at the 2021 Salone del Mobile in September. The iconic design event, which was curated this year by Stefano Boeri, came one month after the Salone del Mobile appointed Maria Porro as its new president.

Image courtesy of Savio Firmino

The collection of 16 chairs depicts both a geographical journey between West and East and a temporal journey between tradition and contemporary design. “The chair not only becomes a symbolic object of the cities but also symbolically represents their values, traditions, and cultural substratum,” explains Savio Firmino. “It starts in Europe from Florence, the hometown of both Cosimo and the Savio Firmino company, continues to Milan, the city of the Salone and of design par excellence, to t...

Refik Anadol unveils ‘first-of-its-kind’ AI artwork NFTs

2021-09-17T11:37:00-04:00

Refik Anadol Studio has announced details of their Machine Hallucinations -Space: Metaverse NFT Collection, which is set to be auctioned by Sotheby’s Hong Kong. To create the NFTs, Anadol has minted a machine’s memories and dreams of space onto the blockchain, manifested through eight unique artworks. The works are set to become the first-ever examples of immersive digital experiences being converted into NFTs.

Image copyright: Refik Anadol Studio for Sotheby’s

The eight works consist of an immersive physical experience, three infinitely generative data paintings, three unique AI data paintings, and a one-of-a-kind robotically-produced AI data sculpture. Following their online auction from Sotheby’s Hong Kong from September 30th to October 4th, the works will be exhibited at the Digital Art Fair in Hong Kong from October 1st to 17th, 2021.

Image copyright: Refik Anadol Studio for Sotheby’s

“Since 2015, I have been speculating the relationship between the human mind, architecture, ...

Paul Rudolph's Edersheim Residence listed as NFT

2021-04-20T14:50:00-04:00

With NFT technology enjoying a sizeable media presence at the moment, it was only a matter of time until noteworthy pieces of architecture would be added to the blockchain: a 9,000-square-foot residence in Larchmont, New York, originally designed in 1958 by local firm Finn and Ginter and expanded multiple times in 1989 and 1991 by famed mid-century modern architect Paul Rudolph, is being advertised as the "world's first masterpiece architecture NFT."

Take a video tour with me in the house! #midcenturymodern #paulrudolph #greenenergy #homerenovation #realestatenews #newyorkhomes see website for more details. https://t.co/EXzTkMRa6v pic.twitter.com/XPtdA5lqma
— 862fenimore (@862fenimore) October 27, 2020

862 Fenimore, also known as the Edersheim Residence, sits on 2.49 acres of land and has recently been restored by architect Michael Grogan with the advice of architects of the Paul Rudolph Foundation. Contemporary sustainability features like geothermal systems and a 100-panel-solar r...

NFT artwork inspired by Calvino’s “Invisible Cities” explores visions of urbanism; real and imagined

2021-04-15T10:53:00-04:00

Recently, we took a closer look at how architecture and design may be affected by the rise of NFTs (non-fungible tokens), and the underlying blockchain technology supporting them. In the latest intriguing development on the subject, the digital art marketplace SuperRare has announced the launch of Invisible Cities; a ground-breaking digital exhibition showcasing a range of real and imagined cityscapes, inspired by Italo Calvino’s seminal book of the same name.

Mari.k, Emiris, 2021, Unique Non- Fungible Token

The exhibition, on display from April 2-30, 2021, features the work of 10 artists who have used Calvino’s Invisible Cities as the basis for an exploration into the relationship between real and imagined cities, and the visible and invisible entities that allow them to operate. The captivating images are also available to purchase as NFTs throughout April, where interest in the subject has been spurred by Christie’s recent NFT sale of Beeple’s Everydays for $69 million.

Karisman...