Archinect - News

A 'crypto-city for tech bros and tastemakers'

2023-12-18T20:27:00-05:00

Our mission is to accelerate technological progress to create a more vital future for humanity. To this end, we are developing cities designed to support those solving the world’s hardest problems.The Steel Visa is your entry point to the Praxis Community. It will evolve into an official Visa within the broader immigration framework of our host-country.

Joseph Bernstein writes about Dryden Brown and his plans for Praxis. Bruce Sterling was surprised (?) "People can still somehow raise money with an offshored islands-in-the-net racket".

Zaha Hadid Architects is planning a metaverse city for Liberland

2022-02-25T15:25:00-05:00

In January, Liberland unveiled its most dazzling and arguably most convincing proposal yet. Working with Patrik Schumacher of Zaha Hadid Architects, Jedlička portrayed his country as a futuristic crypto paradise through a fully realized city in the metaverse. Picture a national assembly hall, a buzzy NFT bazaar, office towers—all done in Hadid’s trademark swooping, swoon-worthy architectural style.

ZHA principal Patrik Schumacher has been personally spearheading the metaverse version of a disputed quasi Freestate called the Free Republic of Liberland since shortly after it was founded in 2015 by the self-styled libertarian Czech politician Vít Jedlička.

Liberland City Hall. Image courtesy Zaha Hadid Architects.

Jedlička and Schumacher’s joint ambit has grown over the preceding years and now seeks to (virtually) cement its place in the popular imagination through the establishment of institutional infrastructure and the push for eventual recognition of statehood from the United Nations.

Liberland's virtual trading floor. Image courtesy Zaha Hadid Architects.

“It was time to turn ideas into something more concrete,” the 38-year-old politician told Quartz. “It’s important to show to the world that we are serious about starting development in Liberland.”

Liberland's NFT Plaza. Image courtesy Zaha Hadid Architects.

An avowed libertarian himself, Schumacher says the program of parametr...

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...

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...

The rise of the blockchain beyond cryptocurrencies

2016-06-09T12:58:00-04:00

The growing interest in blockchain has morphed its concept into something new. Before, the blockchain was simply the spine of the bitcoin network, but today the technology is being used on a burgeoning list of distributed ledgers with varying degrees of openness, security and complexity. [...] Ethereum, a public blockchain platform created by Russo-Canadian programmer Vitalik Buterin...proposes to do away with middlemen everywhere, not just in finance.

"Ethereum is a blockchain on steroids designed for more than trading cryptocurrency units or ‘coloured’ assets: developers can use it to build programs that interact with the world based on public rules enshrined in so-called smart contracts."

Some architects are already working on utilizing the blockchain to transform just about every aspect of how the profession operates – from the organization of a studio to the way projects are funded. Last fall, I talked with FOAM about some of the potentials of blockchain and Ethereum, in particular.

"Architectural transactions could evolve in a number of ways with blockchain technology," states FOAM. "For example, from the point of view of the business model, architecture could move away from client-designer relations that rely solely on fixed design and hourly fees. Instead they could exchange equity in the built environment in the form of smart contracts that distribute cryptographic tokens that represent share or equity in the agreement."

Che...