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.
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 lining up for a slice of the cyber action.
Building in the space is, at least in theory, open to anyone, but a few studios that deal exclusively in metaverse architecture have come to be seen as standard-bearers for an industry that has only recently begun imagining what applications the discipline might have in the digital realm. Entities such as Voxel (who designed now-famous NFT artist Beeple's digital museum in another metaverse space called Cryptovoxels) and the affiliated Decentraland Architects offer specialized design services that can easily fetch up to $300,000 a project, according to a recent article in Fortune.
The boom has created an opportunity for people whose backgrounds are not necessarily in the professional architectural realm but nonetheless present in the void at the right moment and henceforth cashing in with a slate of big-name clients and digital design-builds.
“I went all-in on the metaverse when I discovered the connection between NFTs & video games in February of 2021,“ Decentraland Architects founder Luca Arrigo said in a previous statement. “At the time, the most usable and fun metaverse activity was by far Decentraland. I dreamed up the idea of an architectural firm for Decentraland and used my digital marketing skills to build a web presence. For most of 2021, we did small projects — waifus, small buildings, a farm...then in November, we built our first project for a big client and got featured in the New York Times. Now we are regularly meeting with fortune 500 companies and established DAOs to help them build their first metaverse experiences. I hope to continue learning about new metaverses and figuring out what new opportunities our team can try our hand at.”
21 Comments
This is silly. Just what we need, more distractions for students. "I'm a NFT architect, I don't need to learn how real shit is designed or built... now where's my youtube endorsement money mom?"
You know, I think its cool if people can make a living out of selling 3D models to whichever sucker wants to shell out real money for them.
real money for invisible non-tangible things... where have I heard that one before?
Hehe, if some kid can make a good amount of money in 15 mins by using his/her Rhino skills - more power to them! It's going to take some years before a full fleged metaverse ecosystem reaches critical mass though. Wasn't it just in the 2000s that Second Life was a thing? Then came Minecraft.
I can think of sillier jobs than NFT architect, if people want to pay me for a digitally designed object in virtual reality they can contact me through the forum :-)
Rando, I have a few unpaid interships available in my new NFT design practice. Plenty of opportunity to learn!
What a pity, I thought you of all would at least pay your interns...
Jokes on you Rando, I've already received one request for free internship to my fictional NFT office. (not a joke... got a real DM)
The failure and impending collapse of society is evidenced by the accelerating retreat into virtual reality.
I'm not a doom-and-gloom guy because I think great and stupid ideas happen all the time. On the one hand, this does feel different in that there's real money being exchanged - but to that I would say, welcome to gaming for the past decade. Sims is decades-old. Etc....
This opens up a whole new architecture critic realm - VR articles about how hack everything looks.
I can see academics salivating in their ivory towers already. More essays to write, more symposiums to organize, more shows to curate, more pamphlets to distribute, more faculties to hire!
Mark Magazine used to review VR/CGI/digital games and movies from an architectural point of view years ago already. Unfortunately they went out of print a while back.
Nice to see that the architecture of the metaverse is as hideous as architecture in the real world.
Exactly. Also, why would we concern ourselves with form which mimics that of our physical reality governed by gravity? I sort of expect everything to look more like the work of Hernon Diaz Alonso in the metaverse.
I wonder how the Uncanny Valley theory begins to have implications with architecture and the metaverse? Is architecture that mimics that of our physical world too much a bad thing for the human subconscious? Should architecture in the metaverse be a caricature of our physical reality's architecture so not to confuse the two realities?
This space for sale to the highest bidder:
NFT for this space now up for auction.
.
All that is solid melts into air.
Great stuff! We've been doing work for Decentraland Architects since March & recently our team are taking things to a next level :)
We're also interested in diversifying our brand as metaverse architects
We hope to connect with people from all over the world & welcome you join our community.
We are working on releasing free training seminars on the metaverse that will range from an overview of the up & coming opportunities to tutorials on Decentraland & the sandbox.
Your whole jive is a joke
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