FRIDAY, MAY 5, 2023
The winners were recently unveiled for the first Metaverse Architecture and Design Awards, launched in partnership between Interior Design and digital consulting firm digby.
The 2023 MAD Awards celebrate the people, projects and brands creating boundary-breaking concepts in the virtual realm. Categories ranged from AI-generated designs, built and unbuilt architectural feats, best use of blockchain/tokens (NFTs), student works, immersive digital art, workplace extension and more.
“As leaders within this new digital frontier, co-founders of digby Tessa Bain and Andrew Lane saw the need for a space to honor and showcase all the work being done by these design pioneers. They knew the work existed in this rapidly growing digital space and there was a need to celebrate those at the forefront of this design evolution,” wrote the company in its release.
Winners reportedly included a living digital extension of a real-world furniture collection (Embrace Materiality from Nathan Anthony Furniture); a villa unhindered by physics and materiality (Villa, MetaEstates by@Luisfern5 Creative Design Agency); a city within the heart of the jungle, without the environmental impact of building (Foresting Architecture by Lab for Environmental Design Strategies); and using the metaverse to fantastically re-brand over 20 iconic products (Fantastical Ads by Haworth).
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Photos: digby |
The winners were recently unveiled for the first Metaverse Architecture and Design Awards, launched in partnership between Interior Design and digital consulting firm digby. |
According to an emailed release, the full gallery of winners can be explored digitally in the MAD Award-winning Morfaverse Auditorium. Each floor represents a different experience of the awards:
Jurors for the inaugural awards included Cindy Allen, Interior Design Editor-in-Chief; Yves Béhar, Founder of industrial design and innovation studio fuseproject; Hagy Belzberg, Founding Partner of Belzberg Architects—now BA Collective; and Jinha Lee, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of the Spatial.io metaverse.
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The 2023 MAD Awards celebrate the people, projects and brands creating boundary-breaking concepts in the virtual realm. |
Other Metaverse Projects
Last year, in August, metaverse real estate development firm Everyrealm teamed up with real estate advisory firm Alexander Team to launch a members-only virtual community.
Known as “The Row,” the metaverse community is made up of 30 3D landmarks, each of which can be sold as a non-fungible token (NFT). According to reports, the virtual structures can be deployed on 26 different metaverse platforms that are owned by Everyrealm.
Artists involved in designing the digital architectural features include Daniel Arsham, Misha Kahn, Andrés Reisinger, Alba de la Fuente, Alexis Christodoulou, Six N. Five and Hard.Architects. As a result of the unique concept dreamed up by Everyrealm and Alexander Team, artists were invited to create imaginary houses and pavilions.
These initial installments will be hosted on the metaverse world-building platform Mona. The selection of other metaverses for housing the architectural landmarks have yet to be announced. Those interested in seeing the completed projects can do so only if they are invited to the platform. Designs were slated to reach completion by late 2022.
The following month, paint and coatings brand Valspar, from The Sherwin-Williams Company’s Consumer Brands Group, announced the launch of a new virtual web experience within the metaverse.
Dubbed the Valspar Color-verse, the interactive virtual house showcases the company’s 2023 Colors of the Year announcement by letting users experiment with the colors and play a hyper-casual game called “Dash to DIY.”
Set up as a 3D digital home, visitors are encouraged to take inspiration from the experience and use the colors in their own homes. In the Color-verse, users can experience the 12 featured colors firsthand by navigating the platform. The experience aims to promote inspiration for new DIY projects.
Once in the Color-verse, visitors can roam through pre-designated checkpoints throughout the 3D home. On several occasions, users are given the option to customize various aspects of the interior and create their own artwork as well.
Tagged categories: Architects; Architecture; Awards and honors; Color + Design; Color + Design; Design; Design - Commercial; Designers; Program/Project Management; Projects - Commercial; Technology