Interior Design in the Metaverse
Exploring an Exciting Future for Interior Design in the Metaverse
The metaverse: you might have heard of it, especially in the last year when it’s become the talked about tech issue of our age. But do you know what it is? Do you know its potential to revolutionise our lives and how we conduct business? Interior design is no different as you will see.
What is the Metaverse?
That’s not an easy question to answer, mostly because it has no fully agreed definition. However, the word’s origin is from a 1992 Neal Stephenson novel called Snow Crash. A celebrated sci-fi writer, this book explores the evolution of society in a digital age. Put simply though, what we now think of as the Metaverse is a 3D virtual environment allowing people to live an online life through an avatar. Multiple technologies function together to create a vast, open, virtual world. In theory, you could live a whole other life alongside your real life. It uses a number of techniques and technologies that have existed for many years, including both VR (virtual reality) and AR (augmented reality), to visit virtual spaces, sometimes identical to the real world or a completely fantastical one.
Technology Considerations in a Metaverse
In order for a space to exist in the metaverse, it needs designing and coding. Anyone considering building an environment within the metaverse should first select a virtual reality platform. Which they choose depends on accessibility and customisations – this determines how a user will access it (a PC or mobile, or VR headsets). They should also consider whether the environment is based on reality or a custom design. A third major consideration is the complexity – this nearly always determines how many people may join a space.
Performance issues are based on the following:
- The world’s size
- The number of polygons – which are determined by the world’s size and complexity (these are the basic graphic objects that are used to form a three-dimensional environment)
- The texture (this is the number of pixels used to build the polygons that make up the world)
What Impact Will the Metaverse have on Interior Design?
We fully expect the interior design profession to embrace the metaverse. Both interior designers and digital professionals alike (for example CAD) will likely fully integrate with virtual spaces for a better experience all round. One great potential is fine tuning designs – which is both cost saving and faster to achieve a desired look. The metaverse can potentially take interior design to a next level of AR living – most notably, to blur the lines between virtual and real-world spaces – for both designers and clients of interior design. As no physical materials exist in the design of virtual objects, it will reduce materials wastage and the manufacturing costs of doing so. Personalisation is a very real advantage.
The Metaverse: A Bright Future for Interior Designers
Construction, design, engineering, and architecture industry (collectively known as AEC) is already using VR and AR in applications such as virtual home tours and visual representations during the design process. So far though, most of this has focused on the built environment. To fully realise the potential, designers must design with the virtual in mind. Designers and architects may need to upskill and learn emerging technologies. This technology already exists – in some cases, for decades – in the form of video gaming. Unreal Engine is just one example of many used to design such environments and it isn’t a huge leap to apply such technologies to AEC. Opportunities currently exist in creating and designing virtual spaces. More will be created, and it is certainly an opportunity for designers and architects to find new ways of exploring them. We foresee a time when designers have portfolios of digital work both as a way to show their skill and willingness to embrace new technologies. The metaverse is almost here and it will welcome all manner of virtual spaces as it takes hold and expands. If you work in any industry relevant to interior design, you already possess the necessary skills to be at the forefront of that change when it comes. Now is a good time to expand your business and brand into virtual environments.
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