Towards an Atlas of Metaverse in Architecture: Timeline 1980-2023

Abstract

This study presents the latest results from a project aimed at creating an atlas of the Metaverse in architecture and design. The project is structured as an interactive conceptual map, published online, and spans from 1980-2023. It catalogs and thematically classifies some of the primary configurations of ‘virtual living’ and the most significant conceptual and visual references that have contributed to this idea. The subject is vast and complex, with applications in research and teaching that extend to various digital space-time applications, such as social media, virtual worlds, video games, conceptual maps, and current applications of artificial intelligence and NFTs. This interdisciplinary project requires thematic studies and surveys primarily aimed at understanding and historicizing the phenomenon of the Metaverse. This is the main objective of the research presented here, representing the final stage of a long journey that explores the various aspects of virtual living representation history. The topic deserves further study, both in relation to the rich historical tradition that has always inspired the science and art of representation, and in relation to the techno-cultures of processing ‘Virtual Living’. It encompasses various professions and languages within the expressive-communicative apparatus that characterizes the Metaverse.