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A zine produced by members of ARCH 5602, Kean University School of Public Architecture
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A zine produced by members of ARCH 5602, Kean University School of Public Architecture
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Vol. 1
Letter from the Editor -
Davis Richardson
Reclaiming 432 Park Ave - Kamila Diaz Calderon
Ultrathin Worlds -
Anyi Liranzo-Payamps
Finance Over Function -
Jared Britton
The Housing Shepherd -
Kacper Kowal
Livestream Dystopia -
Jake Haenggi
VR Architecture -
Ryan Barbour
Metaverse Architecture -
Danny Gavino
From Fi-Fi to De-Fi -
Scott Gleason
Realistic or Reality? -
Stephan Argent
Dubaifying Saudi Arabia-
Rasha Labibidi
NEOM’s Sustainability Mirage - Andrew Lazarte
Living in the Model -
Bryan Tome
Planting the Illusion -
Lauren Taravella
Critical Regionalism -
Nolan Aucone
About
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CGZ-VOLNO1-ARCH5602-FA2025-E8
VR Architecture: Opportunities and the Speculative Value of Virtual Real Estate
VR Architecture: Opportunities and the Speculative Value of Virtual Real Estate
Ryan Barbour
The creation of virtual reality (VR) has resulted in the beginning of a real estate market in digital space, unbound by material or terrestrial limitations, where landscapes are designed, constructed, and sold without any physical existence in our world. Virtual architecture as a practice, then, becomes both a creative experiment and a marketable service, merging art and technology in a way that enables designers to create in an entirely different context, without building codes, material costs, or physics itself. What can these virtual worlds do for architecture (or vice versa)? And what compels a person to purchase space in these mediums not yet fully realized?
There is no physicality nor any physical limit to the sprawl of a virtual world, so how is the value of these digital lands determined? Similarly to how there are prime locations in the real world, the spaces in platforms like the Metaverse, Decentraland, The Sandbox, and others contain properties that frequently experience higher traffic than others, attracting individual users, brands, or investors. A growing user count may be one quality of how virtual spaces are valued, but the very nature of a virtual world implies readily expandable space to meet the demands of a growing user base. When additional virtual land can be generated at a moment’s notice, why spend a fortune on these initial spaces? It’s difficult to evaluate virtual real estate since virtual reality is highly speculative in its infancy, but despite its intangibility, this new medium presents a great opportunity for the practice of architecture.
To understand how architectural practice could evolve in a virtual landscape, as well as how its value may be perceived, it is important to understand the current context in which virtual reality exists. The concept of a separated digital world where an avatar of the self exists with no overlap in the physical world is not new. There are several works of literature and film that have explored this idea prior to the conception of virtual or augmented reality (AR). Neal Stephenson’s 1992 novel Snow Crash and the 1999 film The Matrix both contain a simulated reality that blurs the lines between what is real and what is not. Earlier, in the 1960s, the computer scientist Ivan Sutherland developed the prototype of what would come to be known as the first example of virtual reality, a head-mounted display which visualized a wireframe environment in which the user could move around in.1 Over time, feedback systems, frame rates, motion tracking, and position tracking technologies have advanced the level of realism VR is capable of, creating a more immersive experience in the virtual landscape.
In virtual reality, nothing extends to the external world, allowing for efficient simulation of otherwise expensive or resource-intensive physical mockups. Though known for its role in the entertainment and gaming industry, VR has proven to be a useful tool for many other purposes, including prototyping. VR can imagine a product during any stage of its development while emulating real-world conditions to retain immersion. It serves as simulated tourism to experience foreign environments around the (real) world; similarly, it can be used as a planning tool to tour nonexistent architectural projects prior to construction. In education, VR is used in surgical training for the 3D reconstruction of internal organs in a safe, cost-effective manner.2
Within the field of architecture, VR has enabled designers and clients to walk through projects, realistically simulating lighting and material conditions, resulting in faster feedback loops for design decisions. VR can be used to observe energy consumption, thermal comfort, and even estimate the lifespan of a building without ever being constructed by providing an interactive visual representation of where critical structural elements must be installed. People with disabilities can perform site visits during the construction phase without leaving their home or office. Demolition teams can visualize the safest, most energy-efficient approach to dismantling an existing building. In a field bound by time, geography, and money, virtual reality promises efficiency, access, and savings.
Beyond its real-world applications, what are the opportunities for spatial design and the architecture within virtual reality itself? A potentially infinite space that has no need to abide by the laws of physics or material scarcity allows for architecture that could not exist in the real world. People could navigate projects previously limited to “paper architecture,” like Etienne-Louis Boullée’s “Cenotaph for Newton,” a structure that couldn’t exist in its time because of its sheer size and the structural systems needed to stabilize the space. Buildings of any typology are not subject to building codes or zoning regulations and lack the real-world implications of safety, comfort, and energy efficiency these rules are designed to address. Climate characteristics can virtually be ignored; new “materials” can be invented; light can bend in impossible ways. Nonlinear pathways, portals, and teleportation can link projects together in an instant while remaining fully accessible to every user without the need for circulation space. Floating cities and underwater jungles are possible. The medium is a lawless, intangible space, capable of changing in real time around you. Spaces are not even bound by geometry or dimensions and are capable of morphing at the designer’s whims. VR can be regarded as the ultimate medium for both speculative design and professional practice, where ideas can be pursued in a sandbox of experimentation impossible to replicate in physical reality.
A handful of virtual world projects have been launched since the early 2000s, attaining a high degree of popularity. In 2003, Second Life was released to the public as a platform that enabled people to create their own avatars, meet other users, and chat in the world’s grid. Users could shop virtually and rent land with the game’s built-in currency known as the Linden Dollar. This currency had its own exchange rate to real-world currencies, with 64,000 users reportedly having made a profit over the game’s lifespan. It reached its peak player count in 2007 with 1.1 million active users, the first virtual world project of its kind to achieve this level of success.
Fourteen years later, another virtual world platform, Decentraland, gained traction after taking a different approach to the division of space. Like Second Life, users would explore land with their own customized avatar in VR and were provided with opportunities to chat, create products for their avatar, trade, play games, and attend virtual events. However, Decentraland is heavily integrated with non-fungible tokens, or NFTs. Most of the resources on the platform are NFTs, from its plots of land to the art in the virtual world’s galleries. Users are incentivized to buy plots of land via the MANA cryptocurrency hosted on the Ethereum blockchain. When the platform launched in 2017, plots of land were available to users for $20. Only four years later during the NFT boom, some parcels of land had skyrocketed to prices ranging from $6,000 to $100,000. In October 2022, Decentraland had an estimated market value of $1.2 billion.3
Arguably the largest virtual world project that has ever existed, though, is Mark Zuckerberg’s Metaverse. Over $70 billion has been invested in this virtual world since its conception in 2021. Surprisingly, given this amount of investment, the visuals of the Metaverse do not appear to have been considerably upgraded from those found in the 2003 world of Second Life. Somehow, this virtual platform is graphically similar to (or even worse than) Second Life and other virtual projects from the early 2000s. There is potentially a legitimate argument that a virtual world need not be valued by a standard of realism in creating a memorable world. However, attempting to achieve ultimate immersion and a seamless transition from the real world to a virtual one — a goal Meta strives for with Metaverse, only benefits from providing an illusion comparable to our perception of our real-life surroundings.
Metaverse’s failures don’t end with its graphic shortcomings. Since Zuckerberg rebranded Facebook to Meta in late 2021, amidst positioning the Metaverse as the company’s main priority, Meta’s value has plummeted. The company faced a 70% drop in its stock price, its share distribution declined by 23%, and earnings targets were missed. Meta subsequently announced a massive layoff of over 11,000 employees in November 2022. Zuckerberg would later pitch the Metaverse as a digital environment where colleagues could conduct meetings or friends and family could connect, a much less ambitious vision than the $70 billion backing of a new virtual world would suggest. Judging by the dwindling user base, Meta has seemingly failed to sell the idea of the Metaverse to not just architects, planners, and designers, but also the average customer. Meta is now preparing to scale back its investments in the Metaverse as it shifts its focus to another potential money pit: artificial intelligence.4
Decentraland and other virtual world outlets provide opportunities for their users to generate income through the selling of virtual assets, but, notably, this contrasts with the platform’s initial vision of creating an open, accessible world where anyone can explore with their own avatar. Like real estate, an investment market is created through the use of artificial scarcity: the total supply of land parcels is limited to around 92,598 in Decentraland.5 Unlike the real world, land in VR can be generated nearly infinitely if there is demand, so why restrict the potential for user creativity other than to maximize profits in a real estate market? This intentional scarcity raises questions about long-term value: if developers can always add more land to a platform, what prevents inflation or devaluation? Many platforms attempt to maintain stability by capping their maps permanently or tying expansion to governance decisions made by users.6 However, the inherently unlimited nature of digital space and centralized corporate control make virtual land markets a shady experiment in manufactured scarcity and perceived worth. This tactic leads to investors buying plots of land and sitting on them (as opposed to actually designing or building), flipping the plots later to generate profit. This mirrors finance capitalism in the real world, hurting actual, individual users who want to experience or obtain the parcels themselves as they get priced out of the equation. Despite its nearly unlimited design possibilities, this financial reality hampers design creativity as the focus of these virtual spaces is making capital off of speculative value.
The motives for wanting the acquisition of virtual land can be hard to grasp. Despite being wholly intangible, virtual land has the potential to accrue value for a variety of reasons outside of artificial scarcity. When executed well, virtual platforms can serve as social, commercial, and cultural hubs where businesses pay considerable sums of money for locations in dense areas. Companies and creators seek visibility in highly trafficked virtual areas, like a digital storefront or plaza, to attract users in ways similar to a store on a busy street in the real world. Virtual land can also be an outlet for identity and expression. Users can design spaces that reflect their digital avatar; ownership becomes an extension of presence that offers psychological and social value in communities that thrive on visibility. Speculative investments can further drive demand, as seen with Decentraland. The blockchain tie-in model Decentraland adapted was such a popular opportunity that it spawned numerous additional virtual world projects with teams hoping to gain revenue by creating their own virtual real estate market. Many buyers treat virtual land as an asset, expecting that early investments will appreciate as platforms expand and gain more users. In some ways, this reflects early internet domain speculation, where simple words or popular phrases became valuable digital commodities.
Virtual land also offers functional value, since businesses can host events, create immersive experiences, and build interactive environments that cannot exist in the physical world. For example, fashion studios can design digital runways, musicians can host VR concerts, and educational groups can create interactive learning guides. As immersive technologies evolve and VR adoption grows to become more advanced and accessible, early virtual spaces may become historical artifacts within the digital landscape. Like the nostalgia and archival worth of early websites that retain their domain, popular virtual spaces may become culturally significant or sought after as time passes, gaining value independent of actual functionality.
Humans are driven — sometimes irrationally — by a desire for agency, identity, or ownership over possessions deemed valuable; virtual land is no different. Like land in reality, virtual parcels can provide social status when secured in an advantageous location. VR lands face skepticism for concerns of artificial scarcity and potential infinite supply, as well as particularly digital phenomena: what utility exists outside of the platform that hosts it? If a platform loses popularity or shuts down, the resources and time users have invested vanish. Like AI data centers and their intensive use of water and electricity, there are environmental concerns of blockchain and VR technologies as the energy required to keep them operating raises questions about sustainability in our world. Economically, inequalities that already shape digital access around the world may further plague these virtual worlds. Intellectual property complications are a concern as well, as virtual architecture can be copied or modified more easily than physical structures. Governance models must address these issues to maintain trust and economic stability in order to quell the doubts that people have about the rise of virtual worlds.
Virtual reality is a useful design tool for architects, artists, and planners in accessing higher volumes of people to more quickly and conveniently experience their work. Furthermore, it can be used to create captivating environments that would otherwise not exist in our reality. The rush to focus on virtual real estate and generate income similar to real estate markets in the real world over pushing artistic ingenuity will only serve to create more disparity. Ultimately, virtual architecture should be embraced not as a replacement for its real-world predecessor, but as a complementary medium that expands the boundaries of design and challenges established rules of space. There is real value in VR providing people with an experience that enriches our understanding of what architecture can be, instead of it becoming a new stock market where people play for their own financial gain.
- Basu, Aryabrata. “Ivan Sutherland’s Head-Mounted 3D Display (c. 1968). Researchgate, 2024, www.researchgate.net/figure/Ivan-Sutherlands-head-mounted-3D-display-c-1968-The-display-had-a-suspending_fig1_337438550.
- Erickson, Mandy. “Virtual Reality System Helps Surgeons, Reassures Patients.” News Center, 11 July 2017, med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2017/07/virtual-reality-system-helps-surgeons-reassures-patients.html.
- Marquez, Alexandra. “Welcome to Decentraland, Where NFTs Meet a Virtual World.” NBCNews.Com, NBCUniversal News Group, 5 Apr. 2021, www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/welcome-decentraland-nfts-meet-virtual-world-rcna553.
- Mello-Klein, Cody. “Why Is Mark Zuckerberg’s Metaverse Failing?” Extended Reality Initiative, 2023, xr.northeastern.edu/2023/01/12/632/.
- Jha, Dipika. “Exploring the Decentraland Economy: Multifaceted Parcel Attributes, Key Insights, and Benchmarking.” Arxiv, 27 Feb. 2025, arxiv.org/html/2404.07533v2. 7 Tale, Arman, et al. “Real Estate in the Metaverse: A Goldmine or a Bubble?: Brand Vision.” Brand Vision Insights, 7 Feb. 2025, www.brandvm.com/post/real-estate-metaverse.
- Marquez, “Welcome to Decentraland”