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Abstract

Contemporarily, a flood of digital interior architectural imagery has emerged of spaces developed for the Metaverse, a forthcoming immersive 3D virtual world. These spaces are not bound by the conventions of architectural practice nor the demands of the physical world, providing an opportunity for design exploration and innovation in the future of interiors and positing challenges to core architectural concepts that have accompanied traditional practice. This research offers a visual analysis of aesthetic trends and new typologies present in the interior architectural spaces designed for the Metaverse. The analysis features a curated and collaged collection of works from ten creators of Metaverse spaces, categorised to examine the impact of digital architectural spaces that increasingly detach from the needs of physical dwellings. The research reveals commanding visual trends in Metaverse interior imagery that challenge traditional notions of interiority and dwelling and finds aesthetic signifiers of belonging in spaces that Augé (1995/2009) would neatly classified as an empirical 'non-place.' Positioned as a form of heterotopia in a realm where architecture is being designed for the purely visual, we posit that the less recognisable these spaces become, the more potential they hold for innovation in both the Metaverse and in dialogue with real-world interior architecture.

Publication Date

7-30-2024

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Submitted Date

2023-09-29

Accepted Date

2024-06-04

First Page

151

Last Page

174

Authors' Bio

Belinda J. Dunstan
University of New South Wales, Australia
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7894-5077

Dr Belinda J Dunstan is a senior lecturer at the University of New South Wales in Australia and the Principal Lead for the UNSW Creative Robotics Lab. Belinda is the lead editor of Cultural Robotics: Social Robots and their Emergent Cultural Ecologies (Springer, 2023). Her current research interests are social robot morphology, critical futuring, technology ethics, and cultural robotics.

Michael Stonham
michael.stonham@unsw.edu.au

Michael Stonham is an academic at the University of New South Wales in Australia. He received his Bachelor of Interior Architecture (Hons) from UNSW. Michael is the Course Convener for Interior Architecture: Visual Communications. Michael’s current research interests and design practice are focused on 3D design, animation, and 3D rendering, with an emphasis on developing architecture and design for purely digital use (Metaverse).

Demet Dincer
d.dincer@unsw.edu.au
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5832-7853

Dr. Demet Dincer is a senior lecturer at the University of New South Wales in Australia. Transdisciplinary is an important approach embedded in her research, which includes the integration of knowledge across disciplines and intertwining research and practice-based knowledge.

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Author(s) retain the copyright of articles published in this journal, with first publication rights granted to Interiority.

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