30 000 petals close together form an armchair. This piece of furniture can’t be real, it was said, when the first pictures appeared. Originally it was only part of the virtual furniture collection Hortensia by designers Júlia Esqué and Andrés Reisinger from Barcelona. Buyers could integrate it into virtual worlds. But then came requests for real chairs. Esqué and Reisinger are now cooperating with the Dutch interior design studio Moooi. Modern laser technology makes it possible to make flower petals out of fabric.
The example shows that objects that are based on reality appear in virtual worlds and computer games. But it also works the other way around. An extreme case is Richard Garriott. The inventor of the “Ultima” series, one of the pioneers of computer fantasy games, had the Britannia Manor building complex built back in the 1980s – with traps and secret passages just like in his fantasy worlds.
The armchair by Reisinger shows that it is also closer to people’s usual needs. The designer sees tables, chairs and sofas more as part of a social code: “I don’t know how the Metaverse will affect habits, but I think it will change such social codes.”
The Metaverse is a kind of three-dimensional Internet, a world that you can immerse yourself in with the help of special glasses. There you can explore digital spaces, get to know other people, but also shop. The boundaries are blurring more and more – also when it comes to interior design preferences.
It’s all going to be a little crazier
Sebastian Klöß, Head of Consumer Technology & AR/VR at the digital association Bitkom, explains that these are still isolated cases, but more attempts are being made to recreate ideal living styles in virtual worlds: “It’s different with fashion, where the transfer of virtual models to reality is already possible very strong.”
This industry in particular also uses the Metaverse as a template for their stores. This spring, Benetton used the design of its online shop in the Metaverse as a template for its store on Corso Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan – and designed the store in pink. “We are creating the same emotional ecosystem in physical retail as is available in the Metaverse virtual store,” said CEO Massimo Renon.
Pretty pink: This Benetton store in Milan was set up exactly like its online counterpart.
(Photo: Elena Datrino/Benetton Milan)
Last year, the luxury brand Louis Vuitton, otherwise known for its elegant appearance, designed its exhibition in Japan in a brightly colored and playful way. Loud colors and color combinations are a design feature of the Metaverse, says interior designer Karsten Ermann: “I can imagine that more colors and more unusual color combinations will also be used in our own homes in the course of the development of the Metaverse.”
What role does copyright play?
The “Mars House”, a digital building by the artist Krista Kim, which found a buyer for the equivalent of around 500,000 US dollars, will be on display in the Palazzo Strozzi in Florence until July 31. If a visitor to the exhibition would like to transfer the concept to reality, companies are already available.
That’s not always like that. If you see a piece of furniture in a computer game that you like, you usually have to have it specially made. It could be a chair or tapestry from a fantasy or sci-fi epic, a modern kitchen from The Sims, a garden, or even a specific architectural shape.
However, the consumer can encounter legal obstacles here. As long as you make objects for yourself, there are no legal problems, says Christian Wenzler, general manager of the Bavarian Carpentry Association in Munich: “As soon as a company does it commercially, copyrights become an issue.” He advises clarifying this in advance. Otherwise, he recommends that members of his association refuse requests from customers.
In fact, replicas are only a temporary solution. Because coming generations of virtual and augmented reality glasses (VR and AR) allow other approaches. A virtual chair is then no longer replicated as with Moooi. “Instead, there is a simple chair in the room over which a design is projected,” predicts Bitkom expert Klöß.
Theoretically, it would even be possible to only represent walls and doors virtually
The same applies to cupboards, tables and other furnishings. “With the glasses, for example, everyone in the family can define for themselves where and in what size which picture is hanging on the wall,” says Klöß. In combination with a smartwatch or a fitness tracker, wall colors and lighting can also be individual and have a calming or stimulating effect depending on the situation. Theoretically, it would even be possible to only represent walls and doors virtually. “But I don’t know how opaque they really would be,” says Klöß.
Greg Madison went one step further. He is a designer at Unity Technologies, a company that, among other things, has developed a programming platform for computer games. He turned his apartment into a computer game. If he puts on his VR glasses, small aliens attack. He can fend them off with various weapons. For example, arrows get stuck in the window frame, the aliens seek cover behind pieces of furniture. Then Greg Madison’s apartment becomes a battlefield.