Metaverse | Transitioning (To) Future Cities

Transdisciplinary platforms as instruments to democratise technology for participatory use in building back neglected urban voids of Riga

Master thesis (2022)

Authors

R. Dzelme Architecture and the Built Environment

Contributors

J.A. Kuijper Theory, Territories & Transitions - Architecture and the Built Environment (supervisor 1)
P. Medici Teachers of Practice / AE+T - Architecture and the Built Environment (supervisor 1)
V. Muñoz Sanz Urban Design - Architecture and the Built Environment (supervisor 1)
K.B.J. Van den Berghe Urban Development Management - Architecture and the Built Environment (supervisor 2)
Faculty
Architecture and the Built Environment
Copyright: © 2022 Rihards Dzelme
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Published Date

24-06-2022

Language

English

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Faculty

Architecture and the Built Environment

Abstract

We are at the beginning of the most significant societal change since the internet. We are transitioning from a 2-dimensional browser-based interaction to immersive 3-dimensional experiences. The metaverse is not a place or a destination but a state where technology and ecosystem are symbiotic.
Digital Twins, interactive toolkits, tokenization and urban platfomization, are the bedrock of the future cities and the metaverse. Today, we see the metaverse as cartoonish meeting rooms, yet on a granular level, the metaverse systems focus on user-centric governance and new decentralized economic models. De Filippi and Wright (2018) have described this as "a structural shift of power from legal rules and regulations administered by government authorities to code-based rules and protocols governed by decentralized blockchain-based networks." ... deployed to citizens.
With a nickname as Europe's Capital of vacant buildings, Riga suffers from excessive urban negligence and diaspora. Such a location provides a unique opportunity in the tokenization economy, where each urban void can become an asset (an NFT) or social crypto coin that individuals can purchase or 'invest' in, exchanging money for equity (fiat to crypto). By buying into the urban void metaverse, individuals establish a digital identity and can become active citizens of the duality. With a token, one automatically becomes part of the DAO protocols and proposes alternative solutions to the urban void of Riga through its city dashboard.
The architectural project acts as a jugendstil-inspired expression of art, history and local struggles. As part of the Next Generation EU, the project proposes a Metaverse Research Academy, where locals can play, imagine and shape their neighbourhood through serendipitous learning. The project can be viewed as a public space where the architecture seamlessly adapts the context into an icon to attract local and international talent while transforming an agglomerate of urban voids into a social, age-inclusive, permeable pocket.

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