NFTecture: BIM + Metaverse + Blockchain and the new paradigms of Architecture

Welcome to NFTecture! In this podcast we will discuss with Shajay Bhooshan, Associate Director at Zaha Hadid Architects and co-founder of CODE, the future of BIM and its possible relation with the Metaverse and Blockchain. We will start talking about his experience while developing NFTism and other projects that bridge both worlds and end up speculating on how the future of virtual design might look. We hope you enjoy this conversation as much as we did!

“[…] software websites like Instagram truly transformed photography, the general quality of photographs has gone up […] so the metaverse definitely has the possibility to improve the quality of architecture, because if 300 million people are going to create virtual spaces, sooner or later, they would want them to be physically made. It’s experimentation on steroids.”

Jacinto Moros and Pablo Antuña produce and host the interview. Shajay Bhooshan, the interviewee, is the Associate Director at Zaha Hadid Architects. Brilliant designer and researcher, who combines practice with teaching at the IAAC and the AA. He is the co-founder of CODE, ZHA’s computational design research group. He has a growing interest in the virtual world, trying to unravel what the role of the architect will become and starting the discussion to set the theoretical framework for virtual art and architecture.

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The podcast starts by defining the three main topics of the interview: BIM, the Metaverse and Blockchain. Followed by a series of questions divided into four parts. Firstly, asking about his personal experience in the field. Secondly, discussing the hosts’ main thesis, does BIM make sense in Meta. Thirdly, jumping into more specific questions. And finally, asking about future challenges.

During the podcast you get an understanding of the state of the art and the questions that are being discussed. You get a hint on new upcoming projects and the trends that are starting to appear as well as an optimistic view on how this new world could help level up the design industry by sharing and showcasing new ideas and, perhaps, become more profitable via NFTs.

“…BIM, as it is currently known, is widely associated with drawing production and the reason for that is that in 99% of all architectural businesses architects get paid for the drawings they make…hardly anybody is actually using the BIM side of it, the building information…”

 

WHAT DID WE LEARN?

Beyond all the things we learned and understan better we highlighted some of them:

  • The type of information to input in the “BIM” models for the metaverse is basically user-experience based.
  • Graphics trends will follow two main branches in his opinion: hyper-realistic and experimental.
  • Collaboration might not improve but Meta will become a showroom, rapidly leveling up the design industry.
  • In general, most companies do not use the computational potential of BIM, it is just used for documentation and standardization.
  • It is a tool that has the potential to increase experimentation and reduce the time these experimentations take as it is not bound to the physical and can be accessed remotely.
  • Current BIM tools are not flexible enough, in the near future BIM tools must be easier to use while still keeping the parametric performance Revit currently has.
  • The connection between BIM and smart contracts will allow designers to keep getting revenue from their creations after they are already designed, perhaps making the design industry more profitable on the long term fro designers.

 

“NFTecture: BIM + Metaverse + Blockchain and the new paradigms of Architecture” is a project of IAAC, Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia developed at the Masters in Advanced Computation for Architecture and Design in 2022 by:

Students: Jacinto Moros and Pablo Antuña.

Faculty: Maite Bravo.