ARCHITECTURE, HERITAGE AND METAVERSE:

NEW APPROACHES AND METHODS FOR THE DIGITAL BUILT ENVIRONMENT

The paper reviews the author’s professional work and academic research as an architect and
scenographer on the Metaverse of Second Life, known as a collective virtual shared space, with the aim
to establish the role of architecture and heritage in the digital built environment. The research utilised a
design methodology that considers historical archetypes of architecture as ‘elements’ individually
characterized, which can interact with each other -as in a language- generating new elements. Case
studies illustrate these new architectures derived from a critical interpretation of heritage architecture,
which developed the sense of memory in the virtual world.

INTRODUCTION

We live in an extended world that includes the coexistence of real and virtual places, which determine

our real life and virtual life. At the same time, the world of communication, dominated by the culture of

image, is shifting into the world of interaction within a digitally driven society.

Metaverse (i.e. beyond universe), is a term used to describe the concept of a future iteration of the

internet, made up of persistent, shared, 3D virtual spaces linked into a perceived virtual universe. Also

called generically a collective virtual shared space 1, Metaverse is considered the next version of internet,

which includes all Virtual Worlds. This study is focused on Virtual World environments and,

specifically, on Second Life (SL) a Multiuser Virtual Environment (MUVE), where users create 3D

environments and objects, and move through them with their own avatars, engaging with other users in

real time. The aim is to introduce the role of memory and heritage in the digital built environment

through architectural composition and history; more specifically, applying principles of Architecture by

Elements, Gianfranco Moneta’s architectural theoretical methodology. 2

The paper is then aimed at answering the following research question: Can the role of architect and

architecture improve the physical quality and experience of Virtual Worlds? Can the principles and

methods of Architecture by Elements be applied in a digital built environment, and in doing so,

producing new architectures as a critical interpretation of heritage architecture?

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The paper reviews the existing body of knowledge about architectural design on Virtual World (VW),

and the author’s professional work and academic research as a digital architect and Higher Education

academic on the Metaverse of SL. Case studies on SL illustrate the varied outcomes of the research,

while considering the Metaverse as an opportunity to transform how we design and experience

architecture in both the real and virtual world.

ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN THEORY AND VIRTUAL WORLDS

Research in Architectural design included its development in the cyberspace since the 1990’s.3 In the

early years, architecture started to merge its boundaries into cyberspace, also due to a number of inspired

designers (from Archigram to Asymptote) and theoretical contributions. Later on, digital incursion in this

field had been mainly developed into parametric architecture, form-based design and gaming.

In the meanwhile, architecture of RW had been influenced by post-capitalism and globalization, the fall

of the values of the past, the loss of stable references. 4 Major advances in automation, information

technology and the fourth industrial revolution have further developed the globalisation of architecture,

eradicating the character of a place and cultural identity5.

Urban designers and architects like Koolhaas, Libeskind, Hadid and Gehry rejected formal design

orthodoxies and principles, experimenting with new designs that fuelled bold, dramatic statements within

the urban environment 6. These Post Urbanism designs and architectures are sensational, designed to

impress the audience and celebrate the client’s magnificence, but often at the expenses of the human

scale and the relationship with the context and its history. Among others, Rem Koolhaas’ concept of

‘Bigness’ 7 had a great impact on the last generation of architects and architecture schools, that now

consider the architectural principles (composition, scale, proportion, hierarchy) and the lesson of history,

as surpassed ‘chains’ of an old fashioned approach to the discipline. As a result, this generalized

globalization of means and methods generated Atopia, an indifference to the place, demolishing local

identity, Genius Loci and social purpose. Architectural design in VW is mirroring this tendency.

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However, the nature of space in VW is fundamentally different from the nature of RW; consequently, the

architecture of VW needs his own theory and practice. 8 This is why VW became the place of research

and experimentation aimed at (re)establishing the founding role of architecture through the application of

principles of functional organization within the digital environment. 9 Not surprisingly, these design

principles had been inspired not by the latest, ‘icastic’ generation of architects, but by the theories of

architects and urbanists of the past. The application of utopian and visionary urban planning of Le

Corbusier, for example, with his highly centralised and structured model, was key to help design virtual

environments which could be easy to navigate through; Frank Lloyd Wright’s opposite approach, which

was aimed at the dissolution of the city in favour of more widespread, decentralised communities, helped

virtual cities to grow organically. 10 Kevin Lynch’s findings on the perceptual form of urban

environments 11, and specifically, the fact that users understand their surroundings in consistent and

predictable ways forming mental maps, was key to solve the important task of navigation and orientation

in virtual environments, enhancing the users’ spatial awareness. 12 Lynch introduced the term ‘way-

finding’ to define ‘a consistent use and organization of definite sensory cues from the external

environment’ and the five main elements that people use to orient themselves with a mental map: Paths,

Edges, Districts, Nodes and Landmarks. These elements, and their mutual interactions, had been

extensively used to define principles of architectural design of virtual environments in academic research

on the subject. 13 Another important contribution comes from Christopher Alexander, that long before his

famous 1977 book A Pattern Language, used computation and structure to develop tools to improve

town or to design a house. This was in opposition to the traditional urban planning approach in which

preconceived grids, zones, roads, and buildings are imposed on human activity. 14 His methodology has

been used for the development of Object-Oriented programming, Interaction Design, and new software

technology called ‘design patterns’ used in Macs, iPhones, many other computer systems and video

games. 15 A Pattern Language also inspired The Sims (2000), one of the best-selling video game series of

all time. 16 Strange to say, despite the 4th Industrial Revolution, most of the architectural design theory in

cyberspace is almost 30 years old; was in 1993, in fact, when Marcos Novak introduced his ‘liquid

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architecture’ and ‘transarchitectures’, a design thinking that explored the integration of physical and

virtual spaces in navigable digital environments. 17

In recent years, Pattern Design had been developed into Generative Design (GD), another method that

utilises computational process to design in VW, but that is supported by the application of a grammar

aimed at formally defining design languages for VW. 18 GD’s grammar is based on a set of rules that

describe an architectural ‘style’. Unfortunately, the overall formal result of the GD forms is more a

phantasmagoria than architecture, a plurality of combinations of fantastic, bizarre, complex imagery. An

interesting recent development in the field is the work of two different teams of architects, engineers,

academics and scientist collectively grouped under the names of Digital Architectonics and Discrete

Architecture. They both aim to reappraise the digital in architecture as a step to reappraising architecture

as a driving cultural force in the 21st century.

Digital Architectonics was founded by prof. Ludger Hovestadt of ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of

Technology in Zurich); active since 2009, his Chair for Computer Aided Architectural Design masters

strategies and theoretical approaches to methodology and abstraction in Computational Design and

Digital Modelling, called Digital Architectonics. 19 The term Architectonics derives from Kant’s

Architektonik, a concept that acknowledges architecture as something unstable (as in VW and games) in

opposition to traditional, solid and concrete architecture of RW. 20 One of the researches of Hovestadt’s

team involved the systematic arrangement of the pillars derived from Vitruvius’ De Architectura to

Classicism, in order to produce construction instructions that can be used in GD.

Discrete Architecture theory utilizes Mereology (the study of a whole through the relationship between

its parts), gathering techniques of bonding, joining, interlocking entangling and overlapping of

architecture parts. 21 Both approaches demonstrate a tendency to experiment with the basic building

blocks and rules of architecture using computation.

This paper constitutes a further exploration of GD innovative direction, through the application of the

theory of Architecture by Elements (ABE) to the VW of SL.

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GAMING AND VIRTUAL WORLDS

VW can be considered as a brand new digital built environment, an extension of our Real World (RW)

that includes not just a physical appearance, but also cultural and social interaction, aesthetic and

philosophical arguments. These crucial instances are part of the design training in architecture, but they

are generally not included in the education of those who actually design and build VW, i.e. game

designers, programmers and users. As a consequence of this lack of knowledge, architectures in gaming’s

VW could be broadly described as sort of film sets, characterised by a fairy-tale naivety 22, generally

aimed at reproducing RW environments.

After thirty years since their blast in the entertainment industry, video games are starting to look the

same, and play the same. Despite the recent massive improvement of internet speed and IT devices, the

novelty factor of games that had been developed in the last 15 years has reached its lowest point 23.

Developers nowadays are spending great resources trying to turn games into movies, to improve their

look and ‘appeal’. We could argue that this situation is the consequence of a lack of architects in the VW.

Without architects, there is only scenography as imitation of architecture. Absurdly, in the VW where

everything is unlimited, architecture is limited.

There is a need to go beyond realism in virtual environments, and set the basis for a full development of

VW’s creative and artistic potential. To realise a digital spatial revolution, Games and VW need to

abandon the depiction of reality, and develop an understanding and application of architectural concepts

and theories, giving life to truly utopian designs, to make the impossible possible.

To do so, it is fundamentally important to consider the main difference between buildings in RW and

VW; in the first realm they are fixed and not generally transformable, while in the digital realm they can

change and quickly re-configure as performing architectures, in a dynamic interactive process with the

user. 24 VW are also a place for action and functionality, where gamers use architecture with a specific

purpose, as a parkour athlete use buildings. Applying architecture principles to VW is a way more

complex operation that should also include historical and contextual instances. All elements that play an

important role in the design process, although bringing history in VW may appear as a nonsense. VW in

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fact, are commonly considered timeless, without a chronological history; they usually ‘borrow’ specific

period of our real past history as games’ main themes (Middle Ages, WWII, etc.). But if we consider

history as a process, and utilise the historical archetypes of architecture as ‘elements’ of a language, we

can open up new territories for architecture and, at the same time, enhance the quality of the digital built

environment, including Game Design.

Since the 80’s, when VW started to appear in Gaming, a digital built environment has been created from

scratch by software developers, conceptual artists, 3D modelers, game designers and, on specific

platforms and conditions, also by users (game players) giving them the possibility to modify and/or

further create physical content in a VW.

Game designers are currently trained to be proficient with IT skills, but also to create 2D and 3D art.

Depending on the role and level (junior, senior) a game designer is trained to design and realise

characters, objects and environments, to create textures, and to visualise them through digital and non-

digital sketches and animations. Skills include concept artwork, computer modelling and animation in

both 2D and 3D. Game designer’s training includes both visual art and technology but doesn’t include

any architectural, landscape, urban planning design skills; as a consequence, VW are currently created by

a legion of non-architects (I will call them designers of architectures) which also cover the role of

architects, landscape designers, urban planners and interior designers. Designing architecture on the

Metaverse is a challenging task even for experienced architects, let alone for those who do not have their

cultural and technical background. Freed from spatial, economic and technical limitations, without a

natural environment and an anthropic history, designers of architectures could be easily lost in the digital

magic domain where everything is possible and potentially huge.

VW are not isolated from RW, they extend into each other and mutually influence. 25 Minecraft (2009),

the most popular game in history, which acts as a form of ‘digital LEGO’ for players, had been

successfully utilised to facilitate engagement and participation in architecture processes and urban

planning. RW can influence the WV on an imaginary level, which is produced by other imaginary

worlds: books, movies, television, role-playing games and religion. All these worlds are producing a

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powerful background that inspires and guide designers in the definition of characters, storytelling and

physical spaces. This is why many games are related to old myths, famous novels, fantasy books, and

their architectures reflects a sort of fairy tale expressionism.

RW can also influence the VW on a factual, more objective level, which is produced by our past and

recent history and generates the historical landscapes that we can see in many VW and games. History is

not tangible tough, it lives within individual memories that produce over the time cultural memory, and

that involves the collective memory. Individuals are able to express their identity linking their culture to a

common shared culture that is based upon a set of memories of the past.

VW can record and display our cultural memory through the physical appearance, with the aim to link

the past with the present enhancing the users’ connection with a specific environment and architecture. 26

There is a need to evolve the skills and knowledge of designers of architectures into the more solid array

of competences that only architecture can offer; at the same time, we need to extend the role of architect

into the VW, understanding the functional aspects of gaming and storytelling. What is really needed, is a

constructive dialogue between the disciplines of architecture and gaming.

This is even more necessary when VW design involves the reproduction of historical environments and

their architectures. Most of the time, this reproduction follows controversial philological approaches and

methods. As an example, for the development of video game Assassin’s Creed II, game industry’s giant

Ubisoft created a detailed virtual replica of Florence during the Renaissance and, to achieve historical

accuracy, employed a young Professor of architectural history and theory, Maria Elisa Navarro, as

historical consultant for the game. The result is a movie-like, impressive detailed reproduction of period

costume and architectures, but with major ‘adjustments’, like the increased total height of the buildings to

improve climbing movements, and the curved streets of a totally reinvented map of Florence, to enhance

the movement of players. 27

Context is another important aspects to consider. Architects are trained to analyse and understand the

environment in which they design, its tangible and intangible elements inherited from the past; these

elements include the anthropic history, the landscape and natural environment, the past use of the place,

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and the memory of the inhabitants. Good architects usually start designing from pre-existing elements,

which they re-interpret through their own cultural background and cognitive and professional

experiences.

All of this does not exist in the VW. Direct emotional exchanges are mediated through a user interface

and/or an avatar; gamers are alone but at the same time sharing the experience of a virtual space with

other people, a meta-space in which there is no weight, there are no smells, nothing could be physically

touched, and there is no memory except that which is (re)created specifically to create the period of the

Metaverse. 28

SECOND LIFE AS A DESIGNER’S SANDBOX

Second Life (SL) is still in activity after more than 15 years, along period of time for a game, because it

is not just a game, but a place for creativity across Internet and real world culture. SL in fact, is a user-

generated content platform, which regularly produces engaging content: from art performances to

political campaign, from land auction to adult entertainment. Unlike games that are fixed environments,

Second Life was built as an empty space, designed to be filled with contents generated by the users, a

feature that naturally attracted architects and urban planners. SL was born in 2003 and now it looks

terribly dated, if compared to other platforms as Fortnite by Epic Games, which is going to lead the

Metaverse as the possible future of the internet. 29 But during the last seventeen years of activity SL has

been constantly changing, because users are not guests: they are residents that build their home, car, and

any other weird stuff using a basic 3D modelling software embedded in the platform.

SL is still relevant today for the many possibilities of interaction and creative experimentation that it

offers to several disciplines, including theatre, performing arts, architecture, urban planning, fashion

design, social sciences, psychology; furthermore, it is an ideal platform for distance learning, and an ideal

shared space for research in the intersection between architecture and gaming.

Approaching architecture on SL, as happens in any VW, the initial aspect to consider could apparently be

the architectural function of the building, to allow avatars to move around and truly experience the

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spaces, enjoying aesthetics beyond functionality; SL in fact, allows the user to engage in a virtual reality

experience without the need of a headset. This virtual interaction creates, as contradictory as it may seem,

places that are real to the extent that they are experienced, built and modified; in this shared experience,

place is not anymore just defined as a space with a character, but also as a space that is actually

happening.

A NEW METHODOLOGY FOR METAVERSE: ARCHITECTURE BY ELEMENTS

Language can be considered as a set of language games: it is comparable to a city, built at different

times, made of buildings with different purposes and functions.

L. Wittgenstein, Philosophical Researches, 1953 30

The methodology used in the present paper is an application of Architecture by Elements (ABE) to the

Metaverse of SL, an architectural theory introduced by Gianfranco Moneta in Logica e Complessità

dell’Architettura (2002), and successfully applied in RW during his longstanding career as a professional

architect and academic in Italy. ABE’s research involved the inner processes of architecture and its

mechanisms of configuration, a research to which the author participated between 1997 and 2005 at the

Faculty of Architecture of University of Rome La Sapienza. The ABE methodology is aimed at restoring

the identity of architecture as a intertwining not just of art and technique, but also thought and ideology,

being inspired by the works of philosophers Husserl and Paci (phenomenology), Heidegger

(existentialism), and Wittgenstein (philosophy of language).

This paper is thus aimed at extending and testing ABE research into VW and, specifically, to explore and

improve the design possibilities of the empty space of SL using the language of architecture.

History plays a fundamental role for ABE: it guides the architectural design process through the selection

of a reference language from the past and the historical/morphological reading of phenomena related to

it. ABE in fact, considers ‘design’ any historical development that could be critically read as a process.

History as a process is here intended not just as past activities that interact to produce a further result, but

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as an evolutionary realization. Considering ‘the past as a friend’, designers can freely choose from an

endless source of form and compositional principles.

One of the key elements of ABE is also the analogy with the principles of linguistics and, more

specifically to Ludwig Wittgenstein’s theory of ‘language-games’ 31, used here to describe parts of

language that contain both the language and the actions in it. Wittgenstein also used the term ‘language-

game’ when comparing language to a city, built at different times, made of buildings with different

purposes and functions.

Applying his philosophical concept of language to architecture, we can assume that language of

architecture, as a whole, is composed by different language-games, each of them containing its own

language parts and rules. ABE could be considered as a language-game, considering the architectural

lexicon as a set of parts to associate or to contrast in a complex language-game unit; as a result, this

architecture unit, organized and defined, can compose a simple or complex sentence, in the form of a new

architecture.

This methodological approach first and foremost needs to define its components: the lexicon, the syntax

and the semantics. To do so, we can use the work and theory of architect Louis Isadore Kahn, known for

combining Modernism with the weight and dignity of ancient monuments. Moreover, ABE methodology

has been inspired by Kahn’s monumental architecture that utilises complex organisation of single

independent units (Elements), an approach that derives from Kahn’s understanding and application of

Greek and Ancient Roman architecture as language-games.

It has been previously introduced in this paper that the compositional activity of designing architectures

on VW is mainly limited to the imitation of the RW. Despite this mimetic process, designers cannot deny

their own cultural background and the reference to real architecture, taking their personal interpretation

of history and architecture in the VW; in doing so, designers realise an act of knowledge that starts with

an initial synthesis that includes: 1) the choice of the reference lexicon (the list of forms); 2) the selection

of the interrelation criteria between the different words of the lexicon (syntax); 3) the taking of meaning

of the selected material; then, the form that hosts the function (semantics).

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This approach follows Louis Kahn’ paradigm shift from modernist architecture ideology of the ‘form

follows function’, towards the revolutionary idea of being the ‘form that generates the function’.

This act of knowledge implies the question: What is the reference lexicon that a designer can use?

For Louis Kahn, lexicon and syntax are freely chosen from both present time and the past, an endless

source of form and compositional principles. Past also includes a shared cultural heritage, a collective

and universal memory without specificity of time and place.

The ABE theory further develop this approach, considering the coexistence of both ‘known’ forms taken

from the history of architecture, and ‘new’ forms, where different lexicons and syntax coexist in the same

organism. The use of the past is not a mere stylistic resumption then, but a reinterpretation of archetypal

symbols, that constitutes an important reappraising process of architecture.

Furthermore, ABE considers archetypes as internal parts of the historical process, subject to a constant

transformation derived from their reuse. The overlap of historical buildings over time gives rise to

extraordinary architectural figures, from which it is possible to identify fundamental architectural

principles (Fig. 1).

Architecture, through its symbolic nature, can access the domain of the unconscious, giving shape to

archetypes that produce - through the forms - the deep structures derived from history or nature.

In some cases, the forms coincide with the archetypes, but most importantly, archetypes are the principles

of the forms and can be reutilised in the architectural design process. Hence, the form takes on a

profound meaning that goes beyond its aesthetic value, and becomes form-principle. 32

This interpretation follows the Aristotelian definition of form, considered as the arrangement or

organization of elements, as the result of which they have become the thing which they have. As matter

they are potentially anything that they can become; it is the form which determines what they actually

become 33. This definition is utilised by Louis Kahn in his work when introduces the Elements and their

organisation; a notion that is also included in the ABE theory, that considers Elements of architecture as

individually characterized and interacting with each other as a language; Elements, therefore, with

semantic values and constituting a syntactic system.

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The ABE theory re-establish the importance of the form as a principle derived from the archetypes of

past architecture, and is aimed at reusing this strong compositional principle, which allows to design

architecture putting Elements in relation to each other following their own lexicon.

The result of this compositional principle are new combinations and associations of Elements, which

allow to obtain figures with greater complexity, linguistic sentences that possess absolutely innovative

characters. The reuse of elements derived from history guarantees the historical continuity of the new

architectural design, incorporating time into design. At the same time, innovation is guaranteed by the

reuse of elements in a different context, decontextualizing its figurative role, up to rebuild a totally

different context. Representing time and context in the architectural design in fact, are key aspects that

play an important role when designing on VW and, specifically, on the blank space of SL.

In ABE, the Elements are following three organizational methods: 1) Juxtaposition; 2) Interpenetration;

3) Translation, Rotation, Subtraction . 34 With Juxtaposition, when an Element approaches other

Elements, an interdependence, a bond, and therefore a relationship in the form of a linguistic principle is

established. This organisational method utilises strong structuring axes, to achieve formal stability

(example: the terrace house). With Interpenetration, the Elements are organised in infinite combinations

following non-parallel axis; here, Elements are able to intersect and overlap each other, realising a

complex organisational form. In the resulting new unit, each Element retains its identity and at the same

time, contributes to creating a higher-rank unit: the language sentence. With Translation, Rotation,

Subtraction, Elements yield their own parts to the advantage of other Elements which thus build stronger

structures than the former; this subtraction process generates a controlled break-up of the Elements, their

deconstruction.

To explore design on VW the author co-created Weretomato, an architectural design company dedicated

to SL, together with other three Italian architects, Maurizio Crocco, Mario Leante and Luigi Nappi,

members of Archabout, a transdisciplinary lab dedicated to cultural production, research and education in

the artistic fields of architecture, theatre and visual arts.

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Weretomato designers used Second Life as a research platform to apply ABE’s methodology, developing

innovative architectural environments, interactive content and immersive experiences for SL residents

and private institutions.

CASE STUDY 1: HADRIAN’S VILLA ISLAND ON SL

As a necessary premise, we must underline the frustration of having to represent designs on VW using

two-dimensional b/w images and text on a centuries-old technology such as printed paper. Academic

research in VW would greatly benefit of alternative forms of medium for dissemination.

Weretomato team realised, as a collective design on SL, Hadrian’s Villa (HV) on a Private Region

(Island) of 65,536 sqm, as a Manifesto of architecture on SL, based on the Ancient Roman architecture

landmark using the theoretical principles of ABE. The aim was not just to reproduce the famous building

designed by the Roman emperor Hadrian in Tivoli, but to develop a critical interpretation of it,

researching into the founding principles of its space. HV is a perfect historical example of ABE’s

principles, the same ones that guided the design process on SL. Choosing this complex was the first step

of ABE’s act of knowledge, setting an example of Ancient Roman architecture as the reference lexicon

with its forms, syntax and semantics.

HV architecture has been also chosen to explore the role of reuse as a process, where new designs

become part of the temporal development of architecture, including time in the project. HV has been

‘recreated’ on a SL blank island as a linguistic sentence, reusing the complexity of its single Elements in

a different context, decontextualizing its figurative role, with the aim to generate a different context in the

VW. This follows the history of original HV, that was built in different phases reusing an existing older

republican villa 35. The planometric design composition of the HV on SL accomplished its original

syntax, using a disposition centred on several vanishing points, within which both old and new Elements

are intervened using rotations, changes of positions, fractures, and dissonances. This approach developed

a formal coherence of the whole using two of the organisational composition’s principles of ABE: #1

Juxtaposition, and #3 Translation, Rotation, Subtraction.

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The design included the scaling of HV floor plan into the Island of SL and the selection of buildings to be

included, in order to maintain the overall proportions of all Elements and their organising axes. A scaled

3D model of Hadrian’s Villa was also built to help the team to discuss in real-time all design choices

during the realisation of the complex; using avatars, design meetings had been held ‘in the air’ flying

over the Island utilising the aerial view of the building site (Fig. 2). The design didn’t include some

eastern peripheral buildings, the Academy and Canopo, in order to fit the SL Island and realise a more

compact floor plan, leaving space for additional buildings and further functions (Fig. 3) with a focus on

cultural and educational activities:

F - LumesArch – Telematic University, a space designed to deliver e-learning educational activities on

SL, including architectural design, theatre design and Generative Design architecture;

E - Scenography Sandbox, a place to experiment and create set design and live performances for students

and tutors of BA Architecture and Scenography courses of University of Rome La Sapienza;

- The Maritime Theatre, a place for temporary exhibitions, performances and cultural events;

D - WAM-Web Art Mouseum, a museum-laboratory dedicated to Web Art;

G - Contemporary Art Gallery curated by Footprint;

B, C - 15 studio spaces of different sizes to be rented for representative and commercial functions;

A, H - 20 apartments to be rented with the possibility to have a personalised interior design;

ABE allowed to design these ‘new‘ buildings and their different functions within the HV architectures;

incorporating new Elements into his original structure, generating new sentences, thus realising an

innovative dialogue between old and new architectures. The Ancient Roman architecture, with its own

peculiar Elements and disposition (columns, arches, septum etc.), facilitated the process of this

development, allowing contemporary architectures to become part of the Hadrian’s complex, respecting

the form and syntax of Roman architecture. The dichotomy between old and new is here transformed in

non-duality, being oneness a fundamental outcome of the ABE methodology, which includes process and

time in the design project.

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The result of the design process of HV Island is a multifaceted, kaleidoscope of dynamic architectures,

which are able to transform themselves within the historical framework of the Roman ‘ruins’ of the villa,

following new uses and needs of the island on SL. The architectural Elements of HV, with the

establishment of a specific lexicon, will also guide further development of new architectures on the

island, as new sentences that are compatible with the historical pre-existence; these new Elements will

form an integral part of it, as an open conversation with the past.

The relationship with history, in fact, is intended here not as a simple withdrawal of forms; instead, it is

considered as a process; memory gives us the forms and the principles, history teaches us to operate

within an unceasing process of mutations and transformations.

The impact of HV Island has been successfully validated through different outputs: as a distance learning

platform, as a performative space and as an exhibition space. In the first case, the Island has been used as

an online platform of the Module of Scenography of the University of Rome La Sapienza, where the

author’s students could experiment their set design projects. Using avatars that can move and talk, SL in

fact, gives tutors the possibility to interact in real time with the students, and to directly intervene in the

design process during its development. Students’ positive feedback received included ‘an engaging

tutorial experience’ and ‘it enhances design interactivity’; the coexistence of tutor and students in the

same virtual space in fact, developed a pedagogic connection between the teacher, the student and the

design process in a live, engaging and interactive experience; moreover, the tutorials were happening not

through the review of 2D or 3D images, but through the direct experience of the 3D design model from

inside, outside, and even flying over it (Fig. 4).

As another output, HV Island has been used for live theatre performances through the participation of

Scenography students, professional designers and audience in the form of avatars. ‘@nts’ was a

multidimensional performance freely adapted from the novel ‘The Electric Ant’ by Philip K. Dick and

staged simultaneously in the Maritime Theatre of HV Island on SL, and in the RW of the studio theatre

of the Faculty of Architecture, University of Rome La Sapienza.

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The scenography of ‘@nts’ was conceived as a mutating organism in which the main character, a cyborg,

is represented as a physically abstract entity of our reality that experiences parallel universes (virtual and

real). The performance showed its perceptions of both worlds, a reality that is beyond time and space.

The two set designs have been extended to the whole theatre space, allowing the action to take place

between the audience, eliminating the separation between actor and spectator. The audiences in VW and

RW were immersed in sensorial and changing organism, which communicated through sound, light,

music and video projections on a large Cube. Video projections on the Cube acted as CCTV views of the

other world, realising a real-time visual connection between the performances on SL and RW (Fig. 5, 6).

The digital connection created an interference between the two worlds, realising a space-time short

circuit, a multi-dimensional space for the performance. Post-show audience feedback highlighted not just

the quality of the performance and the overall experience, but also described the events as ‘a new way to

engage with digital technology’, ‘both performances had an emotional impact on me’, ‘the performance

linked real and virtual worlds’ 36.

As a third output, HV was used an exhibition space for WAM-Web Art Mouseum, a museum dedicated to

Web Art. The space has been designed to host a series of events with the aim to disclose and disseminate

digital art. Through the production of digital artists from around the world, the exhibition’s spaces

facilitated the aesthetic innovations derived from the use of digital technology as an instrument of artistic

creation and communication. Positive feedback from audience had been collected during the exhibition

and the WAM launch event in RW of Rome, San Lorenzo district, an event that also included multimedia

installations and performances.

CASE STUDY 2: TEMPLE UNIVERSITY CAMPUS ON SECOND LIFE

The project of the Virtual Campus on Second Life for Temple University has been a further verification

of ABE methodology’s effectiveness to face the challenges of designing architecture in a virtual world.

The initial request of the client was to faithfully reproduce a part of the University campus in

Philadelphia. The design brief in fact, requested a series of specific environments for e-learning, in which

16
tutors could simulate scientific experiments and potentially risky activities, without exposing students to

any dangers and, at the same time, training them for risk assessment. The size of the space of an island on

SL (256 x 256 mt.) was not big enough to enclose the area to be reproduced; therefore, Weretomato

designers had to make a choice: to scale and adapt the buildings to fit the smaller space on the SL island

or, to create a totally different space. The design team opted for this second hypothesis, exploring

possible specific characteristics of this new version of the Campus in a virtual reality.

No longer having the direct reference of the RW campus’ buildings, designers applied ABE methodology

to realise a complete new environment that could retain a connection with the city of Philadelphia, where

Temple University resides, and yet to explore what specific characteristics of this new blank built

environment should and could be.

ABE’s initial step to design Temple University Campus, the act of knowledge, was choosing a different

reference lexicon, which no longer had direct reference to the real world of the campus. This issue was

answered using the city of Philadelphia’s grid street plan, and adding to it an iconic architectural complex

that could be used as a linguistic game’s reference for the design, so to realise an architectural dialogue

between them. The design has been then focused on the following two reference Elements:

1) Philadelphia’s grid plan, which could be adapted to the modular frame of the virtual space on SL

being the latter a square island. The grid served as an urban network to connect the different parts of the

Campus in an organic composition on which superimposing other architectures.

2) The National Parliament House in Dhaka, Bangladesh, designed by one of most famous citizens of

Philadelphia’s recent past, Louis Isadore Kahn, an architect which has already been introduced in this

paper as a relevant trait d’union with ABE methodology. The architectural style of Louis Kahn, with its

characteristic formal coherence and articulation, is almost absent in digital environments, as it does not

reflect the contemporary architecture, widespread in RW, based on single episodes, conceptual and

icastic forms. As mentioned earlier, ABE methodology refuses this self-referential tendency of

contemporary architecture, which is only aimed at realising radical new identities disconnected from the

context. Kahn’s masterwork represents one of the best example of his peculiar architecture of totality

17
that incorporates and deliver a strong and unitary space; his work in Dhaka can be considered as the

architecture of articulation, of autonomous elements that are accosted, interpenetrated, rotated and then

integrated together; these characteristics of ABE are derived from Ancient Roman architectural complex,

such as the Baths of Caracalla and Trajan’s Market in Rome. Again, choosing Kahn’s architecture was

not to make a copy of it, but to interpret it as a sort of pre-existence, therefore with the dignity of

memory.

To fit the given space on SL Island, the floor plan of Dhaka’s complex has been scaled down following

the same approach of Hadrian’s Villa. During this process Kahn’s architecture undertook a sort of ageing

process, with the aim to turn it into a ruin of a glorious past architecture (Fig. 7, 8).

Using brickwork textures, lowering the walls to different heights, removing the roofs of buildings,

Weretomato designers created a sort of ‘modern ruin’ extracting the structuring force from Kahn’s

Elements, in order to articulate the grid of the new campus. Again, with this project for Temple

University’s virtual Campus, the objective was to create a past within the virtual world of SL, to inhabit

this virtual space as an expression of a previous civilization that interferes and influences the creation of

the virtual Campus.

Diamond Island positive impact has been measured not just by the sustained avatar ‘traffic’ registered

over a period of time on the Island, but also and foremost by enthusiastic response of the client and the

feedback of Temple University’s students and tutors. The design in fact, provided the users with playful

and articulated spaces, allowing users to simulate their scientific experiments and potentially risky

activities in a safe environment, and to deliver different learning activities. Students and tutors’ positive

feedback included ‘an engaging Virtual Campus’ spaces’, ‘an easy to use virtual environment’.

The overall architectural design’s outcome has been probably partially achieved though, not because it

was unsuitable and unrealistic, but because it was incomplete. In some parts of the island the Kahn’s

‘ruin’ prevailed over everything else, because it was not ‘inhabited’ by the new Campus. In other areas of

the island the ruin was reduced to a few broken walls detached from the whole. However, the validity of

18
the idea and the structuring capacity of the architectural system created on Diamond remains as a solid

framework for further experimentation and research on SL and VW.

CONCLUSION: TOWARDS A POST-DIGITAL SPATIAL REVOLUTION

After decades of experimentation, the digital revolution is over, as Nicholas Negroponte declared in his

book Beyond Digital (1998); we currently live in the post-digital era, and is now quite difficult to draw a

line between the digital and the non-digital. The post-digital in fact, acknowledging the computational

hegemony, is focused on the outcome of the computer age in our life and society. 37 While the digital

revolution enhanced architecture with CAD and VR, the post-digital paradigm realises an opportunity for

architects and designers of architectures to better understand the effects that computer age had on our

contemporary built environment, the latter intended as expression of oneness of the digital and the non-

digital. Paraphrasing Mel Alexenberg, we need to consider post-digital architecture as architecture that

‘address the humanization of digital technologies through interplay between digital, biological, cultural,

and spiritual systems, between cyberspace and real space, between embodied media and mixed reality in

social and physical communication, between visual, haptic, auditory, and kinaesthetic media experiences,

between virtual and augmented reality’. 38

As predicted by Guy Debord in his The Society of the Spectacle (1967), our society is replacing authentic

social life with its representation. Being the built environment an aspect of social life, it is constantly

shaped by social interactions and, at the same time, it also shapes those interactions. 39 Consequently, we

need to acknowledge that VW are becoming a wider expression of our personal and collective space, an

interactive spatial dimension where, in the very same moment we shape its space, it shapes us.

This revolutionary ongoing process had, as a major consequence on architecture, the loss of permanence,

one of its principal characteristic. Not anymore an expression of immortality, for the first time the

millennial discipline is shifting its essence from tangible artefacts to ephemeral places. Architecture of

VW in fact, evades permanency being a function of time, integrating space and time; this architecture is

an expression of the fluid, instable, ever changing digital environment of VW. 40

19
Generative Design (GD), the latest field of architecture research that works with artificial intelligence,

inspired an emerging generation of architects, educators and theorists (Discrete Architecture, Digital

Architectonics), that started to question the anachronistic formal continuity between RW and VW

architectural design. Their approach is focused on exploring a truly computational architecture based on

parts and rules that are driven-by, or totally free from human-imposed parameters. In this revolutionary

approach, architects don’t design the forms anymore, they design the process that generate the forms; this

is in analogy with nature, that generates the form of a tree, of a fish, of a flower through a specific

algorithm. In this new role, architects become ‘orchestrators’ of the processes (Michael Hansmeyer, TED

Talk 2012).

Applying ABE to VW, the paper tried to shed some light on how the correct application of architecture

theory to GD can contribute to the physical quality and complexity of VW. ABE in fact, demonstrated

that the role of memory and heritage in the current development of Virtual architecture is vital, as long as

we consider history as a process, an evolutionary realization of what is not just different from the RW,

but also improved. Applying the principles and methods of ABE on SL, it has been possible to produce

architectures through a combinatory process that realizes a meaningful spatial awareness for the users,

through the semantic values derived by a critical interpretation of heritage architecture. Using ABE

methodology, designers can freely choose from an endless source of forms and compositional principles

from the past, in order to create architecture in VW that possess aesthetic values but that are not copies of

previous architectures. These architectures are different from what we normally see in contemporary RW

and VW, because they are embedded with the lexicon and syntax of a language derived from memories

of the past. These architectures, as language games, guarantee a continuity across new designs,

incorporating time into the design process.

Last but not least, case studies on SL confirmed the validity of VW as distance learning tool not just to

teach and research single disciplines, but also to contribute to the hybridization of architecture, theatre

and gaming.

20
The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated the development of a more tangible, actualized Internet, under the

need of safer places to interact and live. 41 Metaverse as a persistent, shared, 3D virtual space linked into a

perceived virtual universe, is now seen as a possible futuristic evolution of the ‘new normal’, where the

VW will fulfill our RW needs and activities with engaging online experiences.

Considering the scale and impact that this revolutionary virtualisation process will have on our lives in

the next two decades, architects should embrace this challenge, offering their competencies to support

this post-digital spatial revolution, provided that their contribution does not disregard the role of

memory, history and architectural heritage.

______________________________

NOTES AND REFERENCES

1
J. C. Smart et al, Metaverse Roadmap Overview (2007) Retrieved on 12-05-2020 from:
http://metaverseroadmap.org/inputs4.html#glossary

2
G. Moneta, Logica e Complessità dell’Architettura (Rome: Edizioni Kappa, 2002).
3
V. Bourdakis, D. Charitos. Virtual Environment Design – Defining a new direction for architectural
education. (In eCAADe99 Proceedings, pp.400-410, 1999) Retrieved 28-08-2020 from:
http://fos.prd.uth.gr/vas/papers/ecaade99/
4
G. Bocchi, M. Ceruti. La sfida della complessità (Milan: Bruno Mondadori, 2007), p. 16.
5
H. Ibelings. Supermodernism: Architecture in the Age of Globalization (NAi Publishers, 1998)
6
D. Saitta. Three Urbanisms Revisited (Intercultural Urbanism, 31-08-2011) Retrieved on 29-08-2020
from: http://www.interculturalurbanism.com/?p=523
7
R. Koolhaas. S,M,L,XL (New York: The Monacelli Press, 1995)
8
Virtual Environment Design – Defining a new direction for architectural education.
9
M.L. Maher, S. Simoff, N. Gu, and H.K. Lau. Designing Virtual Architecture (CAADRIA 2000,
Proceedings of the Fifth Conference on Computer Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia, 19-05-
2000) Retrieved from: http://papers.cumincad.org/cgi-bin/works/Show?e501
10
R. Ingram. Building Virtual Worlds: A City Planning Perspective (In: Proceedings of the Fourth UK
VR-SIG Conference, Brunel University. 1997) Retrieved on 02-09-2020 from:
https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.23.1534&rep=rep1&type=pdf

21
11
K. Lynch. The Image of the City. (Cambridge, MA: MIT P, 1960)
12
D. Campbell. Design in Virtual Environments Using Architectural Metaphor. (MArch Dissertation,
University of Washington, 1996)
13
H.A. Bridges, D. Charitos. The architectural design in virtual environments (Munich: Kluwer Proc.
International Conference “CAAD Futures” ’97, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1997)
14
C. Alexander, S. Ishikawa, M. Silverstein, M. Jakobson, I. Fiksdahl-King, and S. Angel. A Pattern
Language – Towns, Buildings, Construction. (Oxford Univ. Press, 1977)

15
M. Mehaffy, N. A. Salingaros. The Pattern Technology of Christopher Alexander (Metropolis, 07-10-
2011) Retrieved on 02-09-2020 from: https://www.metropolismag.com/technology/the-pattern-
technology-of-christopher-alexander/
16
E. Adams, Designer's Notebook: The Role of Architecture in Videogames (9-10-2002) Retrieved 29-
06-2020 from: https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/131352/designers_notebook_the_role_of_.php
17
J. Brouchoud, Architects in Cyberspace, or not (14-07-2010) Retrieved on 10-09-2020 from:
https://archvirtual.com/2010/07/14/architects-in-cyberspace-or-not/
18
N. Gu, Dynamic Designs of Virtual Worlds Using Generative Design Agents (2006) Retrieved 12-9-
2020 from: https://core.ac.uk/reader/41229973
19
L. Hovestatd, Digital Architectonics (Zurich: ETH Zurich prof Ludger Hovestatd,2020) Retrieved on
01/09/2020 from: https://www.caad.arch.ethz.ch/
20
A. Gerber, U. Götz (eds.), Architectonics of Game Spaces (Bielefeld: Transcript, 2019). p. 138.
21
G. Retsin (ed.), Discrete. Reappraising the Digital in Architecture. (Architectural Design n.258,
March/April 2019)
22
M. Gerosa, Second Life (Rome: Meltemi Editore, 2007), p. 223.
23
This topic is discussed on gamestop.com. Retrieved on 07/04/2020 from:
https://www.gamespot.com/forums/games-discussion-1000000/do-a-lot-of-modern-games-look-the-
same-32846070/
24
S. Boyd Davis, The design of Virtual Environments with particular reference to VRML (Centre for
Electronic Arts, Middlesex University. 1996)
25
R. A. Bartle, (2004). Designing Virtual Worlds (Indianapolis: New Riders Pub, 2004) p. 65.
26
M. Veltman, (2017) Remembering the Old World. An Analysis of the Interaction between Virtual
Heritage and Cultural Memory. In Junctions -Graduate Journal of the Humanities (Vol 2, 2017) p. 42.
Retrieved on 12-1-2020 from http://junctionsjournal.org/
27
M. Saga, What It’s Like to Be an Architectural Consultant for Assassin’s Creed II (ArchDaily, 07-05-
2015) Retrieved on 28-03-2020 from: https://www.archdaily.com/774210/maria-elisa-navarro-the-
architectural-consultant-for-assassins-creed-ii/
22
28
M. Crocco, L. Nappi, A. Moneta, Progettare su Second Life: l’Architettura del Metaverso (Rome:
Weretomato, 2008) Retrieved on 05-02-2020 from:
https://www.andreamoneta.it/Architecture/portfolio.html
29
P. Gene, Silicon Valley is racing to build the next version of the Internet. Fortnite might get there first.
(The Washington Post online, 17-4-2020) Retrieved 20-06-2020 from:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2020/04/17/fortnite-metaverse-new-internet/
30
L. Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations. In G. Moneta, Logica e Complessità dell’Architettura
(Rome: Edizioni Kappa, 2002), p. 89.
31
L. Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations. In G. Moneta, Logica e Complessità dell’Architettura
(Rome: Edizioni Kappa, 2002), p. 114.
32
Logica e Complessità dell’Architettura. p. 89.
33
Definition of Form in Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved on 14-06-2020 from:
https://www.britannica.com/topic/form-philosophy
34
Logica e Complessità dell’Architettura. p. 109-112.
35
G. Froio, Fragment and Composition. Hadrian’s Disposition in the Modern Architecture (FA
magazine n. 32, April-May-June 2015), p. 54. Retrieved on 03-02-2020 from
http://dspace-unipr.cineca.it/bitstream/1889/2886/1/FAmagazine%2032%202015.pdf
36
Audience verbal feedback has been collected after the show on RW; audience feedback on VW has
been collected through the SL live chat with avatars.
37
D. M. Berry, Post-Digital Humanities: Computation and Cultural Critique in the Arts and Humanities.
(Educause Review, May 19, 2014) Retrieved 20/09/20 from:
https://er.educause.edu/articles/2014/5/postdigital-humanities-computation-and-cultural-critique-in-the-
arts-and-humanities
38
M. Alexenberg, The Future of Art in a Post-digital Age. (Bristol: Intellect Books Ltd, 2011)
39
J. White, Virtual Reality and the Built Environment. (Oxford: Architectural Press, 2002) p. 73.
40
Designing Digital Space, an Architect’s guide to Virtual Reality. p.289, 312.
41
Silicon Valley is racing to build the next version of the Internet. Fortnite might get there first. The
Washington Post online. Retrieved 20-06-2020 from: https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-
games/2020/04/17/fortnite-metaverse-new-internet/

23
FIGURES AND ILLUSTRATIONS

Fig. 1: The Roman Forum during Republican and Imperial era. The overlap of historical buildings over
time gives rise to the extraordinary architectural figures of the Forum, from which it is possible to
identify fundamental architectural principles and archetypes. Archetypes are not immutable: being
internal parts of the historical process, are subject to a constant transformation derived from their reuse.
Source: Samuel Ball Platner, The Topography and Monuments of Ancient Rome (Boston: Allyn and
Bacon, 1904). Public domain;

24
Fig. 2: Weretomato Designers’ meeting, flying over the building site of SL with Hadrian’s Villa scale 3d
model. This digital in-presence meeting allowed the designers to work together, building and testing the
architectural design options and results in real time.
(Source: personal archive).

25
Fig. 3: Hadrian’s Villa floor plan of Second Life Island; the original building’s walls had been scaled
down and selected to fit the square size of the island and to accommodate further new buildings
(represented with letters).
(Source: personal archive)

26
Fig. 4: Distant Learning on Second Life with Hadrian’s Villa Island: the Scenography student’s avatar
introduces and modifies her set design during online tutorials using Object Creation Tool of SL.
(Source: personal archive).

27
Fig. 5: Multidimensional performance ‘@nts’: RW version at the Studio Theatre of the Faculty of
Architecture Vallegiulia, University of Rome La Sapienza. The physical ‘cube’ is also used to create a
visual connection in real time with the VW version on SL.
(Source: personal archive).

28
Fig. 6: Multidimensional performance ‘@nts’: VW version in the Maritime Theatre of Second Life. The
digital ‘cube’ is also used to create a visual connection in real time with the RW version in the Studio
Theatre of the Faculty of Architecture.
(Source: personal archive).

29
Fig. 7: Diamond Island masterplan. The ABE design methodology informed both the selection of
language and the use of Elements: Louis Kahn’s National Parliament House plan (white) creating a
dialogue with the city of Philadelphia’s grid (grey).
(Source: personal archive).

30
Fig. 8: Aerial view of Diamond Island’s completed design. Kahn’s architecture (brickwork Elements) has
almost reduced to ruin, therefore with the dignity of memory. Interpreted as a sort of pre-existence, it
creates a dialogue with the new architectures of the Campus.
(Source: personal archive).

31