Interior Design and digby Launch the Metaverse Architecture and Design Awards
Submissions are currently open for this first-of-its-kind, web3-driven program
Marking a first for the design industry, Interior Design and digby have started an awards program geared specifically for the metaverse. Currently open for submissions, the Metaverse Architecture and Design Awards (MAD) will recognize and solidify the burgeoning creative community within the new digital space. Across eight categories—Metaverse Destination, Impossible Physics, Workplace Extension, Digital Twinning, Immersive Digital Art, AI-Generated Design, Unreal Advertising, Students and Blockchain Technology (NFTs)—as well as unbuilt and built categories for commercial, residential, hospitality and experiential projects and products, MAD is a wide-ranging program that seeks to honor a new frontier of design.
“Why now?” asks Cindy Allen, Editor in Chief of Interior Design. “If web2 taught us anything, it’s critical to be ahead! We see this as an important opportunity to push the industry forward, and to raise the profile of the designers, brands and creators already experimenting and activating here. Our priority is to shine a light on great design everywhere… in any universe!”
Submissions—which are open until 21 December—are eligible for any architecture, design and manufacturing professionals, firms or companies using 3D tools or building for web3 and the metaverse. Students are also eligible, so long as they are in an academic program—be it graduate, undergraduate, vocational, online or secondary school. The cost of entry varies based on the time of submission and category, with an early bird (now until 27 November) rate of $250, student rate of $25 and $299 for all others.
The submissions will be judged by a panel of esteemed designers, web3 luminaries and industry professionals who are looking for “projects, products and spaces that not only inspire and wow us, but also demonstrate meaningful innovation in architecture and design that push us toward the future,” Allen tells us. “Whether it’s the most groundbreaking architecture in an existing metaverse, unreal advertising taking products out of this world or an unbuilt, three-dimensional space that showcases excellence in creativity, we want to see the work in the metaverse that will inspire the industry.”
Finalists will be notified in February 2023, and the award ceremony will take place in collaborative community platform Spatial.io‘s metaverse—which is another first for the industry.
Images courtesy of Spatial.io
