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Towards Digital Place(s): cultivating a language of digital design in architecture

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Architecture masters of science program: theses, possibilities in post-digital architecture.

Kathryn J. Horn , University of Nebraska-Lincoln Follow

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Jeffrey L. Day

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Spring 5-5-2017

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Horn, Kathryn J. "Possibilities in Post-Digital Architecture" Master of Architecture Thesis, The University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2017

A THESIS Presented to the Architecture Faculty of The College of Architecture at the University of Nebraska In Partial Fulfillment of Requirements For the Degree of Master of Architecture, Major: Architecture, Under the Supervision of Professor Jeffrey L. Day. Lincoln, Nebraska: May, 2017

Copyright (c) 2017 Kathryn J. Horn

This thesis aims to define and understand the post-digital within architecture, beyond its critical contribution to the realm of architectural imagery. The theory that is developed, argues that a post-digital practice of utilizing sourced material can contribute to the discipline of the design of architectural elements, components, and spaces as much so as it may contribute to the development of architectural imagery. Despite the atmosphere of difference that characterizes the contemporary debate over the definition of the digital condition, there is shared agreement that the post-digital indeed reigns as the hallmark of a contemporary era that establishes itself as after-digital.

From this known I argue that the influence of extremely large data sets characterized in search-based consumption that may be analyzed computationally to reveal patterns, trends, and associations within not only architectural imagery, but the development of post-digital architectural spatial constructs as well.

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Architecture Thesis Topics for the Digital Age

• March 25, 2024
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• landscape urbanism , presentation , urban mobility , Urbanism

With a new era emerging in which technology permeates every part of our life, architecture students are in a unique position to investigate and define how this merging changes our virtual and physical spaces. This article explores innovative architecture thesis topics that combine architecture with cutting-edge technologies such as AI, IoT, metaverse, and more. These concepts are more than simply idle speculations; they represent doors to real-world fixes and imaginative places that might shape our surroundings in the future.

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Virtual Environments and the Metaverse

1. Designing Virtual Architecture within the Metaverse: Explore the potential of virtual spaces to host communities, focusing on sustainable and user-friendly design principles that encourage interaction and inclusivity.

2. Biophilic Design in Virtual Environments: Investigate how principles of biophilic design can enhance user experience in digital realms, fostering a connection with nature and improving wellbeing.

3. Virtual Public Squares : Conceptualize public squares within the metaverse, emphasizing virtual democracy, community engagement, and social interaction in a digitally native environment.

4. Enhancing Visitor Experiences in Museums through Augmented Reality: Develop augmented reality experiences that transform museum visits into interactive, educational, and immersive journeys.

5. The Future of Workspaces: Envision the evolution of workspaces as they become hybrids of virtual and physical environments, addressing the changing nature of collaboration and productivity.

Smart Cities and IoT

6. Smart Cities and IoT: Architectural Frameworks: Focus on creating connected urban ecosystems that enhance living conditions through smart infrastructure, energy management, and sustainable practices.

7. The Development of Autonomous Building Systems: Investigate how IoT can automate and optimize building functions, from energy efficiency to security, creating self-managed structures.

8. Smart Urban Furniture: Design urban furniture that incorporates IoT technologies, improving public space utility through connectivity and smart features.

9. Smart Lighting Solutions in Urban Landscapes: Examine how IoT-connected lighting can enhance safety, efficiency, and aesthetics in urban environments.

10. Sustainable Urban Mobility: Propose architectural and infrastructural designs that integrate technology to improve public transport systems, reduce congestion, and promote sustainable mobility.

AI and Machine Learning in Architecture

11. Artificial Intelligence in Urban Planning: Develop predictive models that leverage AI to forecast urban growth, plan sustainable developments, and mitigate potential challenges.

12. AI-driven Adaptive Reuse of Buildings: Utilize AI to analyze structures and propose adaptive reuse strategies that meet contemporary needs while preserving historical value.

13. The Use of Generative Design in Creating Responsive Urban Spaces: Employ AI to generate design solutions that respond to environmental, social, and economic data, crafting spaces that adapt to future challenges.

14. AI in Landscape Architecture: Create designs for public spaces that adapt to changing climates and user needs, using AI to simulate and predict environmental impacts.

15. AI for Enhanced Real Estate and Facility Management: Explore how AI can streamline operations, maintenance, and user experiences in real estate, particularly within virtual environments.

Sustainable and Responsive Technologies

16. Eco-friendly Materials in Metaverse Architecture: Research sustainable materials and construction techniques for virtual architecture, promoting environmental stewardship in digital design.

17. Energy-efficient Smart Homes: Focus on designing homes that incorporate smart technologies for energy management, aiming for sustainability and comfort.

18. Adaptive Skins: Investigate responsive building envelopes that adapt to environmental conditions, optimizing energy use and indoor comfort through innovative materials and technologies.

19. 3D Printing in Architecture: Explore the potential of 3D printing in creating sustainable, efficient, and customizable construction methods and materials.

20. Smart Grids and Sustainable Architecture: Design architectural solutions that integrate with smart grids, facilitating the use of renewable energy sources and enhancing grid stability.

Resilient and Adaptive Urban Spaces

21. AI-driven Adaptive Reuse of Buildings: Using AI to analyze and propose adaptive reuse strategies that meet contemporary needs, focusing on sustainability and the revitalization of urban landscapes.

22. Sustainable Urban Mobility: Proposing architectural and infrastructural designs that integrate technology to enhance public transport systems, aiming for reduced environmental impact and improved urban connectivity.

23. Interactive Façades: Merging digital technology with architectural design to create facades that interact with their surroundings, offering dynamic experiences and energy management capabilities.

24. Digital Twins for Urban Planning: Utilizing digital twins in the planning and management of urban projects, bridging the gap between digital simulation and physical construction to optimize urban development.

Technology-Enhanced Learning and Preservation

25. Virtual Reality as a Tool for Architectural Education: Leveraging VR to offer immersive educational experiences, enabling students to explore and interact with complex architectural designs and concepts.

26. The Role of Augmented Reality in Heritage Conservation: Employing AR technologies to enhance the conservation and restoration of heritage sites, offering interactive and immersive experiences that educate and preserve.

Innovative Design Processes

27. The Use of Generative Design in Creating Responsive Urban Spaces: Utilizing AI for generating design solutions that dynamically respond to environmental, social, and economic data, aiming for adaptable and resilient urban spaces.

28. Designing for Accessibility in Virtual Reality: Exploring architectural considerations for creating accessible and inclusive designs in virtual reality, ensuring equitable access to digital spaces.

29. AI in Landscape Architecture: Applying AI to the design of public spaces, using data to create adaptive, resilient, and engaging landscapes that respond to changing environmental and social needs.

30. Designing Virtual Architecture within the Metaverse: Creating principles and guidelines for designing sustainable and user-friendly community spaces within the metaverse, reflecting on the implications for physical architecture.

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The metaverse as opportunity for architecture and society: design drivers, core competencies

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• Published: 17 August 2022
• Volume 1 , article number  11 , ( 2022 )

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The thesis is that the metaverse will become a pervasive part of the future internet and will thus become a key arena within which the life of society unfolds. As three-dimensional, immersive virtual world, the metaverse will be designed by architects rather than graphic designers. After 30 years of theoretical speculation and technological advances the internet is finally on the way to transforming in ways envisioned with the concept of ‘cyberspace’. The key analogy is no longer the magazine with separate pages but the city and its seamless web of spaces. The paper argues that this immersive internet delivers a superior, more productive platform for social exchange and communication. Co-location synergies will unfold and order the distribution of sites and enable an intuitive browsing navigation full of discoveries and serendipitous encounters, as well as creating sites for vivid crowd interactions. It is this superiority that will lead to architects taking over from graphic designers as profession owning the design of all online interaction frames. This paper explores the plausibility of this takeover and the attendant expansion of architecture’s competency.

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1 Introduction

The life process of society is a communication process that is ordered via a rich typology of communicative situations. It is the designed environment, both physical and digital, that spatially distributes, frames, stabilises and coordinates these distinct situations within an evolving order that allows us to self-sort as participants of various specific social interactions. Designing is communicative framing. This task formula and understanding of the societal function of architecture and design applies also to web design and the framing of all digitally mediated forms of social interaction. This insight must now be made the explicit premise and agenda for a systematic design research project that bridges architecture and interaction design in 3D virtual worlds. All the design disciplines, from urban design and architecture to fashion and graphic design, together do or should form a unified discourse and practice with a unity of purpose: the sensuous framing of communicative social interaction. This also includes all web design, all video-conferencing platforms, as well as all virtual collaboration platforms. Here too our colleagues’ framing design work is always involved.

A metaverse is an ensemble of virtual environments in which a new form of communication via personal avatars can happen across global computer networks like the world wide web. Metaverse spaces are 3D or 4D digital models, augmented with interaction capabilities. They are accessible from devices like personal PCs, laptops, mobile apps, smart TVs and VR headsets, as well as – in the near future – from architectural spaces that double up as interfaces via panoramic screens, or holographic projections. Massively multiplayer online (MMO) video-game technologies, combined with high-speed network and cloud technologies, enable such virtual spaces to be immersive, sensorially engaging platforms of information sharing and real time communicative interaction. Such interactions include social networking, creative collaboration, conferencing, exhibitions, public performances, and many types of commercial interactions. The metaverse is thus enabling novel markets and novel social, cultural, educational and business exchanges.

The metaverse is being built as we speak, rapidly. But who is designing it? Who should design it? The thesis here is that the design of the metaverse falls within the remit and core competency of the discipline of architecture.

2 Architecture’s core competency

Architectural design for cyberspace—while implying a total substitution of the entire engineering stack—follows the same premises that guide architectural design in general. This expansion of architecture’s remit will further distil the discipline’s essence and core competency, namely the spatio-visual ordering of communicative interaction, upgraded via investment into the design drivers and sub-disciplines of spatiology, phenomenology, and semiology. Matters of communication and communicative framing, dynamic or static, are here – in the context of metaverse design—distilled as the essential function of all design. The native interactivity and malleability of the digital realm suggests ‘dramaturgy’ as yet another sub-discipline and key ingredient of our discipline’s competency. In the context of the design of virtual communication spaces it makes sense to interpret the architect’s task as UI/UX design. This concept of an interface design and user experience design can be generalized across all design disciplines, including architectural design in its physical instantiation. All architecture and design is UX/UI design, involving organisation (spatiology), articulation (phenomenology), signification (semiology) and interaction design (dramaturgy).

In the realm of virtual environment design the desire for adaptive, kinetic, actively self-transforming communicative architectural frames is much easier to realise. On this count dramaturgy will be much more foregrounded in the metaverse than it ever was in the context of physical architecture.

There are three premises of metaverse design posited here and implied by the author’s theory of architecture (Schumacher, 2010 ): a general premise concerning the scope of the design disciplines, a general premise about the societal responsibility of design, and a premise concerning the specific task posed by the current societal condition:

2.1 Premise 1: the universal power of design

Architecture and the design disciplines together bear universal and exclusive responsiblity with respect to the phenomenal appearance of the totality of the build environment and the world of artefacts, i.e. with respect to the totality of our phenomenal world. Appearances are important contributors to social functionality: they are indispensible orienting communications. Everything that surrounds us, meets our senses and, as interface, mediates our communications with the social world was visualized by a colleague designer. The design disciplines include: urban design, landscape design, architecture, interior design, furniture design, fashion design, product design, as well as graphic design and web-design, and in the near future: metaverse design.

2.2 Premise 2: framing as societal responsibility of design

The societal function of all design – physical or virtual – is the spatio-visual framing of communicative interaction. The designed spaces – physical or virtual—are themselves communications: they are communications that define, premise and prime the communicative interactions that are expected to take place within the respectively framed territory. These framing communications are crucial aspect in ordering society by differentiating, defining and structuring specific social situations with specific purposes, social protocols, and conditions of success.

2.3 Premise 3: the task posed by the contemporary condition

With respect to our complex and dynamic ‘postfordist network society’ the design task of framing implies now: Complex, dynamic, dense, and diverse (but legible) information-rich environments are to facilitate orientation, navigation, and recognition (the identification of specific social situations) for an interaction-rich, productive, communicative, collaborative social life process. This applies equally to the design of physical and virtual environments or frames.

All the design disciplines together form a single discourse and function system of society with the shared societal function of the spatio-visual framing of all communicative interactions. This discourse revolves around the lead distinction of form (internal reference) versus function (external reference), is structured by the persistent binary code of (formally and functionally) ‘resolved’ versus ‘unresolved’. The criteria for the concrete application of these code values is being programmed and re-programmed by the design disciplines’ historically evolving, adapting styles . To the extent that all designers respond to the global design discourse, this discourse is omnipotent with respect to the spatio-visual shaping of the phenomenal world, within the economic constraints and social functionality expectations set by (private or public) clients.

The design task of the communicative spatio-visual framing of the societal life process must draw on four distinct but interrelated domains of expertise with their respective subtasks as follows:

spatiology: organisation delivering complex configurations

phenomenology: articulation delivering perceptual tractability

semiology: signification delivering information-richness

dramaturgy: interaction delivering interaction-richness

These four domains of learning define four agendas and parts of every architectural design project: The spatiological project, the phenomenological project, the semiological project and the dramaturgical project. Together these four parts constitute the methodological structure of the design project and process, for the design of both physical and virtual environments. These four subtasks and domains of expertise can be further defined and characterized as follows:

‘Spatiology’ is concerned with spatial organisation and plots out the geometric premises, sets the scene as it were, for the other three agendas of phenomenology, semiology and dramaturgy. Spatiology guides the distribution of places in space with respect to distancing, adjacencies and connections. This task dimension involves the selection of strategies of spatial organisation like axial ordering, grids, stacking, nesting, overlapping etc. An expanded spatiological expertise might draw on conceptual and computational resources provided by the mathematics of network theory.

‘Phenomenology’, as understood in this essay (and in the author’s theory of architecture in general), is concerned with morphological articulation and addresses the problem of the perceptual tractability of complex spatial/social scenes, i.e. the task of maintaining legibility in the face of complexity (Schumacher, 2012 ). The psychology of perception in general, and the subfield of spatial cognition in particular, provides a key resource with respect to this task dimension.

‘Semiology’ is concerned with communication via signification. The meaning of spaces and designs coincides with the social interactions they frame, i.e. meaning is or anticipates social use (Schumacher, 2012 ). The semiological project sets out the task of increasing the information-richness of the built environment by means of crafting a spatio-visual language or system of signification that is empowered by the combinatorial potency of grammar. Here linguistics serves as a fertile source domain for conceptual inspiration.

‘Dramaturgy’ is concerned with patterns and potentials of interaction. In the context of architecture, and in the context of designing for the metaverse, understood as a spatial immersive world wide web, dramaturgy is closely related to what in web-design is pursued under the heading of interaction design. Dramaturgy implies environmental action in the time dimension, i.e. the design of a built environment, physical or virtual, that is both kinetically responsive to user interaction as well as spontaneously engaging users (Schumacher, 2021 ).

Spatiology, phenomenology, semiology and dramaturgy identify and define central aspects of architecture’s task domain. These aspects of architectural learning respond to key challenges contemporary architecture faces with respect to its need to adapt its intelligence and design resources to the density, complexity and dynamism of twenty-first century social life. It is especially in this context of cyberspace and metaverse design that the task dimensions of spatiology, phenomenology, semiology and dramaturgy as key dimensions of a spatial UI/UX design effort are foregrounded as indispensable competencies. Here too architecture must cope with increasing levels of social communicative density, complexity and dynamism. As physical construction constraints disappear, spatial cognition, information density and interaction richness come to the fore as the critical performance criteria of design.

3 The overdue advent of cyberspace and metaverse

The internet started as a mainly academic network in the 1980s and took off more broadly in the early 1990s. Soon some of us architects imagined that the internet would develop into a virtual three-dimensional navigation and communication space, i.e. ‘cyberspace’. The word “cyberspace” was coined by science fiction writer William Gibson, in his 1984 science-fiction novel ‘Neuromancer’. The term ‘metaverse’ was coined by Neal Stephenson in his 1992 science-fiction novel ‘Snow Crash’.

The design studio the author was teaching at TU Berlin in 1995 was exploring this idea under the heading ‘Virtual College’: Online learning as collective experience facilitated within a virtual architecture. Informative inspiration was drawn from architect Michael Benedikt’s seminal book, first published in 1991: ‘Cyberspace: First Steps’. Benedikt mused about “a new stage, a new and irresistible development in the elaboration of human culture” (Benedikt, 1991a , p.1) and did speculate conscientiously and resourcefully about “the nature of the artificial or illusory space(s) of computer-sustained virtual worlds” (Benedikt, 1991b , p.119).

However, the internet became a magazine-like medium instead, the preserve of graphic designers rather than architects. This will change. Cyberspace and metaverse are now firmly on the agenda.

Due to the long drawn out Covid-19 lockdown experienced across the world in 2020, 2021 and into 2022, all communication, work collaboration, and all social events were pushed online, into the realm of digitally mediated interaction. The adoption of video-conferencing tools shot up massively, and so did the business investment into this domain. We are currently witnessing an explosion of start-up companies offering virtual event spaces. This new situation accelerated a process that had been going on for a while. But mass adoption brings a wholly new dynamic into this realm.

This re-emergence of the idea of cyberspace, this time with accelerating practical pressure and much more technological power than 30 years ago, was rather sudden. Michael Benedikt’s book remains a valid resource of inspiration.

Benedikt asks (and gives answers to) the key questions that remain relevant: “How might it (cyberspace) look like, how might we get around in it, and, most importantly, what might we usefully do there?”(Benedikt, 1991a , p.19). The last of these most general questions should probably be answered like this: We would want to do there everything we are doing in urban and architectural spaces: browse, communicate, work, learn, create, both individually and collaboratively, socialise, entertain etc. The lockdown has impaired all urban and architectural interaction spaces and thus calls for everything to go virtual. This is a radically new situation. In the intervening years virtual environments were a choice, not a necessity, and the choice in favour of VR was made primarily in the realm of entertainment, especially via video games. This market had grown sufficiently large to deliver resources to technological development, ample user market feedback, and a whole competitive industry. The fruits of these investments can now be reaped via technology transfer into societal domains where serious productive work is to be facilitated for adult users who have no time to waste. The forced push due to Covid-19 has led to the discovery that remote, mediated collaboration can be effective. This lesson cannot be un-learned and a new working lifestyle starts to emerge and stay. The thesis of this paper is that this new life will be based on cyber-urban integration and metaverse agglomeration.

Benedikt asks further: “Which axioms and laws of nature ought to be retained in cyberspace … and which axioms and laws can be adjusted or jettisoned for the sake of empowerment.” (Benedikt, 1991b , p. 119). This is an important question, and there are many possible answers. In any event, cyberspace will have a “geography, a physics, a nature, and a rule of human law” (Benedikt, 1991b , p.123). Benedikt shares some useful considerations and proposes some heuristics he discovered in the speculative cyber-space design explorations he conducted with his students. He rightly suggests that when cyberspace takes off “there will likely be myriad places in, and many regions of cyberspace – each with its own character, rules and function” (Benedikt, 1991b , p.122). He also anticipates that there will be a number of different competing kinds of cyberspaces, “each with its own culture, appearance, lore and law” (Benedikt, 1991b , p.122).

Benedikt introduces some useful basic distinction, like the distinction ‘navigation versus destination’, and the distinction ‘extrinsic versus intrinsic’ dimensions (Benedikt, 1991b , pp.134–135). These are dimensions of information encoding or visualisation, whereby the extrinsic dimensions are the two or three spatial dimensions that define an object’s location or position in space (with time being a fourth extrinsic dimension) while an unbounded number of morphological properties or features are brought under the notion of intrinsic dimensions that might be used to distinguish and characterise an object or place in cyberspace. The important insight is put forward here that, with respect to the function of information conveyance, extrinsic and intrinsic encodings are in principle functionally equivalent, so that it is the cyberspace-designer’s choice which aspect or information to encode via extrinsic variables, i.e. (absolute or relative) location/position, and which via intrinsic variables, i.e. shape, colour, materiality etc. The presumption here is—just as in the case of an urban order—that spatial positions are not randomly allocated but mean something and thus convey some (at least probabilistic) information.

While Benedikt does not reference architectural semiology, probably because he conceives cyberspace more in terms of data-visualisation than in terms of architecture and spaces of interaction, it became clear to the author in the early 1990s that cyberspace design is essentially an effort in architectural semiology. However, while the engagement with cyberspace was left behind (because the web became instead the domain of graphic designers) but the author’s keen interest in the semiological project as a central aspect of the architect’s core competency remained. With this came the theme of ‘information-richness’, or ‘information density’ in the author’s theory of architecture (Schumacher, 2013 ), a theme which was also one of Benedikt’s central themes for cyberspace design. The other theme that was brought back into architecture and urban design is the theme of orientation and navigation. Now the renewed engagement with the problem and task of cyberspace design brings these central themes back full circle. Architectural theory is thus well prepared for the challenge of metaverse design.

The distinction of navigation and destination is not a strict one. Most urban and architectural spaces are both navigation and destination spaces. The differentiation of pure navigation spaces like corridors, highways and subways are a modern phenomenon, but even these spaces are never wholly devoid of information and communication potentials but can offer more than the mere transition from A to B. The city can and should be browsed, and this browsing should also be a keen mode of engagement with cyberspace. We cannot assume that users know about all the offerings in advance but rather they must be enabled to browse, scan and discover what is there, not utterly randomly but in a structured exploration, where serendipitous discovery is enabled without a loss of overall orientation. Virtual environment researchers Rudolph P. Darken and Barry Peterson make this point too:

Navigation is rarely, if ever, the primary task. It just tends to get in the way of what you really want to do. Our goal is to make the execution of navigation tasks as transparent and trivial as possible, but not to preclude the elements of exploration and discovery. Disoriented people are anxious, uncomfortable, and generally unhappy. If these conditions can be avoided, exploration and discovery can take place. (Darken & Peterson, [ 2018 ] p.468)

The explorative surplus navigation can bring, as an alternative to just tele-porting instantly to pre-selected destinations, has its equivalent in the slackness of lingering time around scheduled events. Informal pre-gatherings and the post-event lingering are very important for networking and an informal information exchange. These spontaneous networking processes make productive use of the non-random, select group brought together by the respective scheduled event, e.g. by a lecture, conference or exhibition opening etc. The utilisation of such an opportunity for explorative meetings and information exchanges requires structured spaces of extended co-presence that are not available via conferencing tools like zoom, or in virtual exhibitions, both still based on the magazine or page analogy rather than the city and building analogy.

To return to Benedikt’s question which axioms and laws of nature ought to be retained in cyberspace: The same question is posed with respect to the familiar organisation and articulation of the city, its buildings and spaces. How much of this must be retained in order to effectively exploit the city analogy? The point of the analogy is to build on our familiarity with cities and on our collectively shared competency as city dwellers and users. This knowledge is extensive, and mostly tacit, and therefore underestimated. The panoply of building types and types of urban or interior spaces that order our interactions in real space is highly differentiated, full of nuanced clues about the social situations and protocols of communication competent participants have to distinguish and master. The ‘laws of the city’ are much richer than the laws of nature. They are not universal a priori constraints but have co-evolved together with the societies they sustained, and must be understood historically, as embodying a historically transient pragmatic rationality. Due to the fact that the expressed information is mostly taken in subconsciously, and not easily made explicit, a strategy of close analogy and realistic rendering, rather than radical abstraction and other-worldliness, recommends itself as initial default strategy. This does not imply the wholesale replication of familiar spaces. Semiological associations can also we carried forward, intuitively engaged and activated with original creative designs, as long as they are grounded in the base vocabulary and grammar of the contemporary city. Although there is an inherent tension between the demands for novelty and familiarity, avant-garde styles like tectonism – the latest stage of parametricism—can be employed to great effect as long as a deliberate semiological project is pursuit.

4 Metaverse design innovations feeding back into physical architecture

While Benedikt presciently predicted the currently emerging virtual worlds and meta-verses when he talked about cyberspace as “a new universe, a parallel universe created and sustained by the world’s computers and communication lines” (Benedikt, 1991a , p.1), the emphasis here is instead on the integration and indeed fusion of physical and virtual spaces.

When tasked with the simultaneous design of both the physical and virtual environments for a client the question also becomes: To which degree will the virtual extensions of the physical architecture retain its look, feel and logic? Probably to a very large extent, especially if we allow the new design features motivated by the modus operandi of the virtual expansion to feed back into the design of the spaces of physical co-presence. Even if the dramaturgy is different, the semiological system of signification should be largely the same and cross the divide between physical and virtual realms.

This feedback or influence of the virtual design into the physical design should include attempts to physically implement the pro-active, adaptive, mobile architectural agents we can presume to be pioneered more pervasively in the virtual domain. The virtual domains will also effortlessly advance additional (real time) graphic information overlays. These too should, as much as possible, be implemented in the design of the physical interaction domains, via AR devices like Google/Facebook glasses, via projections, or if no real time variability but only static information is applied, via further permanent morphological or material encoding. The presumption (and promoted heuristics) here is the massive increase in information density, both in the virtual and in the physical spaces, far beyond what we are used to encounter in architecture and urban design up to now. The hypothesis and hope in this respect is that the advent of cyberspace will lead to a new flourishing of architectural semiology. This is plausible or can be expected to the extent to which cyberspace will, from the perspective of its users, surpass any known city in terms of its variety and density of differentiated, effective interaction offerings. For this density to remain navigable, semiological (as well as phenomenological) articulation will become necessary. Large proprietary complexes or districts will probably be semiologically integrated by their dedicated or coordinated designers while larger city-like agglomerations will engender a spontaneous semiosis that then feeds on itself in its further expansion and densification. In any event, architectural semiology, as the (still largely unacknowledged) essence of the metaverse design task, has a better chance to succeed in cyberspace than in physical urban space, not least due to the fierce global, borderless competition in cyberspace, and due to the attendant more rapid historical turnover and remodelling of spaces. The increased communicative capacity that will then increasingly be expected by the users of cyberspace will lead them to expect or demand a similar information richness and communicative capacity from the physical urban and architectural spaces they would be willing to patronise. The users’ expectations and the competency in information absorption they acquired in cyberspace will fuel and finally force the semiological upgrading of the physical environment too. The challenge will be the faster pace of development, continuous upgrading, replacement. We have to get used to that we are not building for eternity.

This physical environment will not only acquire a new semiological density and coherence but will be transformed in many further respects as it gets enveloped by and infused with virtuality. Most walls and architectural and urban surfaces will become windows into virtual extensions connecting physical to virtual spaces. Room-sized, full or partially enveloping panoramic screens or projections are very effective mechanisms of collective immersion into virtual spaces. Whole groups of physically co-located participants can thereby be transported into a virtual environment, and thereby interact with several other groups. Another potent form of tele-presencing is the use of holograms. The required equipment could be built into strategic locations like at the lectern in a lecture theatre. Both technologies are being advanced rapidly, to ever greater effect and are ever more affordable. A further compelling technology for tele-presencing is Microsoft’s VROOM—Virtual Robot Overlay for Online Meetings. Here telepresence robots allow remote users to freely explore a space they are not in, and provide a physical embodiment in that space. Here a robot acts on behalf of a remote participant in a physical space, just like an avatar in a virtual space. That robot is either equipped with a screen at head height to deliver a video presence of the remote participant, or becomes the site of an AR overlay for co-present participants wearing AR glasses. Holograms might also be spawned from such robots. These examples in hardware evolution imply that we must not imagine that cyberspace will be experienced only at home from a laptop, phone or headset, but within new types of technology empowered immersive spaces.

5 Cyber-urban incubators

Recent urbanism notes and facilitates industry-specific urban knowledge economy clusters delivering valuable co-location synergies. Within the individual buildings the synergetic clustering of mutually relevant firms and their spaces is repeated. The idea on a Cyber-Urban Incubator is proposing to double up these urban spaces with corresponding virtual spaces, not as digital twin replicas but as congenial extensions with their own related laws of navigation, encounter and modes of interaction. However, these two realms should ideally be connected via spatial interfaces and via a unified spatio-visual language as integrated system of signification. Physical spaces can afford windows into virtual spaces where the semiology is the same and the logic of gathering and communicating is similar enough to allow for the transfer of competencies from the physical to the virtual realm. These competencies are the complementary competencies of both designers and end users.

The project presented below to illustrate the idea of cyber-physical hybridity is a post-graduate design research thesis developed in the context of the Design Research Lab at the Architectural Association (AADRL) in London. The project, developed by a team of four graduate students, was part of cluster of four such projects forming a creative industry start-up urban district at the Queens waterfront in New York.

The project started by conceptualising and sketching a series of hybrid interaction scenarios. There are a number of technologies that allow for the tele-presence of remote participants, for instance holographic projections, or more advanced options like VROOM, Microsoft’s tele-presence option via remote controlled robots. Low tech options for tele-presence include the possibility of mixing physical presence with remote participation by interweaving physical chairs with virtual chairs (screens) around a table. Another intriguing option is to work with large panoramic screens that function as a virtual expansion of the physical space, similar to a trompe-l'œil, but inhabited by avatars representing the remote participants (Figs .1 , 2 , 3 and 4 ).

Trompe-l'œil space expansions. ‘Cybertecture’ by Stefan Tzon Manousof, Qi Yang, Amin Yassin, Yang Yu; AADRL Studio ‘Cyber-urban Incubator’, tutors: Patrik Schumacher, Pierandrea Angius

These projected space expansions function like windows into virtual spaces. These virtual spaces continue the geometry of the physical space and simulate its materiality via photorealistic real time rendering as is now possible, for instance, with the latest version of Epic’s ‘unreal engine’. However, geometric and stylistic continuity at the edges might be enough to establish a sense of immersive connection with the physical space, allowing then also for inventive transformations of the virtual space expansion, like various degrees of abstraction, or an enhanced kinetic malleability. A further obvious possibility that is being explored in the AADRL studio is the opportunity to work with info-graphic overlays that deliver further information about the space and its participants. These overlays can also be overlaid onto the physical space via augmented reality (AR) technology. The design inspiration flows in both directions of the physical – virtual divide (Figs. 5 ,  6 ,  7 ,  8 and 9 ).

Spatiology and phenomenology of the virtuality voids. ‘Cybertecture’ by Stefan Tzon Manousof, Qi Yang, Amin Yassin, Yang Yu; AADRL Studio ‘Cyber-urban Incubator’, tutors: Patrik Schumacher, Pierandrea Angius

The spatiological strategy for the project assumes that the intensity with which physical spaces are laced with connections into virtual realms is a matter of degree. There are areas where physical presence dominates, like in current office environment where only the desk tops, laptops and mobile phone screens connect with the virtual world, without giving a sense of spatial integration. On the other end of this spectrum we find spaces, like VR caves, where the immersion into virtual interaction scenarios dominates, even when several individuals are also physically co-located while joining a virtual space. The spatiology here distributes a series of blob-shaped voids that cut across the building’s slabs to establish the places with a high degree of virtuality as multi-storey mega-caves that are also visible on the exterior of the building as glowing, animated domes. These mega-blobs occasionally also form meta-ball formations. Between these high virtuality centres and the low virtuality periphery users can follow a gradient of variously calibrated mixed reality spaces that are ordered in a trajectory of increasing mediation towards the virtuality nodes.

In terms of phenomenology and semiology, the gradient is reinforced in the following way: Those local space expansions that are closer to the periphery and where physical co-location is foregrounded and dominates the mixed reality scenario, the virtual spaces are rendered in photo-realistic fashion, mimicking closely the form and materiality of the physical space. As the mixed reality spaces approach the voids, and the balance between physical and virtual presence shifts, the way the virtual spaces are rendered also shifts towards abstraction, increased kinetic malleability and generally towards greater and greater emancipation from the presuppositions of the physical design. The degree of rendering abstraction and design emancipation displayed in the virtual space expansions is thus signifying the degree to which the respective communication events are locally or globally focussed. The opportunity and intensity of dramaturgical design ideas also increases with the increasing shift of balance towards the virtual realm. However, dramaturgy is never altogether absent even from physically focused spaces.

It is one of the ambitions of the author to use the increased dramaturgical design opportunities delivered by the emergence of metaverse architecture to also advance the dramaturgical project in the realm of physical architecture. This has been a longstanding theme within the author’s design research agenda, previously pursuit under labels like ‘responsive environments’ and ‘spontaneous environments’ (Schumacher, 2021 ). Here is also an important role for AI to enter and empower architectural spaces, both virtual and physical. The ambition is to design an environment where many (if not all) architectural elements become self-directed, learning architectural agents that form a productive collaborative ecology together with the human participants, eschewing remote control for the free unfolding of artificial architectural intelligence. In both the physical and virtual spaces ai-empowered creatures will, more and more, become our valued collaborators. The life-process of the future will thus become a man–machine ecology, in both the physical and virtual spaces that together form the mixed reality our social lives will inhabit (Figs. 10 , 11 and 12 ).

Urban interface of the cyber-urban incubator – façade and courtyard. ‘Cybertecture’ by Stefan Tzon Manousof, Qi Yang, Amin Yassin, Yang Yu; AADRL Studio ‘Cyber-urban Incubator’, tutors: Patrik Schumacher, Pierandrea Angius

6 The liberland metaverse

The Liberland Metaverse is one of several metaverse projects the author is contributing to via Zaha Hadid Architects. Of these projects the Liberland Metaverse has been developed the furthest, and can thus best serve as illustration and occasion to discuss the general thrust of the author’s metaverse ideas and ambitions. This project has reached the stage of an indicative concept design plus an inhabitable ‘proof of concept’ virtual space, open 24/7 to be experienced by invited guests like potential investors. An initial soft launch was held at the occasion of the 7 th anniversary of the founding of Liberland for 100 guests with a live stream of the simultaneous Liberland conference broadcast into the primary space of the metaverse. Eight further sound zones, equipped with video screens and screen sharing facility, have been distributed in the virtual incubator building, allowing for various thematic gatherings to take place during the five hour event.

The Liberland Metaverse is an entrepreneurial collaboration (joint venture) of four organisations: Liberland (client), Zaha Hadid Architects (design), Mytaverse (technology) and ArchAgenda (management). Liberland itself is a political enterprise with the intention to establish a libertarian micronation on a seven square kilometre small, uninhabited, disputed piece of land on the Danube, between Croatia and Serbia. The primary motivation behind Liberland – with both its physical and virtual ambitions—is the realisation that the prosperity potentials of our computationally empowered technological civilisation are paralyzed and squandered by a pervasive lack of entrepreneurial freedom, a freedom that needs to restored or expanded. Innovation must be permissionless. The explosion of entrepreneurial and technological creativity in the crypto-ecosystem demonstrates what would be possible if the degrees of freedom that still persist there would be generalized. To revolutionize the mature societies takes too long. We want and need more freedom now, and this can only be achieved by starting fresh with a coalition of enthusiasts and without infringing on incumbent interests. A crypto-metaverse is a viable avenue for this vision, by itself, in its own right, and as a trailblazing anticipation of a physically co-located creative synergy community.

Liberland is well known in crypto circles and has built up a following of would-be citizens of over 600,000. This gives the Liberland metaverse a head-start with respect to achieving its ambitions, namely to become a key site for communication within the crypto ecosystem (Figs.  13 , 14 , 15 and 16 ).

Physical Liberland between Croatia and Serbia

Matching Masterplan for Liberland Metaverse

Liberland Metaverse, curated urban core

Liberland Metaverse, arrival zone, public spaces

While the Liberland Metaverse is meant to spearhead the development of Liberland as libertarian micro-nation it will also function as free standing virtual reality realm with the ambition to become the go-to-site for networking and collaboration within the burgeoning Web 3.0 industry, i.e. the metaverse for metaverse developers and the crypto ecosystem at large. The two communities—the community of libertarians who understand that the technology powered prosperity potentials of our times require a revolution in the degree of entrepreneurial freedom and the community of blockchain empowered Web 3.0 developers who realise that their amazing innovative flourishing depends on a permission-less realm of interchange – are congenial and overlap to a significant degree.

The Liberland Metaverse draws inspiration from metaverses like ‘Decentraland’ and ‘Somnium Space’, and from playful social VR environments like VRChat. Like these inspirations, the Liberland Metaverse is inhabited via avatars and allows for virtual land ownership, virtual construction, and (mostly crypto-mediated) economic transactions. However, there are also distinctive differences that strongly differentiate the Liberland Metaverse from ventures like Decentraland. The Liberland Metaverse is meant to operate more like the cyber-urban incubators discussed above. It is not a free-for-all playing field but a designed high-performance work environment for an industry-specific cluster of creative start-up companies. With its focus on the crypto ecosystem the Liberland Metaverse is a quite distinct niche metaverse. This distinguishes it from more generic projects (like Decentraland) where anything goes, including online gambling districts. What is also distinctive is that the Liberland Metaverse embraces realism and sees itself as continuous with productive social reality, and distances itself from the world of video-gaming that still dominates most current metaverse projects. The Liberland Metaverse becomes part of societal reality and an integral part of social production and societal reproduction. This conception of the metaverse does not offer an alternate reality or second life or any escape from social reality or societal life but instead enhances the life of society. To clearly see this concept of a seamless unity of social reality envisioned here it might be helpful to refer to Niklas Luhmann’s conception of society as consisting of nothing but communications, understanding as the totality of communications (Luhmann, 2012 /2013). This conception of the metaverse contrasts with the many current “metaverses” that—like Sandbox, Roblox, Axie Infinity, Netvrk, Wilder World etc.—which are in fact primarily multi-user computer games, with added in-game economic transactions. This conception of a reality-based rather than fiction-based metaverse gives a concrete meaning to what David Chalmers calls the Reality Question, namely “are virtual worlds real or illusory?” (Chalmers, 2022 , p.9). Chalmers question remains a vague, free-floating philosophical question. This leaves his affirmative answer that virtual worlds/objects are as real as the physical world and its objects (Chalmers, 2022 , p.14) equally free floating. Chalmers’ assertion that virtual and physical places are “equally real” (Chalmers, 2022 , p.14) is running idle as philosophical truth claim but is a welcome thesis here when filled with concrete meaning. This thesis is here being interpreted and operationalized here via the practically significant distinction between two types of virtual worlds, those which—like the Liberland Metaverse—are real in the sense of partaking and continuing global societal reality (world society) and those which are unreal in the sense of not being intent on this continuation. The real metaverse is framing societal communicative interaction. The unreal metaverse is part of the entertainment industry and has a rather different societal function. In Luhmann’s sociology its probably located either, like movies, in the function system of the mass media, contributing by constituting a globally shared world view, or in the art system, contributing by sensually confronting our social reality with alternative possibilities. This distinction between real and unreal metaverses implies no value judgement. Both architectural framings and entertaining fictions can be regressive or progressive. The point of the distinction here is to clarify the reality of the Liberland Metaverse and to note that only this ‘real’ type of metaverse can be a task domain for architecture.

To be sure, the gaming industry has developed all the amazing digital technologies that are now ready to be emancipated and transferred to more expansive tasks. The computer game market is big, but it is only a small niche compared to the generalized concept of virtual interaction spaces that will now invite and frame all domains of human interaction: knowledge exchange, professional collaboration, cultural communication, art, education, political engagement etc.

The architectural and urban paradigm that is most congenial to this idea of a differentiated, evolving, multi-author urban field is: Parametricism (Schumacher, 2009 ). We therefore predict that the development of the metaverse will boost parametricism. This will also feed back into physical architecture because most organisations and clients will have both physical and virtual venues.

The two primary aesthetic problems we are trying to solve with our urban and architectural designs for the Liberland metaverse can be stated as follows:

1. On the urban scale: To maintain a global sense of unity and identity while accommodating a rich diversity of districts, institutions and congenial architectures.

2. On the architectural scale: To maintain legibility in the face of complexity. The task is to maintain inter-visibility and inter-awareness in mixed use scenarios with very complex spatial arrangements. This is achieved by the use of fluidity and spatial porosity, allowing for deep, layered vistas.

As long as we have physical bodies we’ll need physical environments. As elaborated above, virtual environments are as real as physical environments and social reality exists and continues seamlessly across this divide. Virtual and physical environments are ideally designed together. The key advantages of virtual environments are their global accessibility and their adaptive, parametric malleability. As elaborated in the preceding chapter, we can foresee the interweaving of virtual and physical spaces. This is also anticipated in our conception of the Liberland metaverse. Its land is a one-to-one digital twin of the physical land mass of Liberland (beautifully situated at the Danube river between Serbia and Croatia). Our conception of the metaverse is based on realistic design and photo-realistic rendering. We believe this, at least in the initial stages of metaverse development, allows for the fullest exploitation of the city analogy, utilising our innate and learned intuitive cognitive capacities with respect to orientation, wayfinding and the reading of subtle aesthetic social atmospheres and situations. This realism in our cyber-urban conception also allows for the later physical realisation of the designed metaverse spaces in the physical Liberland, to any desired extent (Figs. 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 and 24 ).

Liberland Metaverse, City hall facing Danube

Liberland Metaverse, City Hall exterior

Liberland Metaverse, City Hall Interior

Liberland Metaverse, DeFi Plaza

Liberland Metaverse, NFT Art Gallery, interior

Liberland Metaverse, Multi-tenant Crypto-incubator building, interior – functional proof-of-concept

Liberland Metaverse, Snapshots from 7th Anniversary of Liberland, celebrated inside the Incubator

Two powerful innovations are coming together in the metaverse we envision with Liberland: First the immersive internet allowing for a new level of life-like spontaneity in social interactions, and second the internet of value allowing for truly global economic collaboration without gate keepers, no matter which passport participants hold. We conceive of the metaverse as an open platform, based on freely circulating open source insights and technologies, building on and participating in the culture of permission-less innovation that has fuelled the crypto ecosystem in recent years. As Vitalik Buterin has insightfully argued, the most crucial currency for crypto platform projects is legitimacy within the wider ecosystem and community of participants (Buterin, 2021 ). That is why we believe that the open, decentralised, community owned versions of the metaverse—organised as transparent DAOs—will win out over centralised corporate ventures. This fits into an emerging world where the end to stagnation and a boost to prosperity for all requires that centralised power blocks give way to global markets and discourses. The metaverse will in turn accelerate this larger transformation.

In Liberland parcels of land will be sold with covenants in accordance with a nested system of different planning regimes: a central curated urban core, surrounded by a layer of districts where we encourage urban self-governance, and finally zones where the absence of urban planning allows for a spontaneous order via a free-wheeling discovery process. The key idea here is thus the urban meta-policy of a simultaneously plurality of approaches rather than a single one-fits-all planning regime (Schumacher, 2020 ). The strategic decision would thus be to offer choice to potential developers, investors, buyers and end users. In the overarching context of government as contractually bound service and the pursuit of governance innovation, it is important to experiment and use the initial market feedback from potential investors and then from the measured market performance of built results, for a pragmatic discovery and selection process concerning urban development regimes and policies. Policy regimes aim at an urban order implying an optimal co-location pattern that maximises positive externalities, i.e. functional spill-overs or synergies, and minimises negative externalities. The maintenance of a nimble, flexible openness to future opportunities is another concern to be considered (Fig.  25 , 26 and 27 ).

Liberland Metaverse, abstract visualisation of virtual city fabric on approximately 2000 land parcels

Liberland Metaverse planning zones: sponsored urban core, self-governed districts, spontaneous free-zone

The planning regimes introduced here apply to both metaverse urbanism and physical urban development. The assumption here is that the various planning regimes listed above are distributed across the land available to Liberland, initially virtual and later physical, so that each regime is instantiated and tested in at least one zone or urban district. Regimes can then be expanded or contracted, first based on uptake during the marketing and land sale phase, and later in accordance with the actual urban development experiences on the ground.

7 Theses on the advent of the metaverse

This paper presents reflections and speculative anticipations of the coming era of the metaverse, not only as opportunity for entrepreneurs and architects, but also as exiting, progressive development for society at large, culturally, economically and politically. The following 12 theses on the type of metaverse described and promoted here may serve as summary and conclusion, as well as a manifesto for work to come:

7.1 Thesis 1: total transformation

The metaverse will deliver vivid tele-presence, co-location synergies, explorative browsing, immersiveness, collective experiences etc. The uptake of this opportunity will be universal.

All websites will spatialise, all organisations will move into the metaverse, all physical venues will be augmented or substituted by functionally equivalent virtual venues.

7.2 Thesis 2: a single reality

The metaverse is neither a game, nor fiction. Virtual reality in the metaverse will be no less real than the physical reality in our cities. Physically and virtually mediated social communicative interactions are equally significant and together form an undivided continuous social reality. There will be both competition and cooperation within and across these realms.

7.3 Thesis 3: cyber-urban fusion

Cyberspace will fuse with urban space implying a radical transformation of built architecture and urban life. Urban and architectural spaces become interfaces and windows into the virtual world. Mixed reality—mixing physical and virtual co-presence -will be pervasive.

7.4 Thesis 4: global meta-metropolis

There will be many metaverses but the factors that promote big world cities—agglomeration economies (service efficiencies & servicing long tails) & co-location synergies in terms of collaborative networks – will also drive concentration in large metaverse platforms.

7.5 Thesis 5: distributed ownership

Like a city, a metaverse is a shared platform. It will flourish when it is globally accessible, open source, permissionless. This implies a continuously evolving diverse self-organising community of interest, or community of the invested. This is more compatible with the decentralised forms of governance explored within the crypto ecosystem than with corporate proprietorship.

7.6 Thesis 6: metaverse urban planning

The strategic meta-policy: Start with a simultaneous plurality of approaches, i.e. to work with several (district-based) planning regimes rather than with a single blanket regime, thereby initiating a comparative experiment and discovery process. The initial market feedback investors, and later the end-user market success of the built results, will guide the selection and differential expansion/contraction process with respect to urban development regimes.

7.7 Thesis 7: the architect’s take-over

In the coming age of VR empowered cyberspace it will be architects and no longer graphic designers who will design the coming 3D immersive internet: the metaverse.

7.8 Thesis 8: architecture’s essence distilled

This expansion of architecture’s remit will further distil the discipline’s essence and core competency, namely the spatio-visual ordering of communicative interaction, upgraded via investment into the subdisciplines of spatiology, phenomenology, semiology and dramaturgy.

7.9 Thesis 9: switching technological constraints

While the expansion of the architectural discipline into the virtual realm is seamless and leaves its essential expertise and values untouched, no of the supporting/constraining engineering disciplines is joining this expansion. There is a total substitution of the engineering stack. New collaborators are now imposing new constraints: polygon budgets and transmission bandwidth etc.

7.10 Thesis 10: imperative realism

The metaverse exploits the analogy of the city, utilising our ability of navigating urban and architectural spaces as well as our ability to recognize places and social situations. This requires a high degree of realism in terms of plausible design and photo-realistic rendering because the semantics attaches to atmospheric values that might not survive abstraction.

7.11 Thesis 11: evolving beyond realism

While a close adherence to the analogy with urban architecture is important to begin with, we can expect a gradual emancipation and evolution of metaverse native forms of semiological articulation, navigation and interaction, exploiting the inherently different freedoms and constraints of the medium. However, the expected cyber-urban fusion will always insure a tie back to the physically instantiated urban and architectural semiology.

7.12 Thesis 12: Congenial Parametricism

As native digital style Parametricism is congenial with the ambitions of the metaverse and will become the preferred style here. This will feed back into architecture at large and accelerate the dissemination of parametricism. The advantages of a high density, complex, variegated, legible spatio-morphological order and the requirement for continuous adaptation to changing contexts and interaction scenarios, persist in the metaverse and can only be delivered by parametricism.

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Acknowledgements

Project Team for ‘Cybertecture’

Student authors: S tefan Tzon Manousof, Qi Yang, Amin Yassin, Yang Yu;

Tutors: Patrik Schumacher, Pierandrea Angius.

Institution: AA Design Research Lab (AADRL) , Architectural Association (AA).

Project Team for ‘Liberland Metaverse’:

Client: Liberland.

Client representative: Vit Jedlicka, Liberland President.

Project Management: Daniela Ghertovici, ArchAgenda.

Design: Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA).

ZHA Principal: Patrik Schumacher.

ZHA Project Team: Jianfei Chu, Edward Meyers, Taizhong Chen, Cesar Fragachan, Vishu Bhooshan, Henry David Louth, Shajay Bhooshan.

Metaverse Application & Web Service Development: Mytaverse.

Chief Technology Officer: Jaime Lopez.

Project Manager: Abraham Kim.

Director of Environments and Level Design: Felipe Soares.

Level Designers: Bannaker Braulio Dacosta, Gustavo Henrique.

Unreal Engine Developers: Herik Rezende, Tiago Do Santos, Marcos Misurini.

Documentation & Multimedia: ZHA & Mytaverse ZHA: Edward Meyers, Jianfei Chu, Taeyoon Kim, Vishu Bhooshan, Henry David Louth, Shajay Bhooshan Mytaverse: Micah Bond, Nick Lacroix.

The article and the work presented in the article did not receive any dedicated third party funding.

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The author contributed to the design works presented in the article in the role as supervisor or tutor in case of ‘Cybertecture’, and in the role of design firm principal and design team director in the case of the ‘Liberland Metaverse’. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Patrik Schumacher .

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Competing interests.

The author is the principal of Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA). ZHA is joint venture partner and designer of the Liberland Metaverse presented within the article.

The author is the supervisor of the student design research project ‘Cybertecture’ presented within the article.

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Schumacher, P. The metaverse as opportunity for architecture and society: design drivers, core competencies. ARIN 1 , 11 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s44223-022-00010-z

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UC-Berkeley's Guide to Architecture & Environmental Design Theses and Dissertations: Explains how you can find these works in the UCB system.

Architecture Association's School of Architecture Theses: Theses can be searched via the online catalogue by selecting the 'AA Theses' menu option from the upper left-hand drop-down menu.

Georgia Tech College of Architecture Theses & Dissertations Database

UMass-Amherst's Architecture Masters Theses Collection

Illinois Institute of Technology's College of Architecture Thesis Collection

UIUC's Depts. of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning Checklist: l inks to pages with basic details about theses, projects, and dissertations from the Departments of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning up to 2006 (update pending). THis link will take you to the dedicated Landscape Architecture Thesis Database .

Institutional Repositories or Scholarly Commons - freely accessible research archived and disseminated

eCommons@Cornell : The OPEN collection is available to the general public, including the full text. The CLOSED collection is not available outside Cornell and only the citation and abstract are available at Cornell.

Scholarly Commons - Univ. of Pennsylvania : Browse and in some cases access the full text to theses and dissertations from Penn programs and professional schools.

Other Resources

ADT (Australiasian Digital Theses Program) : This search portal provides searching, browsing, and access to theses and dissertations produced in Australia.

Biblioteca Digital de Teses e Dissertacoes : A search tool for accessing theses and dissertations produced in Brazilian universities.

Cybertesis : Sponsored by UNESCO and Fonds Francophone des Inforoutes, Cybertesis is a project between the Université de Montréal, the Université de Lyon2, the University of Chile and 32 universities of Europe, Africa and Latin America . Simultaneous searches through a single Web interface may retrieve more than 50.000 full text theses stored in 27 different servers and university repositories, by means of the use of OAI protocol (Open Archives Initiative) as a service provider (metadata harvesting).

DART-Europe E-theses Portal : A discovery service for open access research theses awarded by European universities.

DiVA : This portal provides access to dissertations, theses, and research publications written at 26 institutions in Scandinavia.

EThOS : Electronic Theses Online Service (EThOS) offers free access, in a secure format, to the full text of electronically stored UK theses--a rich and vast body of knowledge.

Foreign Doctoral Dissertations Database : The Center for Research Libraries has more than 800,000 cataloged foreign doctoral dissertations representing more than 90 countries and over 1200 institutions.

Index to Theses: A comprehensive listing of theses with abstracts accepted for higher degrees by universities in the United Kingdom and Ireland since 1716. 589,028 theses in collection (355,862 of which have abstracts)

NARCIS: This search portal provides access to theses and dissertations produced in the Netherlands, as well as access to a variety of other research and data sets.

National ETD Portal (South Africa): This search portal provides access to dissertations and theses produced in South Africa.

RCAAP - Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal: The RCAAP 's mission is to promote, support and facilitate the adoption of the open access movement in Portugal. RCAAP The project aims to: increase the visibility , accessibility and dissemination of academic activity and Portuguese scientific research , facilitating the management and access to information about scientific production and integrate Portugal into a set of international initiatives.  This portal offers a  union catalog with digital contents from more than 30 institutions.

Theses Canada : A union catalog of Canadian theses and dissertations, in both electronic and analog formats, is available through the search interface on this portal.

• Last Updated: Dec 18, 2023 3:32 PM
• URL: https://libguides.princeton.edu/arch_theses

How to Write an Architecture Dissertation 101​

In this post we will explore how to write an architecture dissertation, but first…

What is an architecture dissertation?

The architecture dissertation (or thesis) is an opportunity to demonstrate the skills you have learnt and the knowledge you have developed over the course of your studies. It identifies a current question of interest that you are willing to explore and analyse.

Thesis and dissertation mean different things in Europe than they do in the USA. In Europe, a dissertation is usually part of a masters degree involving a broader research project. In the USA however, the dissertation is part of a doctorate degree. Likewise, a thesis in Europe generally refers to research work for a PhD, while in the USA thesis is part of your masters degree. Nice and confusing 🙂

Given that we are based in the UK, we will refer to the document as a dissertation, but much of the information and tips here are interchangeable. Hopefully you will find this guide useful when considering your architecture dissertation… or thesis!

Scroll to the end to download this article as a handy PDF guide!

How to write an architecture dissertation, choosing your topic​.

Selecting a topic for your architecture dissertation is often one of the biggest challenges for students. Where to start?! Let’s take a look at the process of selecting your architecture dissertation topic.

Ask a question Your architecture dissertation needs to ask a question. Whether it is a big question or just a small part of a big question, there has to be a reason for your research and data collection.

So, when you have selected a big issue that you would like to explore, you can look at breaking this down into a smaller question for your subject.

Starting off with a big issue, and beginning to narrow this down into smaller issues, allows you to end up asking a small question that could perhaps have big implications or bring very interesting results.

You could use a mind map to help you visualise and brainstorm ideas – have your big question in the centre with other smaller questions branching out from it.

Focus on an area of study that you are comfortable with Try to consider areas within your field of study that you are comfortable with. For example, if you are particularly interested and inspired by environmental architecture, perhaps you can start there.

On the flip side, if you are particularly interested in new technologies and software developments, then perhaps you could start thinking along those lines.

The more comfortable you are with your topic area, the more solid your work will be and you will be able to pursue your architecture dissertation with more confidence.

Select a topic that is focused Don’t go too broad with your topic idea. Don’t forget, you are not writing a long novel, so your research and your final architecture dissertation has to be concise. A broad topic will make it very difficult to get into the nitty gritty details.

As an example, let’s say you are interested in the feasibility of using sustainable prefabricated systems in residential architecture. This is a fairly large subject, so your work could look at an aspect of this, such as a particular sustainable prefabricated system like a timber panel, or perhaps prefab systems in social housing. You could then drill down further. You can look at the subject as a whole in your introduction or conclusion, but investigate a more focused part of that topic for your own work.

Don’t forget, as you start to investigate your topic further, it may lead you to other questions, which in turn can change the theme of your architecture dissertation.

Don’t be too fixated on a topic in the early stages that stops you from shifting and developing the dissertation. It is a bit like design projects, sometimes it is easy to get fixated on your concept at the detriment of the design – adjusting, and pivoting can be a good thing, it is an iterative process.

Look at other architecture dissertations Take some time to read and research other dissertations, to get a feel for what excites or interests you. By gaining an understanding of the format, content and overall outcomes of the architecture dissertation, you will be able to develop your ideas more easily, and drill down on a topic that fits.

Doing this will also help you see what topics have been extensively covered and ones that are niche.

You can find some architecture dissertations on the RIBA Presidents Medals website for some inspiration: https://www.presidentsmedals.com/Entries/2022/0-1/1

Read other architecture works Take some time to read other architecture works while you are in your topic decision making process. This might open up new ideas and thoughts that you didn’t think of before.

Look at current trends, what is new, what is changing, what hasn’t changed, why? How about world events, how do they impact architecture? How does architecture impact them? What can we learn?

Make sure your question can be answered Once you have chosen your question or topic, make sure that data collection and research will bring you to some sort of conclusion or answer. It will be very frustrating if you are investigating an issue that will not be possible to conclude on or resolve.

Make sure you can ask the right questions to get information from people, are there enough books on the subject? Is there any historical data that might be useful? How about photographs and drawings? Consider how you will research your architecture dissertation before finalising your topic.

Drafting a proposal You will most likely be asked to create a proposal for the topic you have selected. Your proposal will be presented to your tutors who will give you feedback that will help you move forward.

Carry out your research

The research phase of your architecture dissertation is really important. We must look at many different sources and aspects of our topic to start to develop our strategies and ideas.

Start with the library The best way to start investigating our topic is to find out what information currently exists, who has asked your question, or similar questions, what has been published? So head to the library and start reading!

Try and get a selection of sources for a more balanced overview, rather than relying on just one source. Although you can use the internet, don’t forget that it is an unregulated source, and therefore not all the information is completely reliable.

Keep track of any books, journals etc that you have consulted. (more on that later).

Follow the citations and references in relevant articles to see if other works have been written that are relevant to your topic. Research papers are good sources of references and information you could further explore.

During this initial stage of research you may still be narrowing your topic, refining your question and that’s totally ok. Often, it is not until you have started reading around your topic and delving deeper that you start to see the questions that need to be asked.

Take notes Take notes and keep track of all your research, book name, author, title, date, publisher plus all the page numbers of the important points. This will help you when you come to referencing and citation and also enable you to stay organised.

Keep your topic / question in mind as you read through the research material and make notes on relevant points, in your own words. Write down any phrases or quotations that you will want to cite later, but make sure you keep a list of the details of the author etc, so the quotation doesn’t get mixed up with your own writing.

Citations and references Make sure you reference and cite all your work correctly. This is a tedious part of the architecture dissertation but extremely important to do it right.

You can find a guide about doing the Harvard referencing system which is most commonly used in UK universities, here: https://www.citethisforme.com/harvard-referencing

This page goes through the other citation styles and gives examples for each: https://www.scribbr.com/citing-sources/citation-styles/

Or you can refer to your own university library reference material to make sure you are carrying out your citations and references according to university guidelines.

Collect data The goal of your architecture dissertation should be to gather and interpret new data, rather than just regurgitating existing information.

Try to collect data that you can analyse and interpret rather than just writing descriptively about the topic.

Collection of data can include information from books as we have mentioned, but also reports, studies, statistical data, surveys, interviews, opinions, archived material, and so much more.

Be prepared to think openly, and think wide. By drawing on many different data sources and formats you will have a more rounded research pool to collect data and analyse going forward.

Our Architecture Dissertation Source Log

Our Dissertation Source log is a valuable tool for architecture students and researchers working on their dissertations. This spreadsheet can help you record all the key information on the sources you have used in your research.

It is also a great way to keep track of your research progress. As you add new sources to the spreadsheet, you can include notes on each source and its quality. This information can be helpful when you are writing your dissertation and need to refer back to your sources.

There are also columns where you can add in citations for each source. This means that all your references will be stored in one place, which will be super handy for when you come to create your bibliography.

The Architecture Dissertation Source Log is a free download. You can start filling it in right away or adjust and edit to your liking to make it your own.

Download your copy today!

As you analyse your data and research, your findings will shape your architecture dissertation, the topic and the big or small question that you are exploring. Make sure you leave the title, introduction and abstract till last.

There are different types of analysis when it comes to researching. The main ones you will be using for your architecture dissertation are visual analysis, textual analysis and historical analysis – although there are many more that you could draw on.

Obviously your choice of topic and question will determine what data you will be analysing but let’s look at this as an overview.

Textual content analysis This is a deep focus on the books, reports, papers and journals that you have identified as being an important part of your research. The areas you have ‘highlighted’ to be of interest should be studied in detail and notes taken as to why these points are important.

What is the author saying? Why is this important? How does it relate to your question, and your observations? Has the author written any other titles? Do they refer to other titles? Lots of questions to ask in order to draw out the information you are looking for.

Visual content analysis Visually, you will be looking at plans, maps, photographs and use your skills to question what you see. Analysis of the spaces, the site etc similar to a site analysis or precedent analysis .

There should be countless questions you could ask when analysing your visual findings, write down your observations.

Historical analysis Here you will focus on the historical events or situations that have had an impact on the topic or question that you are studying.

What were the circumstances at that time? Where do the ideas come from? What is the author focusing on? And so on.

Where appropriate, use maps, images, diagrams, drawings, surveys, time lines and data mapping to explore and present the data you have collected and analysed.

Check out our Mapping Techniques Pinterest board for some ideas:

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/1starchitecture/mapping-techniques/

The main things to consider here are:

What is your big question or topic?

What is the sub topic or smaller question that you are looking to answer?

What research and information will you draw on to answer the question?

How will you analyse the research?

How will you present or argue your findings?

Before presenting or putting together your final works, it is important to have a clear structure to your architecture dissertation and the research you have carried out.

By now, hopefully you will be clear on your topic and the question you are looking to answer. You will know what research you will draw on to inform your ideas, and how you will collect your data.

The clearer you can make your outline of how you want the structure of your dissertation to be, the easier it will be to write. If your ideas and concepts are in a muddle, the end result could mirror this.

Your university will most likely provide guidance on how you should structure your dissertation. Some UK university guidance examples include:

University of Westminster https://libguides.westminster.ac.uk/c.php?g=692395&p=4963012

University of Bath https://blogs.bath.ac.uk/academic-and-employability-skills/2020/07/07/writing-your-dissertations-structure-and-sections/

University of York https://subjectguides.york.ac.uk/dissertation/structure

In general a dissertation will typically follow the structure shown below:

Title Acknowledgements Abstract Table of contents List of figures and tables List of Abbreviations Glossary

Introduction Literature review Methodology Results Discussion Conclusion

Bibliography/Reference list Appendix

General Architecture Dissertation Tips 

1. Start work on your dissertation early.

2. Include references and citations to other scholars’ work.

3. Discuss the topic with other people.

4. Make the most of your tutorials, or any dedicated sessions.

5. Don’t get stuck on your title/topic. Let your data research lead and guide you.

6. Don’t feel you have to solve the world’s problems with your architecture dissertation. You are contributing to the research on a particular topic, don’t feel that your work has to result in a ground breaking solution to a worldwide problem.

7. Tell a story – make sure there is a flow to your architecture dissertation. Avoid using complex sentence structures and fancy words, make it readable. Always try to say more, with less – keep it simple.

8. Give yourself plenty of time to carry out your project from start to finish. Start early with your research – it takes a lot of time if it is to be done properly.

9. Make a schedule – dedicate chunks of time to your architecture dissertation. Ideally intersperse these studies with lighter tasks or something different like sport. It is difficult to write for more than 4 hours without becoming tired and inefficient so make sure your schedule allows for breaks and changes in activity.

10. If you are asking people for help in your data collection, make sure you give them lots of time to get back to you.

11. Be as direct and clear as you can in your writing, avoid fluffy over wordy sentences.

12. Make visual connections between your architecture dissertation topic and the way you design and set it up. Use a consistent style and readable fonts.

13. Get someone to proofread your work, ideally a couple of people.

14. Use your tutors for advice and guidance, that is what they are there for. Be sure to ask plenty of questions if you are not sure about something.

Topic Ideas

Here are some broad topic areas you could consider looking into when you are deciding what to write about.

1. Sustainable Architecture: This topic area focuses on designing and constructing buildings with a reduced environmental impact, incorporating energy-efficient systems, renewable materials, and sustainable design principles.

2. Urban Design and Planning: This area explores the planning, development, and design of cities and urban spaces, including aspects such as transportation systems, public spaces, infrastructure, and community development.

3. Historic Preservation and Conservation: This topic area delves into the preservation, restoration, and adaptive reuse of historic buildings and sites, considering the cultural and historical significance of architecture and the methods used to protect and maintain them.

4. Housing and Residential Architecture: This area focuses on the design and planning of housing solutions, including affordable housing, sustainable housing, multi-family dwellings, and innovative approaches to residential architecture.

5. Interior Design and Space Planning: This topic area examines the design and arrangement of interior spaces, exploring aspects such as ergonomics, aesthetics, functionality, and the use of materials and finishes to create effective and appealing interior environments.

6. Landscape Architecture: This area explores the design and planning of outdoor spaces, including parks, gardens, urban landscapes, and sustainable landscape design strategies that integrate natural and built elements.

7. Digital Design and Building Information Modeling (BIM): This topic area investigates the use of digital tools, technologies, and software in architectural design and construction processes, including topics like parametric design, computational design, and BIM implementation.

8. Cultural and Contextual Studies: This area examines the relationship between architecture and culture, exploring how buildings and urban environments reflect and influence social, cultural, and historical contexts.

9. Architectural Theory and Criticism: This topic area involves the exploration of theoretical concepts, critical analysis of architectural works, and the examination of philosophical, social, and cultural influences on architecture.

10. Human-Centred Design and Well-being: This area focuses on designing spaces that prioritise the well-being, comfort, and health of occupants, exploring topics such as biophilic design, universal design, and the impact of the built environment on human behaviour and psychology.

Remember to choose a topic that aligns with your interests and academic goals. It’s also essential to conduct thorough research to ensure that your chosen topic has sufficient scholarly literature available for reference.

Example Architecture Dissertation Studies Here are some examples of other dissertation topics to get you inspired.

1. Sustainable Architecture: Exploring innovative design strategies for energy-efficient and environmentally conscious buildings.

2. Adaptive Reuse: Analysing the potential of transforming abandoned or underutilised structures into functional spaces while preserving their historical significance.

3. Urban Planning and Design: Investigating strategies for creating inclusive and livable cities through thoughtful urban design and infrastructure development.

4. Biophilic Design: Exploring the integration of nature and natural elements within built environments to enhance well-being and productivity.

5. Parametric Design: Investigating the applications of computational design techniques and algorithms in creating complex architectural forms and structures.

6. Affordable Housing: Analysing design approaches and policies that address the pressing need for affordable and accessible housing solutions in urban areas.

7. Post-Disaster Reconstruction: Examining architectural responses and strategies for rebuilding communities affected by natural disasters and creating resilient built environments.

8. Heritage Conservation: Investigating methods and principles for preserving and conserving historic buildings and sites while adapting them for contemporary use.

9. Smart Cities: Exploring the integration of advanced technologies and data-driven solutions in urban environments to improve efficiency, sustainability, and quality of life.

10. Cultural Identity in Architecture: Analysing how architecture can reflect and reinforce cultural identity, exploring the relationship between built form and cultural heritage.

Helpful Links:​

Books The Dissertation: A Guide for Architecture Students                   

Resources There will be loads of useful websites and databases that you can access through your university. A few examples include:

Jstor https://www.jstor.org/

The Courtauld Institute’s Conway Library https://photocollections.courtauld.ac.uk/menu-item1/conway-library

Arts & Architecture http://www.artsandarchitecture.com/

Harvard Digital Collection Library https://library.harvard.edu/digital-collections

Getty Publications Virtual Library https://www.getty.edu/publications/virtuallibrary/

RIBApix https://www.ribapix.com/#

Architectural Association Photo Library https://photolibrary.aaschool.ac.uk/index.php?WINID=1684503427358

Archigram Archive https://www.mplus.org.hk/en/collection/archives/archigram-archive-ca36/

You might also be interested in:

We also have lots of incredible architecture content. Be sure to check it out:

Download the Guide!

Download this helpful article as a pdf to keep for reference later!

We hope this post helps you get started on your architecture dissertation.

Wishing you the very best of luck with your work 🙂

Thank you for reading!

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• Center for Research Libraries (CRL) Foreign Dissertations Search the CRL Catalog for dissertations already held at the Center. If a foreign dissertation is not at CRL, UCLA's Interlibrary Loan Service will request that CRL acquire it for your use. This special issue of Focus on Global Resources describes CRL's extensive collection of foreign dissertations.
• Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations This international organization promotes the adoption, creation, use, dissemination, and preservation of electronic analogues to traditional paper-based theses and dissertations in order to more effectively share knowledge.

Selected Dissertations — Architecture and Urban Design

• Architecture
• The search for a theory in architecture : Anglo-American debates, 1957-1976 / Louis Martin. Thesis--Ph.D.; Princeton University, 2002.
• Affordable Housing in High Opportunity Areas : Insights for Fair Housing Advocates / by Emmanuel Proussaloglou Thesis--M.U.R.P.; University of California, Los Angeles, 2023.
• Connecting Pico : a study of alternatives to re-knit the Pico Neighborhood that was divided by the I-10 freeway in Santa Monica, California / by Cecilia Garcia Urban Planning Project (M.A.)--UCLA, 2010.
• Streetscape improvement recommendations: CRA/LA Cleantech Corridor / by Daniel Caroselli Urban Planning Project (M.A.)--UCLA, 2011.
• Politics and the adoption of local development policies in Southern California cities / by Todd Andrew Donovan Dissertation--Ph. D.; University of California, Riverside, 1991.
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WHAT EXPERT RESEARCHERS KNOW

A thesis is typically the culminating project for a master's degree, while a dissertation completes a doctoral degree and represents a scholar's main area of expertise. However, some undergraduate students write theses that are published online, so it is important to note which degree requirements the thesis meets. While these are not published works like peer-reviewed journal articles, they are typically subjected to a rigorous committee review process before they are considered complete. Additionally, they often provide a large number of citations that can point you to relevant sources. 

Find Dissertations & Theses at Yale

Dissertations & Theses @ Yale University A searchable databases with dissertations and theses in all disciplines written by students at Yale from 1861 to the present.

Yale University Architecture Theses   Included in  Art, architecture, and art history theses and projects, Yale University (1915–2014)

Yale University Master of Fine Arts Theses in Graphic Design​ Finding aid for Arts Library Special Collections holdings of over 600 individual theses from 1951 to the present. The theses are most often in book format, though some have more experimental formats. Individual records for the theses are also available in the library catalog.

Yale University Master of Fine Arts Theses in Photography Finding aid for Arts Library Special Collections holdings of over 300 individual Master of Fine Arts theses from 1971 to the present. The theses are most often in the format of a portfolio of photographic prints, though some theses are also in book form. Individual records for the MFA theses are also available in the library catalog.

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Impact of Digital-computational Design on the Architectural Design Process

This research focuses on the evolving nature and concepts of digital- computational designs and attempts to elucidate the impacts on the architectural design process. The motivation for this thesis is based on the recent interest in various Architectural conferences and publications on the effects of the process change caused by digital means. The study is centred on the assumption that computational methods have enhanced creativity and proffered design solutions that could not be achieved by conventional means. The answers to this assumptions and questions have been sought through a thorough exploration of the diverse concepts and tools and processes that enable design computation. It then proceeds to investigate design projects executed by contemporary architects that engage in the use of computation. The findings from the inquiry ascertains the hypothesis and explicates the benefits inherent in the projects investigated. It concludes by highlighting the need to sensitize and raise the awareness of professional and students on the benefits and potentials of design enabled by computation.

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The emergence of digital tools in architecture since the beginning of the XXI century is deeply transforming the protocols, the design methodologies, and the conceptualization of the discipline. Traditional architectural education has remained at the periphery of these developments, whereas certain “advanced” architectural schools are deploying tremendous efforts to embrace these tools. However, their embedment into pedagogical practice is not devoid of problems and inconsistencies. This paper explores how several digital tools are being actively incorporated into the curriculum at the Institute for Advanced Architecture (Iaac) in Barcelona. It features relevant examples of urban design projects developed during three distinctive architectural design studios: two at the undergraduate level and one masters degree program. Several digital tools currently available for architectural analysis, design, and representation are explored, with an objective to identify and propose their suita...

The Bulletin of the Polytechnic Institute of Jassy, Construction. Architecture Section, 2012

In comparison with the limits of the traditional representation tools, the development of the computer graphics constitutes an opportunity to assert architectural values. The differences between communication codes of the architects and public are diminished; the architectural ideas can be represented in a coherent, intelligible and attractive way, so that they get more chances to be materialized according to the thinking of the creator. Concurrently, the graphic software have been improving the quality of design activity, transforming it into an intensive design and management process correlated with the others building design disciplines involved. The computer modeling is today a refined and sophisticated artistic discipline that successfully reinterprets, communicates and promotes architectural concepts in the new virtual world. It also constitutes a creative process that helps optimizing and refining design concepts. It also makes possible the invention of new types of spaces an...

AA Files, 2019

The digital in architecture and design refers to the use of computational design processes and their manifest effect on the architectural outcome, rendered or built. Due to the continuous progress in digital design tools and methods 'the digital in architecture' is a moving target that can only be pinned down temporarily. My approach here is therefore at once historical and future oriented. The digital is of course part and parcel of the technological transformations that sweep through all aspects of our civilisation impacting and indeed upgrading our lives via the digitalisation of all products, services and professional disciplines. The digital in architecture is thus inevitable, must be understood, embraced and push forward. That this has to be explicitly emphasized in the year 2019 is rather sad and alarming. Where is the architectural equivalent of the thriving research plus business ecosystems of FinTech, HealthTech, and LawTech in terms of the integration of Big Data and AI? Perhaps BIM comes closest, but concerns construction rather than design. Where is ArchTech? The movement of Parametricism comes closest, but the uptake of its insights, values and methodologies remains marginal within our field. My focus will here be on the discipline's acquisition of new, sui generis design capacities in distinction to the mere automation of prior ways of design, i.e. mere digital drafting or mere visualisation is not of interest here. A truly transformative ambition has been the hallmark of the avant-garde's investment into the digital from its beginnings 25 years ago. The new digitally empowered design capacities and repertoires that have since been elaborated imply indeed a new characteristic architectural language, and have manifested a new style with epochal ambitions: Parametricsim i. However, an ambitious concept of style involves more than a new architectural language; it implies a whole new paradigm for the design disciplines, with new purposes, values and related design methodologies that are congenial both to the societal challenges posed and to the technological opportunities offered by the new digital civilisation.

Jornal of Information Technology in Construction ( …, 2006

Hippocampe, 2024

Antropologie, sociologie, spiritualitate, 2017

Journal of Commerce & Accounting Research, 2022

Mitropolia Ardealului, 2023

Ilkom Jurnal Ilmiah, 2022

Revista Brasileira de Interpretação Bíblica (ReBiblica), 2022

Acta Scientific Dental Scienecs, 2020

Buca eğitim fakültesi dergisi (Online)/Buca Eğitim Fakültesi dergisi, 2024

International multi-disciplinary journal , 2015

Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 2008

International Journal of Maternal and Child Health and AIDS (IJMA), 2020

IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering, 2010

Onkologe, 2017

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