LA TADEO DEARTE 9 N.º 12 - 2023
WHEN THE FUTURE BECOMES NO LONGER A THREAT BUT, MORE, AN OPPORTUNITY
WHEN THE FUTURE
BECOMES NO
LONGER A THREAT
BUT, MORE, AN
OPPORTUNITY
Terry Trickett*
Fecha de recepción: 23 de agosto de 2023 Fecha de aceptación: 11 de marzo de 2024
043 043/
TERRY TRICKETT
*Trickett Associates, United Kingdom.
terrytrick@mac.com | https://doi.org/10.21789/24223158.2151
Sugerencia de citación: Trickett, Terry, When the Future Becomes no Longer a Threat but, More, an Opportunity.
La Tadeo DeArte 9, n.°12,2023: 1-27. https://doi.org/10.21789/24223158.2151
CUANDO EL FUTURO
YA NO ES UNA
AMENAZA SINO,
MÁS BIEN, UNA
OPORTUNIDAD
LA TADEO DEARTE 9 N.º 12 - 2023
WHEN THE FUTURE BECOMES NO LONGER A THREAT BUT, MORE, AN OPPORTUNITY
The City of London is entering new and relatively unexplored territory with its
intention of making “Culture and Commerce stronger together”. An oppor-
tunity to demonstrate this ambition exists at London Wall West, a site in the
cultural heart of the Square Mile, but plans drawn up so far have attracted
considerable opposition as they involve the demolition of existing buildings.
Even though the City stands firm in its conviction that new buildings are
required, justifying this approach in a world where construction accounts for
39% of the planet’s global greenhouse emissions is challenging. The proposed
answer, “Building Less is More”, will require the City to develop a degree of
confidence in the idea that, in part, London Wall West can become virtual. We
can anticipate that to design and construct a new virtual world, where people
can spend time that is as good as in the outside physical world, London Wall
West must become a test bed for experimentation on how to turn “conjec-
ture” into reality. As in the physical world, the creation of a virtual realm de-
pends on defining and understanding the determinants of people’s behavior.
Architects are already involved in creating virtual flights of fancy but holding
the reins of all those who are unleashing the power of generative artificial
intelligence will be the “metaverse curator”–a completely new role to match
the task of building “a new and better world”.
Keywords:
Sustainability; Metaverse;
Virtual Reality; Conjecture;
Artificial Intelligence; Art.
ABSTRACT
>>>>>>
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TERRY TRICKETT
RESUMEN
>>>>>>
La City de Londres se adentra en un territorio nuevo y relativamente inexplo-
rado con su intención de fortalecer al mismo tiempo la cultura y el comercio.
En London Wall West, un lugar en el corazón cultural de la Square Mile, existe
una posibilidad para demostrar que esta ambición es posible, pero los planes
elaborados hasta ahora han suscitado una oposición considerable, ya que
implican la demolición de edificios existentes. Aunque la City se mantiene
firme en su convicción de que nuevos edificios son necesarios, justificar
este enfoque en un mundo en el que la construcción produce el 39% de las
emisiones globales de gases de efecto invernadero del planeta es un desafío.
La respuesta propuesta, “Construir menos es más”, requerirá que la City
aumente su confianza en la idea de que, en parte, London Wall West puede
volverse virtual. Podemos anticipar que, para diseñar y construir un nuevo
mundo virtual, donde la gente la pueda pasarla tan bien como en el mundo
físico exterior, London Wall West debe convertirse en un banco de experi-
mentación de cómo convertir la “conjetura” en realidad. Al igual que en el
mundo físico, la creación de un ámbito virtual depende de definir y compren-
der el comportamiento de las personas. Aunque ya hay arquitectos creando
vuelos virtuales de la imaginación, los encargados de llevar las riendas de to-
dos aquellos que están desatando el poder de la inteligencia artificial gene-
rativa serán los “curadores del metaverso”, un rol completamente nuevo que
coincidirá con la tarea de construir “un mundo nuevo y mejor”.Keywords:
Palabras clave:
Sostenibilidad; Metaverso;
Realidad Virtual; Conjetura:
Inteligencia Artificial; arte.
LA TADEO DEARTE 9 N.º 12 - 2023
WHEN THE FUTURE BECOMES NO LONGER A THREAT BUT, MORE, AN OPPORTUNITY
Located in the heart of the City of London, two buildings have now become vacant. First, the
Museum of London, which is moving to new premises located in nearby Smithfield Market and
secondly, Bastian House, an oice tower built in the airspace above the museum (Figure 1).
I know these buildings well: I live next to them in the Barbican, an architectural masterpiece
containing over 2000 flats with an adjacent world-renowned arts center. As an architect myself,
I have taken a keen interest in what will happen at London Wall West (as the museum site is now
called). For the City of London, the vacated buildings raise the following questions: must the
post-pandemic dreams of a fast-changing city be met by repurposing existing structures? or can
those structures be demolished to facilitate rebuilding? These are not unusual questions but, in
the case of London Wall West, they have a significance that is not only local, but extends through-
out the Square Mile to London, generally, and further, to other cities, worldwide, that are facing
similar dilemmas.
As a model for my research into the making of a partially virtual future, I regard London Wall
West as a test bed for experimentation on how to plan for the on-coming metaverse and how to
construct it.1 The lessons that my findings, suppositions, and ideas hold for tackling the climate
crisis are potentially life-changing and, if adopted by the City, they will add considerable credence
to the City’s declared ambition to lead the way in creating a more sustainable future.
Figure 1. Museum of London with Bastion House
built in airspace above the Museum.
Buildings located in the City of London.
INTRODUCTION
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TERRY TRICKETT
Figure 2. London 1666, 350th anniversary of the
Great Fire of London, burning model by David
Best in collaboration with Artichoke, 2016. (Image
courtesy of Artichoke.)
CULTURE AND COMMERCE
STRONGER TOGETHER
Known as the Square Mile, the City of London’s reputa-
tion for commercial and financial expertise remained
undented aer the Covid-19 pandemic, but the outward
signs of activity changed, probably forever. No longer
are the pavements thronged and the restaurants and
pubs full to bursting. The memory of a deathly qui-
et Covid-struck urban desert may now be banished,
hopefully for good, and in its place remains a City still
recovering from an event that impacted on its future to
the extent of the Second World War and, even, the Great
Fire (Figure 2). Always the City has bounced back and,
this time, facing up to a post-pandemic future, the task
of overcoming misfortune and turning it to advantage is
no less challenging.
Early in 2021, the City’s Culture and Commerce
Taskforce (C&CT) dedicated to Fuelling the City’s
Creative Renewal declared its intention to
“….reanimate the City of London’s spaces in unique
ways that attract people back […] and build the con-
nections required internationally for the City to remain
a global hub of commerce and become a center for
culture.”2
In arriving at its conclusions, the Taskforce recog-
nized that the Cultural Sector can potentially play a
crucial role in the City’s recovery. In London, as in many
other metropolises round the world, it can be antici-
pated that in such a post-pandemic context, up to two
fihs of the current oice space will become surplus to
requirements and, thus, become available for repur-
posing. Of course, changes to physical space as now
demanded by a depleted city cannot themselves gen-
erate new types of collaboration between people from
dierent spheres of activity. It will take the “soware”
of digital transformation working in close harmony with
reconfigured operational environments, both physical
and virtual, to ensure the success of the City’s bold plan
for renewal.
The City is fortunate in having, in the North West
corner of the Square Mile, a place already established
as a center for culture, which can be expected to play an
increasingly important role in furthering the City’s long-
term cultural ambitions. Already, it embraces world
class institutions such as the Barbican Centre’s per-
formance and exhibition spaces, the Guildhall School
of Music and Drama, the Museum of London, and the
London Symphony Orchestra (Figure 3). Now, at a time
when the City is entering new and relatively unexplored
territory, with its intention to join commerce, culture
and the arts together in a spirit of partnership and
sociability, I am focusing on one particular site in the
City’s cultural center: London Wall West. The site has
the opportunity to become a test bed for experimen-
tation on how to turn blue sky thinking into reality–a
reality that will be part virtual and part physical.
PART ONE: A TALE
OF TWO REALITIES
LA TADEO DEARTE 9 N.º 12 - 2023
WHEN THE FUTURE BECOMES NO LONGER A THREAT BUT, MORE, AN OPPORTUNITY
Opportunities to create environments designed to host
culture alongside commerce do not arise very oen.
That is why the development of the London Wall West
can be expected to become the subject of close scruti-
ny. The eyes of the world will be watching. Will London
Wall West succeed in acting as a cultural beacon in
bringing people back to the City? Can it eectively
demonstrate the City’s new-found destiny as a global
center of culture?
Architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R), in a brief-
ing of their scheme for London Wall West, stated that
the City was aiming to
“develop the City of London’s bold new cultural dis-
trict stretching from Farringdon to Moorgate, the vision
for which seeks to amplify the creativity embedded in
the area and use it to create lasting change long into the
future.”
At a first glance, the resulting scheme reveals
two massive oice buildings which have done little to
endear the scheme to local communities, who remain
largely opposed to the development.3 But, on closer in-
spection, the oending buildings contain floorplates of
suicient depth and flexibility to accommodate cultural
and commercial organizations working alongside one
another. They should be regarded, therefore, as mixed
use buildings where many and various members of the
cultural sector can be expected to come together with
their counterparts in the commercial sector in a spirit of
sociability and partnership (Figure 4).
DS+R’s proposals are exemplary in providing spac-
es both within and outside the buildings to encourage
cross-sector interactivity. Further, the wealth and quali-
ty of new landscaped, open and accessible spaces to be
provided will ensure that London Wall West becomes a
magnet for visitors. The comprehensive greening of the
proposed buildings will serve to markedly improve the
environment not only for visitors but also for workers
and residents.
Figure 3. The City of London’s cultural center with
London Wall West located at a midpoint.
Figure 4. The main feature of the proposed
development at London Wall West by Diller
Scofidio & Renfro is a pair of deep-space oice
towers surrounding a public suspended “meadow”
with public meeting space under.
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TERRY TRICKETT
Figure 5. A suspended meadow is the center
piece of Diller Scofidio & Renfro’s scheme.
LONDON WALL WEST
AS A MICROCOSM
OF CHANGE
Once implemented as a prototype for the future,
London Wall West’s influence will spread to every
corner of the Square Mile. In my opinion, once built,
it will be seen as a model of thoughtful development
which looks beyond the environmental dimension by
addressing how people from dierent backgrounds
both mix and connect. And quite apart from meeting
functional requirements, the architects have given
close and expert attention to the importance that
“feel,” and atmosphere can play in generating a sense
of place. Existing green spaces will become part of a
connected oasis of glades, which promise making the
area a sought-aer destination as well as a microcosm
of biodiversity (Figure 5).
It is true, of course, that the proposed built environ-
ment at London Wall West is carbon hungry, but so is
every other development, new building or conversion of
existing ones that involve major demolition and con-
struction processes. In a world where construction and
the wider built environment currently account for 39% of
the planet’s global greenhouse gas emissions, we need
to find some way of reducing, radically, the amount of
carbon embedded in construction processes. For this
reason, the City’s aim at London Wall West must be to
ensure that the development plays some small part in
preventing global heating rising above 1.5C by the year
2050. Faced with this challenge, the following question
remains: What steps can be taken at London Wall West–
just one site amongst many worldwide–to help stem our
seemingly unstoppable dash to climate disaster?
The omens appear to be good because Chris
Hayward, Policy Chairman of the City of London’s
Corporation, returned from his attendance at COP 27 to
declare
“Although each annual climate summit is tasked
with the gravest challenge–protecting the only home
we have ever known–we should feel confident that
the City can continue to be leaders in creating a more
sustainable future.”
But, to date, the only concession made by the City
towards a more sustainable future at London Wall
West is a decision to “reduce the width of the build-
ing proposed to replace the Museum of London by
three meters, while the building proposed to replace
Bastion House will be reduced by two meters”. These
reductions will not go far in reducing the amount of
greenhouse gases emitted by either building. In fact, by
reducing the size of available floorplates, they will serve
only to make the buildings less able to perform their
function to accommodate a multiplicity of cultural and
commercial organizations working together.
To cut a long story short, the scheme has now
become becalmed in a sea of conflict, which is partly
of the City’s own making but, also, caused by external
factors that are impacting every city worldwide seeking
to find a way into a post-pandemic future. Will it be
possible for the City to find the seeds of resolution that
will enable it to resolve this impasse?
Before answering this question, we need to look,
more generally, at how the construction industry,
worldwide, is advancing net-zero carbon buildings,
both now and in the future.4
LA TADEO DEARTE 9 N.º 12 - 2023
WHEN THE FUTURE BECOMES NO LONGER A THREAT BUT, MORE, AN OPPORTUNITY
THE IMPACT OF THE
BUILT ENVIRONMENT ON
CLIMATE CHANGE
The conclusion of the United Nations Environment
Programme, 2022, Global Status Report for Buildings
makes for a depressing reading:
“What is clear from these past two years is that
the structural changes needed in the buildings and
construction sector are not yet happening. While the
increase in investment in energy eiciency in existing
buildings and a greater number of new buildings being
constructed to higher energy performance standards
are welcome trends, the impact on energy use and
energy intensity is not yet showing, nor is there any sign
of emissions from the buildings sector being decoupled
from energy use or construction activities .The war
in Ukraine and the ensuing energy crisis being felt in
some regions underline the urgency of such a structural
change.”
“To achieve the emissions targets needed for all
buildings to be aligned to the Paris Agreement goal of
the global economy being net zero carbon emissions
by 2050, emissions from the buildings sector will need
to halve by 2030. This will require an annual emission
reduction rate of -8 per year, equivalent to the impact of
the pandemic each year.”5
The Report contains a Global Buildings Climate
Tracker (GBCT), which explains the construction
industry’s dismal record (Figure 6). In zooming in to
the period from 2015 to 2021, the dotted dark blue line
serves as a benchmark. To be on track, the lighter blue
line must be on or above the dotted blue line. In 2020,
the GBCT index moved closer to the reference path, as
indicated by the grey dashed line that approaches the
blue line. This is due to the exceptional slowdown of
large parts of the economy, including the construction
sector, and the limited use of non-residential buildings
such as oices during the Covid-19 pandemic. As this
would give a false positive message of decarbonization
moving towards being “on track” the 2020 observation
is treated as an outlier. In fact, buildings’ decarboniza-
tion progress is slowing down and the decarbonization
gap is increasing. Despite the 68 per cent improvement
shown in the GBCT index between 2019 and 2021,
the index has fallen further away from the path to a
zero-carbon.
From this dire result, it is clear that the decarbon-
ization of the worldwide building stock is not “on track”
to reach the goals of the Paris agreement. In 2021, the
building decarbonization index was only 8.1 points out
of 100, while it should have been over 17.1 points out of
100. This shows that the sector is achieving about half
of the necessary decarbonization. The gap between the
actual decarbonization performance and the desired
pathway has been widening since 2018. Post-2021, a sig-
nificant rebound in building sector emissions confirms
that the boost in decarbonization during the pandemic
was temporary. A structural, systemic, improvement
was not achieved.
Figure 6. Direct reference path to a zero-carbon building stock target in 2050
(le). Zoom into the period between 2015 and 2021, comparing the observed
Global Buildings Climate Tracker to the reference path (right) Global Buildings
Climate Tracker extracted from United Nations Environment Programme, 2022,
Global Status Report for Buildings with permission.
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TERRY TRICKETT
Figure 7. A bio-based structure (timber) was proposed for a social housing
project in Milan (architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Stefano Boeri Architetti)
Figure 8. View of Seoul, South Korea, where the ever-increasing diiculties of
physical communication in a congested city have led to workers spending time
in a virtual world.
Carbon emissions from buildings’ operations
combined with the materials used in construction are
estimated to account for around 39% of global ener-
gy and process-related emissions. The selection of
construction materials plays a critical role in creating a
high-performance building with low operation carbon
over time. For example, when designing materials for
both new and retrofit construction sites, swapping a
concrete based exterior wall system for a bio-based
structure (e.g. timber or bamboo) can greatly reduce
the amount of up-front embodied carbon (as well as
the ongoing emission caused by maintaining cooling
systems in hot countries). Many ingenious examples of
this approach can be found worldwide, but a change
of materials in itself will never make up for the over-
all poor performance of the construction industry in
reaching Paris agreement targets (Figure 7). Another,
more radical, approach has to be found.
LA TADEO DEARTE 9 N.º 12 - 2023
WHEN THE FUTURE BECOMES NO LONGER A THREAT BUT, MORE, AN OPPORTUNITY
BUILDING LESS
IS MORE
At this point, to look at other ways that cities can tackle
change and expansion, without incurring in unaccept-
able levels of carbonization, I am turning to the me-
ga-cities of the Far East.
In South Korea and China, to alleviate the diicul-
ties of physical communication in ever-growing urban
centers, local governments have been motivated to
embrace Virtual Reality (Figure 8). The result is an “all
or nothing” approach to digital transformation which
demands that South Korean workers spend all their
working time in a virtual world. For instance, employ-
ees of Zingbag, a financial company, no longer need
to travel to the center of Seoul. They work virtually in
a 30 storey building, Metropolis, that can accommo-
date up to 300 people, at any one time, on each floor.
Employees working in the same virtual space can imme-
diately communicate with colleagues whenever they
want by moving their avatars. They have no need to use
phones or e-mail. Instead, they communicate by word
of mouth. We are told that Zingbag’s virtual environ-
ment has generated a more motivated workforce with a
lower cost of living and a better quality of life. Certainly,
in the Far East the idea has caught on.6
By contrast, in the West, I can foresee that individ-
ual choice will remain a matter of paramount impor-
tance. Here, our adoption of a new post-pandemic
work/life balance requires that we are given the option
of deciding, for ourselves, how much time we want to
spend in a virtual world. I will call this the “50/50” ap-
proach to digital transformation. It heralds the “Dawn
of a New Everything.” In this new dawn, which is already
with us in a nascent form, we can anticipate metaverse
curators, new media artists and digital architects taking
delight in creating “a dierent place, perhaps fantasti-
cal, perhaps where we assume bodies that are far from
human.”7 David Hockney (Figure 9) gives us a foretaste
of just such a world. In a recent London exhibition, he
provided scenes of work and play projected in three
dimensions (3D). Although not yet fully immersive, they
give some indication of a future virtual world taking
shape alongside our normal physical world.
For the future, we will see this type of virtual world
replacing, at least in part, our constructed physical
world, where architects and builders are responsible for
more and more buildings producing bigger and bigger
cities. I think you can see where I am heading: the con-
struction industry can play a significant part in averting
the climate crisis only by building less–a paradox, if
ever there was one. By encompassing a “Building Less is
More” policy, the City can lay claim to becoming a lead-
er in creating a more sustainable future at London Wall
West and, thereby, resolving its current impasse. And
Figure 9. In Lightroom’s Bigger and Closer (not smaller and further away)
exhibition, London, 2023, David Hockney provides first signs of a world where
you are in a dierent place, perhaps fantastical, perhaps with a body that is far
from human.
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TERRY TRICKETT
the same policy, if adopted by other cities facing similar
diiculties, will assist in significantly reducing the heavy
carbon footprint of construction worldwide. Time, then,
to look at the full implications of taking such a funda-
mental step towards tackling climate change.
A SYMBIOSIS OF
VIRTUAL AND PHYSICAL
SPACE
The making of the virtual world (or metaverse, as I will
now call it) is dependent on the development of Virtual
Reality (VR) as a tool for social interaction. As with
most technologies, whether VR is good or bad depends
entirely on how it is used. In full-dive VR, users should
be able to build their own lives as they choose, genu-
inely interacting with others around them and leading a
meaningful and valuable life. This is a future that David
Chalmers foresaw when he suggested that in the not-
too-distant future, as our planet becomes increasingly
ravaged and overcrowded, people will migrate more
and more towards the virtual realm. As he described in
his book Reality+:
• “Virtual worlds are not illusions or fictions or, at
least, they need not be. What happens in VR really
happens. The objects we interact with in VR are
real.”
• “Life in virtual worlds can be as good, in principle,
as life outside virtual worlds. You can lead a fully
meaningful life in a virtual world.”
• “The world we are living in could be a virtual world.
(Chalmers does not say it is, but it is a possibility he
does not rule out.)”8
So, from Chalmers’ description we can infer that
VR can be much more than escapism; it can be a full
blooded environment for living a genuine life in a first
class virtual reality. The metaverse can be envisaged as
a virtual world where no one spends an entire lifetime;
people will be able to enter or exit it as they choose.
It promises a world that users will apprehend with all
their senses, as if they were physically inhabiting an
environment where no trace of the ordinary physical
environment remained. To sum up, the metaverse can
be described as a virtual world (or system of virtual
worlds) in which everyone can spend time living day-to-
day lives with many forms of social interaction.
In its current primitive form, although the signs
of an ecosystem of metaverses are beginning to take
shape, it has not yet come close to realizing Chalmers’
forecast of virtual worlds becoming first class reali-
ties. However, by 2026, it can be anticipated that 25%
of people will spent at least an hour per day in the
metaverse. Whether for work, shopping, education or
entertainment, a nascent metaverse is set to take our
experiences online to the next level. Capgemini, one of
a number of multinational firms advising companies on
digital transformation, forecasts that the metaverse will
give rise to a new era of collaboration where
“by replicating an oice environment, people can
come together in a shared virtual space that can be
both informal and formal. Whether to relax in a break-
out space or to present at meetings, employees can
use their digital avatar to immerse themselves in a new
virtual environment with colleagues.”9
In the City of London, for instance, where the
Covid-19 pandemic reshaped the working world, em-
ployers are beginning to think about the metaverse’s
capability to promote not only collaboration but, also,
creativity and increased productivity. Oen, advised by
experts in the field of digital transformation, manage-
ments are investigating the benefits of “digital twins”
as a means of transforming ways of working.10. A
digital twin is a virtual copy of a company’s operations
enabling it to insert any potential changes into a virtual
version of the business, which then helps the company
to identify more eicient ways of working. Approaching
a digital twin in this way is valuable as a means of find-
ing out what works and what does not without putting
the business at risk. The point I am making here is that
the metaverse should not be viewed as something un-
known, happening sometime in the future. The begin-
nings of a symbiosis of virtual and physical space have
already become a reality–a new way of everything that
will enable the City to grasp the future now.
LA TADEO DEARTE 9 N.º 12 - 2023
WHEN THE FUTURE BECOMES NO LONGER A THREAT BUT, MORE, AN OPPORTUNITY
SEIZING THE
OPPORTUNITY
Nowadays, real estate business is being reimagined in
the metaverse. It now oers a fast emerging but viable
investment opportunity in an entirely new way. Digital
architects are engaged in designing an entire parallel
universe that seamlessly connects with our existing one
(Figure 10).11 It is a new world that enables investors and
owners to create interactive spaces that facilitate virtual
contact between users anywhere. To date, such virtual
real estate investments have taken place primarily on
established metaverse platforms, e.g., [Sandbox] and
[Decentraland]12, but options also exist for investors to
create their own metaverse platforms (i.e., the route I
would expect the City to take). In either case, the skills
required to make these early forays into the metaverse
involve virtual real estate management, digital archi-
tects, metaverse curators, technologists (i.e., specialists
in virtualization) and, significantly, new media artists to
create the look and feel of customized virtual space.
There appears to be much to gain by making an
early investment in the metaverse: those who take the
plunge, while having to navigate a number of associ-
ated risks, could well find themselves in a position to
reap substantial financial rewards as the metaverse
gains mainstream adoption in the next five years or so.
Time, then, is on the City’s side because by the time the
London Wall West becomes a physical reality the mar-
ket in virtual real estate will have become fully estab-
lished. For the City, facing an uncertain future, I believe
it is this hybrid form of development that may oer the
best of both worlds: it will enable the City to demolish
existing buildings at London Wall West without compro-
mising the construction of a fully sustainable develop-
ment. The vacated London Museum structure is overtly
idiosyncratic, fit only for the purpose for which it was
designed, and Bastion House, to achieve status as a
Grade A oice, will require the replacement of every ele-
ment of its fabric and services. A myopic stance towards
climate change should never become a reason to retain
existing buildings that are no longer fit for purpose. At
London Wall West, demolition, not retention, is the way
forward with a watchful eye kept on the City’s declared
role as a champion of sustainability.
Fortunately, the DS+R scheme already contains
the seeds of its own transformation into a 50/50 world.
A glance at the proposed oice buildings (Figure 4) re-
veals that each is almost a mirror image of the other–a
somewhat exceptional circumstance that enables them
to be reconfigured as digital twins–one physical, the
other virtual–as we have seen happening in companies
undergoing digital transformation. At London Wall
West, the virtual twin can be expected to contain vital
information on the structure, context and behaviors of
the physical twin. It will be dynamically updated with
data from its physical counterpart throughout the life-
time of the project. Further, the virtual twin will enable
owners, designers, contractors and trades to speak the
same language and share a common understanding of
the project’s requirements, constructs and needs. For
the City, a virtual twin’s potential to provide a “what
if” analysis and simulations of the future will be of
particular value–a key management tool for assessing
risks and assessing outcomes. Also, as I explain in 3.7,
the London Wall West virtual twin will take on a life of
its own as part of a [London Wall] metaverse platform
where, as owners of virtual space, the City will establish
a valuable asset for letting space, as in the more familiar
physical world.
To illustrate the environmental impact of this trans-
formation, I have adjusted one of DS+R’s presentation
drawings to show how the physical “removal” of one
of the twin towers opens up vistas from a substantially
enlarged meadow (Figure 11). The potential gains are
significant: more open green space is acquired and the
considerably reduced carbon footprint of a partially
virtualized scheme, achieved by building less, will set
new standards of sustainability not only for the City
but, also, demonstrate a viable way forward to the rest
of the world.
Of course, before plunging into a virtual world, the
City will need to be confident that the carbon footprint
of constructing non-real estate will represent a signif-
icant improvement over the carbon cost of physical
construction. This is a subject surrounded by confusion,
which is not helped by the arcane language used to
describe the processes involved.
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TERRY TRICKETT
Figure 10. A virtual self-governed City in the Free Republic of Liberland, a
“micro-nation” squeezed between Serbia and Croatia. No one lives there but
according to Patrik Schumacher of Zaha Hadid Architects, “The time is ripe,
technologically, economically and socially, for shiing more and more of our
productive lives into the metaverse”.
Figure 11: Le: view looking South showing current proposals for London Wall
West with the replaced Bastion House and new Rotunda building. Right: the
replaced Bastion House retained as a physical building. Rotunda becomes a
digital twin (shown in yellow outline). As a result, the extent of the suspended
meadow is increased, and views South are opened up. With acknowledgement
to Diller Scofidio + Renfro, New York.
LA TADEO DEARTE 9 N.º 12 - 2023
WHEN THE FUTURE BECOMES NO LONGER A THREAT BUT, MORE, AN OPPORTUNITY
THE CARBON FOOTPRINT
OF VIRTUALIZATION
The high quantities of energy involved in “minting”
NFTs (Non Fungible Tokens) has sent up alarm signals
regarding the unsustainability of virtualization. Only
a few years ago NFTs were notoriously expensive to
produce in terms of energy because the mechanisms
used to create them relied on a computationally costly
system called “minting”, in which blockchain techno-
logy, essential to the creation of metaverses, produce
unique pieces of data associated with photos, videos,
audio, and other types of media. NFTs come in the
form of avatars, artwork, music, digital creatures, and
HTML code, as well as plots of land in virtual worlds like
[Decentraland]. Further, most NFT minters opt for the
Ethereum blockchain, which requires computers–“mi-
ners”–to take turns guessing answers to increasingly
challenging mathematical problems. The key point here
is that the Ethereum blockchain, representing an indus-
try worth $195 billion, recently has made a 99.95% cut
in its absolute energy use. Overnight, the sustainability
movement, which previously had ignored or deplored
the virtual world, recognized that it now represents a
“pixelated escape route from fragile earthly reality”.
More than that, it might oer the only feasible escape
route to a future sustainable planet.13
The metaverse will continue to need very high
resolution pictures, which will boost energy use even
further. But now, these increases can be achieved
without compromising sustainability targets. Etherium
has led the way and now other data centers are plan-
ning improvements in energy use that will enable them
to become more environmentally friendly. Meta has
committed to achieving net zero emissions by 2030.
Microso has pledged to run its Azure cloud platform
entirely on renewable energy by 2025. For the future
[Decentraland], a virtual platform based on Ethereum,
will be able to rely on green, clean and renewable ener-
gy. Such radical, immediate impacts on energy use can
be made in the virtual world because the data on which
these reductions depend are concentrated in a rela-
tively few centers; their carbon footprints are readily
identifiable. Whereas, in the construction industry the
opposite applies: sources of high carbon emissions are
located in millions of separate sites, worldwide, which
explains, in part, the construction industry’s dismal
record in meeting sustainability targets.
A GREEN LIGHT FOR
THE CITY
As with all property development, the location of
non-real estate reigns will have no better location
than in the heart of the City of London. Companies and
institutions, worldwide, will be encouraged to establish
a City outpost which will provide both virtual and phys-
ical access to a global hub of commerce and an emerg-
ing center for culture. Either way, the opportunities
for attracting people back and appealing to new users
are almost endless. This is why I am urging the City to
take a long hard look at a way ahead that appears, at
first glance, to be “blue sky thinking” but, on closer
examination, oers a creative resolution to a seemingly
intractable problem. The City’s new virtual possibilities
woven into existing physical proposals for London Wall
West will send out a signal to the world that the City is
determined to lead the way in creating a sustainable
future.
The fact that the physical presence of buildings at
London Wall West will be dramatically reduced should
do much to staunch objections to the proposed sche-
me. Further, the scheme could substantially reduce car-
bon footprint through virtualization and might set new
standards for cities worldwide to follow when embar-
king on processes of digital transformation. Replicated
many times over throughout the world, a policy of
“Building Less is More” might succeed in redirecting our
current course towards climate disaster.
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TERRY TRICKETT
CAN MY “TALE OF TWO REALITIES” TAKE US TO
THE FUTURE?
My story has not ended but it has reached the point where the City has an opportunity to lead the way forward to a
sustainable future. The London Wall West scheme can act not only as a cultural beacon but, also, establish the City
as a world leader in digital transformation. My own part in this process, as an architect and resident in the City, is
to prompt new thinking on the future relationship between a fast changing City and emerging technology–with an
emphasis on processes of virtualization. It is my belief that eventual success will depend on the skill and imagination
demonstrated by digital architects and new media artists in creating virtual environments at London Wall West,
which are as good as their physical counterparts.
Many people are making predictions about what the metaverse will be and what it should be. For my money,
the thoughts of Nick Clegg (Vice President of Global Aairs and Communications at Meta) on “Making the metaverse:
What is it, how it will be built, and why it matters” possess a clarity of purpose, which is lacking in most published
information on the subject.14. Moreover, “Building Less is More” is an idea that he finds intriguing, as do others who
have described it, variously, as revolutionary, compelling and not least, totally convincing. It is an idea that depends
on first, defining what we should expect from the metaverse and then, pursuing the diicult path of making it happen.
That is what I am aiming to do in this article.
So far, I have told a “Tale of Two Realities” which is far removed from dystopian science fiction. Rather the oppo-
site, I am painting a picture of a life enhancing fact. But, if London Wall West is to enter this new world, it must become
a crucial test bed for experimentation on how to turn “conjecture” into reality–a reality that embraces a symbiosis of
virtual and physical space.
DEFINING THE QUALITY OF A METAVERSE
PART TWO:
CONSTRUCTING
A VIRTUAL WORLD
LA TADEO DEARTE 9 N.º 12 - 2023
WHEN THE FUTURE BECOMES NO LONGER A THREAT BUT, MORE, AN OPPORTUNITY
Nick Clegg suggests that the quality of a metaverse will
be the feeling of presence. That is, you will be right there
with another person in another place. He knows, too, that
our interactions in the metaverse must replicate those we
experience in our daily lives:
• Currently our communication with one another
involves emails, text messages, and written posts
on social media. Face-to-face conversations and
speech based communication continue to happen
but less frequently as a result of the enforced periods
of isolation we all experienced during the pandem-
ic–a pattern of communication that has remained
persistent after the pandemic receded. The metaverse
will constitute a shift back towards ephemerality,
making speech in a shared virtual environment the
rst option for communication.
• In our familiar physical world, we have the ability
to pick up on emotional cues or inuence audiences
by modulating our voice, moving around and using
body language. To create this level of embodiment
in the virtual world, avatars will reect our bodily
movements just as it might occur in a physical reality.
They will enable us to communicate expressively, to
use our hands to create and manipulate digital objects
and to interact within a virtual 3D environment
(Figure 12).
• In the not-too-distant future, we will be able to
communicate virtually in ways that make us feel
as if we are actually in a specic space with other
people–an outcome that can be regarded as the next
generation of the Internet, a 3D experience which
prioritizes a sense of immersion encompassing not
only VR but, also, augmented reality (AR) and a mix
between these and other forms of reality (XR).
The technological challenges of meeting the
attributes of ephemerality, embodiment and immersion
are formidable but, once overcome, they will ensure that
people can experience the metaverse in a way that is as
good as life outside in the physical world.
It is not a one-size-fits-all metaverse that lies
ahead, as I think Mark Zuckerberg might have antici-
pated when he launched his concept of Meta. Instead,
it is a series of separate virtual worlds all dedicated
to meeting individual aspirations where you can be in
a dierent place, perhaps fantastical, perhaps where
you can assume a body that is far from human. There
is nothing mundane about an environment where the
relationship between mass and gravity (flying), the
principle of locality (teleportation), entropy (making the
arrow of time go backwards), and causality (there is no
physical damage despite the intensity of the blow) all
turn our expectations of normal human behavior upside
down. All these experiences lie in wait for users who,
accessing or interacting with a virtual world for the first
time, will begin a process of “re-worlding”.
“Re-worlding in VR depends on the possibilities
that the virtual world allows you to experience, both a
feeling of social presence (the sensation of interacting
and sharing the same experiences with another avatar)
as well as a perception of control (degree of synchro-
nization between user – avatar - virtual environment),
both conditions mediated by the code and computing
capability of the VR device with which you are accessing
the virtual environment.”15.
It is through the re-worlding process that the user
interprets and finds meaning in the virtual world. The
consequences of this process can then extend into
how people navigate and sustain their lives in the more
familiar real world.
Figure 12. Users can already gain a strong sense of embodiment in a virtual
world when they control “humanoid” avatars with their hands. (Tsinghua and
Carnegie Mellon Universities).
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TERRY TRICKETT
The term “user” can be defined as being the actual
person immersed subjectively in a virtual world. As I
mentioned in 2.3, I am anticipating that, in the West, a
50/50 ratio is likely to be adopted by users who, poten-
tially, might spend half their time in a virtual world and
half in the physical world. It is a ratio that should be
regarded as being variable depending on users’ own
inclinations and the extent to which their working life
demands contact with others who may be remote physi-
cally but easily accessible virtually. Always, organizations
undertaking processes of digital transformation should
ensure that a seamless transition can be made between
both worlds–a transition that can be made by each and
every person in the organization via their VR device.
Users will be personified in the virtual world
through their own avatars, which can be defined
as the digital interfaces that allow users to interact
intentionally and purposefully in a metaverse. The
design of a personal avatar can have implications for
other users; avatars with human characteristics tend
to create more positive social interactions than fantasy
avatars (Figure 13). Further, people’s emotional states
can influence how their avatars behave in the virtual
world thus indicating that there is a fine line between
the real and the virtual experience; in VR, it is impossi-
ble to completely detach ourselves from what we are
feeling in real life.
In the not-too-distant-future, when organizations,
both large and small, can be expected to create their
own metaverses, the behavior of users will be influ-
enced by the same factors that have served to generate
an organization’s unique “pattern of activity” in the
physical world.
Figure 13. Fantasy Avatars: Universal Everything
explore digital life in motion with Lifeforms at 180
Strand, London, 2022.
LA TADEO DEARTE 9 N.º 12 - 2023
WHEN THE FUTURE BECOMES NO LONGER A THREAT BUT, MORE, AN OPPORTUNITY
DEFINING PEOPLE’S
NEEDS IN A METAVERSE
Not all will be new and unfamiliar in a metaverse creat-
ed as a virtual expression of a presence in the physical
world. As techniques are developed which are capable
of extending processes of digital transformation into
a virtual world, success will depend, as it does in the
physical world, on paying close attention to the well-be-
ing of people–whose needs are ever changing rather
than a fixed set of requirements–at all levels within an
organization. Maslow, in his Hierarchy of Needs includes,
at the lower level, physiological needs (to sustain life
and health), safety (the avoidance of physical danger
and need for protection) and belonging (social needs
involving the desire for aection and friendship). Higher
level needs include self-esteem (a desire to be treated
with deference and respect) and self-actualization (the
need of a person to strive for his or her fullest poten-
tial as a human being). People do not move from one
level to another in any precise fashion, but it is safe to
assume that, unless lower order needs are satisfied, the
others will not come into play in any major way (Figure
14).
In creating a metaverse, it can be anticipated that
people’s needs, both at a lower and a higher level, must
be kept firmly in mind by the metaverse curators and
new media artists involved. Indeed, they can play at
being gods but only as long as a tendency for willfulness
(a common trait among deities) is replaced by respect–
respect for people’s freedom of action and their ability
to carry out their tasks eectively. Further, they must
remain constantly aware of people’s dierences and the
multiplicity of their needs to ensure that:
• The adoption of a 50/50 approach to digital trans-
formation enables people to feel as comfortable in
the virtual world as in their more familiar physical
environment. (It is through paying close attention
to ergonomic factors that life in a virtual world can
become as fulfilling as the physical world.)
• A sense of order emerges from the expression of
diversity in the virtual world, where many new
opportunities for the expression of dierences will
exist (i.e., in the choice of avatars and metaverse
settings).
• Freedom of expression is available in the virtual
world. Such freedom compensates for the time
spent away from a more familiar physical world.
(Experiences of flying, teleportation, entropy,
and causality can add excitement and a sense of
everyday adventure, which far exceeds anything
available in the physical world.)
• Communication via speech is the first option in
the virtual world with less reliance on emails, text
messages, and written posts on social media than
in the physical world.
• A seamless transition between the virtual and
physical worlds enables eective collaboration with
colleagues not only locally but, also, throughout
the world. (Control of entering and exiting the virtu-
al world is in the hands of all personnel via a range
of VR devices.)
• The organization’s extension into the virtual world
is seen as a way of contributing to people’s self-es-
teem as they make their own way into a new virtual
world, which oers extraordinary opportunities for
self-actualization and advancement.
Figure 14. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
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TERRY TRICKETT
LONDON WALL WEST:
A TEST ED FOR
EXPERIMENTATION
All the components that constitute a metaverse are
almost already in place. Finding the glue that can hold
them together will be the key to creating a future where
an ecosystem of metaverses is set to become a 3D
elevation of our online world–an outcome that includes
a more intuitive and productive way of communicating
information and ideas. (Remember, humans did not
evolve to touch 2D interfaces.) By adding new virtual
challenges to the already acknowledged physical ones
that I have outlined in 2.1, the full range of challenges to
be met at London Wall West can be summarized as:
• creating an environment which demonstrates how
the City can remain a global hub of commerce and
become a center for culture. (The DS+R scheme
meets the physical requirements of members of
the Cultural Sector coming together with their
counterparts in the Commercial Sector in a spirit of
sociability and partnership but provides no indica-
tions on how the virtual world will play its part in
this bonding process.)
• adjusting to a new post-pandemic work/life bal-
ance by giving close attention to the creation of a
virtual world, which people will be able to enter or
exit as they choose. (By embracing the metaverse,
the City will be able to adopt a “Building Less is
More” policy, which will substantiate its decision to
demolish existing buildings at London Wall West.)
• reducing the physical construction of new
multi-purpose buildings. (This will send out a clear
signal to the world: the City is determined to lead
the way in creating a sustainable future.)
• giving full consideration to the social, behavioral
and psychological aspects of people’s needs (on
the assumption that virtualization technology will
enable intuitive and productive communication to
take place in an ecosystem of metaverses).
• developing the City of London’s bold new cultural
district stretching from Farringdon to Moorgate,
with a vision that seeks to amplify the creativity
embedded in the area and use it to generate lasting
change long into the future (This is the City’s initial
aim in developing London Wall West. By adopting
a 50/50 approach, all these aims can be achieved
with the additional benefit that, as the metaverse
becomes established, non-real estate in the form
of virtual platforms will become an ever-increasing
asset.).
I recognize that the above extended list of chal-
lenges represents a huge step up from the original
brief issued to DS+R. No architectural firm, however
advanced it may be in tackling technological issues,
can be expected to accomplish a result spanning two
realities. For this reason, the team currently at work on
London Wall West will need to be supplemented with a
further range of skills garnered from backgrounds not
normally associated with the word “construction”. Who
are they and what do they do?
NEW PROBLEMS,
NEW SKILLS
The skills of emerging media artists and digital archi-
tects will need to be brought to bear on the construc-
tion of the “extremely complex system” of a metaverse.
The nature of artistic practice has changed radically
over the last 50 - 60 years to the extent that new media
artists can apply to their work an ability to use compu-
tation as a blank canvas for exploring art as a process
and to use the remarkable attributes of artificial intel-
ligence (AI) to produce options that learn from experi-
ence. As an aide to creativity, there is now a Pandora’s
box of opportunities available for producing and pre-
senting ideas for the virtual world. But, to prevent “ca-
priciousness”, all of these must be rigorously controlled
to ensure that users’ multifaceted and changeable
needs are given proper consideration. For this purpose,
the new and relatively untried role of “metaverse cura-
tor” will come into its own–a role that will extend the
word curating to cover not only the content of a virtual
world but, also, its impact on people from a behavioral
and psychological point of view (as I have described in
3.4). Only then can life in a virtual world cease to be an
illusion; VR combined with our life in physical reality will
help in establishing “a better 50/50 world”.
LA TADEO DEARTE 9 N.º 12 - 2023
WHEN THE FUTURE BECOMES NO LONGER A THREAT BUT, MORE, AN OPPORTUNITY
Already, just a few new media artists and digital
architects, who are fluent technologically, have demon-
strated their ability to explore the virtual world to find
forms which astound in their scope and imagination.
But, within the next few years, the oncoming metaverse
will require that many more become similarly equipped.
Fortunately, it is a need that already has been recog-
nized in the realm of art education. In the UK, to name
just one, at the University of the Arts London (UAL), the
Creative Computing Institute (CCI) oers training and
diplomas in creative technology to students, across
UAL, providing opportunities for textile, illustration and
film students alike to gain fluency in emerging technol-
ogies.16 Stress is laid on the way AI generative platforms
enable the production of high definition virtual envi-
ronments. At an equivalent institute in New York, the
School of Visual Arts (SVA), students gain experience in
the programming of special eects for the film industry
as well as the skills needed to step inside and explore
virtual buildings. These centers of “arts technolo-
gies” are continuing a tradition developed over many
centuries (since the Renaissance, in fact) for artists to
bring disruptive mechanical and electronic tools to
bear on radical and revolutionary artforms. It is in the
metaverse that new media artists will find their métier.
To make the future, advanced technology in itself
will never be enough. It will require art and technology
to be woven seamlessly together to make the virtual
world the place we want it to be.17 Then, we can antici-
pate that all our lives will be altered forever by a mix of
electromyographic sensors, volumetric holographic dis-
plays, immersive headsets and projection, and tracking
cameras that collectively will provide support, stimula-
tion, and simulations never before possible.18
CONSTRUCTING THE
FUTURE
“For better or worse, the pandemic forced us to sink or
swim. Somehow, we swam. We learned new skills, in-
creased our emotional flexibility, and learned optimism
and the capacity to rebound. If we take all that into
context, it sounds like we are learning to build a future
rich with possibility.”19
Already, the City of London has glimpsed such a
future with its vision to build the connections required
internationally for the city to remain a global hub of
commerce and become a center for culture. But this
vision has not yet been translated into a practical
reality aecting every part of the Square Mile. London
Wall West, taken as a beacon of change, might indeed
lead the way forward. The lessons learned there will
act as a model for developments further afield but,
before physical construction takes place, is it possible, I
wonder, to foresee the wider implications of taking this
crucial first step?
By planning for culture in a 50/50 environment at
London Wall West, the City stands to reap rich rewards
from letting prime physical space as well as gaining
handsome returns from its ownership of a [London
Wall] metaverse platform. Owners of virtual land can
transact, develop, lease or otherwise use their entitle-
ment to virtual construction, in any manner they see fit.
Figure 15. A Pandora’s box of opportunities is
available for producing ideas in the virtual world.
Here, a metaverse hub inspired by the Silk Road is
proposed by Grimshaw, WKN, Farshad Moussavi.
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TERRY TRICKETT
As yet, there are very few restrictions in place aecting
virtual space. For instance:
• Everyrealm (formerly Republic Realm) purchased
a plot of land in [Decentraland] and converted this
into a shopping district called Metajuka (inspired by
Tokyo’s Harajuka shopping district.
• Sotheby’s has created a digital replica of its London
headquarters, in [Decentraland], to showcase digi-
tal art for sale.
• Samsung has launched virtual retail space, again in
[Decentraland], for engaging customers in its own
products.
As owners of a [London Wall] platform, the City
will be able to provide opportunities for real estate
managements to gain valuable experience in letting a
portfolio of virtual space. We can anticipate that the
aim, in oering preferential rates to those tenants who
also have a physical presence at London Wall West, will
be to encourage a pattern of dual tenancy that can be
extended, over time, to another City owned metaverses
in the Square Mile. Although, in theory, such a plethora
of metaverses will enable people, activities, and busi-
nesses to disperse geographically, the City will remain
crucial–perhaps even more than today–to serve as a
person-to-person hub of collaboration and innovation.
In the City of London, organizations will continue to
gain access to a deep talent pool because people want
to be there (e.g., those who have moved within the last
10 years or so to Canary Wharf, a docklands outpost
of the City, are now returning). For the future, we can
expect to see this trend continuing as leading “super-
star” cities become more and more important as places
for workforces to come together and interact in the
physical world.
If London Wall West can be given the go-ahead as
a 50/50 test bed of experimentation, a lot will depend
on it becoming recognized as a model for success in
establishing the City’s future. Already, we know that, by
adopting a “Building Less is More” policy, the City will
be able to rest on its laurels as an exemplar of sustain-
ability but, also, success at London Wall West, and its
virtual complement [London Wall], could give the City
suicient confidence to create its own [Decentraland]–
i.e., a [Square Mile] platform for virtualization. To some,
this idea will appear as a “fantasy beyond belief,”
although, in fact, the construction of a virtual [Square
Mile] (to complement the existing physical reality)
represents the only feasible way for the City to build
the connections required internationally for the City to
remain a global hub of commerce and become a center
for culture. It heralds a future rich in possibility. The
infrastructure of a virtual [Square Mile], created and
managed by the City, will generate a platform where
new media art’s engagement with advanced technolo-
gy can be expected to act as a magnet for visitors and
create a fulfilling wonderland for the City’s inhabitants
and workers.
Figure 16. A [Square Mile] platform for
virtualization (i.e., the City’s own Decentraland)
will enable the City, and many commercial and
financial organizations already located in the
physical Square Mile, to become “hosts to culture”.
Sketch by the author shows the hub of the City’s
[Square Mile]
LA TADEO DEARTE 9 N.º 12 - 2023
WHEN THE FUTURE BECOMES NO LONGER A THREAT BUT, MORE, AN OPPORTUNITY
I can foresee the City becoming a “world first” in
demonstrating Culture and Commerce coming together
as a powerful motivator of change and renewal. But
final success will depend on culture and commerce
joining forces as equals: a token influx of culture will
never be enough.
Currently, in the physical Square Mile, a pattern of
events is emerging which indicates that surplus space
for existing owners, tenants and users is becoming
evident, over time, as the City adjusts to a new oice /
homeworking balance established during the Covid-19
pandemic. (City companies that I have approached on
this subject confirm that they need, at most, three fihs
of their existing space.) The release of this surplus space
onto the market will occur as current leases expire or
come up for renegotiation, with significant amounts
becoming available over the next 5 - 10 years. It is
during this same period that lessons to be learned from
the physical construction of London Wall West and its
virtual counterpart as a digital [London Wall] twin will
become apparent. Has it worked as a beacon of change?
Given a positive response to this question, it will
be safe to assume that the same idea can be applied to
the much bigger canvas of the [Square Mile] platform
(Figure 16). The many commercial and financial orga-
nizations, already gathered together in the City from
all corners of the earth, can then become, if they wish,
hosts to culture. To take one hypothetical example, I
can imagine, for instance, that Deutsche Bank, with a
large physical presence in the City and potentially an
equivalent virtual presence in the [Square Mile] plat-
form, inviting the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin to curate
an out-reach virtual presentation, where a City-based
international audience can engage with German art and
artefacts. The Staatliche Museen, as one of the most
digitally advanced museums in Europe, will be well
equipped to take on this challenge.20
This type of cultural brokerage, applied many times
over, will quickly establish the City as a global center
for culture. Moreover, as has proved to be the case in
[Decentraland] and other platforms, real estate prices
in the metaverse are rising exponentially. Bloomberg
estimates that the metaverse market could reach
US$800 billion by 2024, up from about US$500 billion
in 2020. The creation of a [Square Mile] virtual platform
promises to become a winning venture for the City,
firmly establishing its reputation as a global hub of
innovation and sustainability.
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TERRY TRICKETT
It was the City of London’s ambitious intent to make “Culture and Commerce Stronger Together”
that ignited my inquiry into how, potentially, a solution to the City’s own dilemma, caused by
plans to build London Wall West as a beacon of change, might be resolved by adopting a policy of
“Building Less is More”. But no organization, however bold and determined, can be expected to
embrace the unknown without establishing a blueprint, which will provide at least some assur-
ance that the journey ahead can lead to salvation. In saying this, I am working on the premise that
it will take the construction of new virtual environments, working in close harmony with existing
and reconfigured physical environments, to ensure the success of the City’s bold plan for renew-
al. In this article I have shown how it can work. Moreover, the time is now.
The soware of digital transformation requires blending human potential with technology to
enable creativity. Machines are not taking over the world; they rely on a process of machine learn-
ing whereby they must first be trained by humans. This idea of technology and people working
symbiotically lies at the very heart of the digital transformation–a fact that is firmly established
in the cultural sector. For this reason, the City’s plans for becoming a center for culture (whilst re-
maining a global hub of commerce), far from being blue sky, are set to move ahead at a time when
many cultural institutions will be only too willing to merge with the life of City streets–a move
that jells with their own plans for change and digital transformation.21
My suggestion that the metaverse oers a solution to the City’s apparently intractable prob-
lems must be regarded as a conjecture22–a conjecture where London Wall West, in highlighting
all the salient factors that are set to impact on the construction of an ecosystem of metaverses,
can help to stem our seemingly unstoppable dash to climate disaster. The current dire perfor-
mance of the global construction industry in reducing greenhouse gas emissions pinpoints the
need for action, and the opportunity to satisfy that need by building less is eectively illustrated
by the proposed reduction in London Wall West’s carbon footprint.
I am not suggesting that the task that lies ahead will be easy. Far from it. Initially, we might
not be completely successful in tackling each and every aspect of a process which, inevitably,
must change our lives forever. However, I regard the attributes of a metaverse as a way of solving
problems, not making them. Taken as a model for embracing a future that can resolve the prob-
lems of the past, London Wall West oers an ideal opportunity for the City to undertake an ideas-
led process of renewal. The City may or may not decide to take the plunge into a problem solving
virtual world. But if it does, City policy makers will take credit for facing up to a challenge that
central government is failing to fully address (i.e., tackling climate change). Whatever happens, I
am grateful that at London Wall West I have found the complexity and components of a challenge
that extends far beyond the City’s Square Mile. By embracing the virtual world ahead of time, the
future becomes no longer a threat but, more, an opportunity.
CONCLUSION: THE VALUE
OF CONJECTURE
LA TADEO DEARTE 9 N.º 12 - 2023
WHEN THE FUTURE BECOMES NO LONGER A THREAT BUT, MORE, AN OPPORTUNITY
R
• Ball, Matthew. The Metaverse And How It Will Revolutionize
Everything. New York: Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2022:
255.
• Capgemini. “Is the metaverse inching closer to reality?” (2022).
https://www.capgemini.com/insights/expert-perspectives/
is-the-metaverse-inching-closer-to-reality
• Capgemini. “Want Digital Transformation Success?
Then preparation is key” (2021). https://www.
capgemini.com/insights/expert-perspectives/
want-digital-transformation-success-then-preparation-is-key/
• Chalmers, David. Reality+ Virtual Worlds and the Problems of
Philosophy. London: Allen Lane, XVII.
• Cherner, Jessica. “Zaha Hadid Architects is
Building a Virtual City for the Metaverse.” (2023).
https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/
zaha-hadid-architects-building-virtual-city-metaverse
• Clegg Nick. “Making the Metaverse: What is it, how it will be
built and why it matters.” (2022). https://tech.facebook.com/
ideas/2022/05/making-the-metaverse/
• City of London. “Culture and Commerce Fuelling Creative
Renewal.” (2021). https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/assets/
Things-to-do/full-report-culture-and-commerce-fuelling-
creative-renewal.pdf
• City of London. “London Wall West.” (2022). https://
londonwallwest.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/CoL.
LWW_.A0.Boards.WEB_.21.06.17.pdf
• Hyoung-Yong, Chai. “Working in the metaverse: Does Telework
in a Metaverse Oice Have the Potential to Reduce Population
Pressure in Megacities? Evidence from Young Adults in Seoul
South Korea.” (2022).” https://doi.org/10.3390/su14063629
• Lanier, Janier. Dawn of the New Everything. A Journey through
Virtual Reality. London: Penguin Random House, 2017: 1
• León-Dominguez, Umberto. Mastering Virtual Reality. London:
Amazon, UK, 2022, 25
• Moss, Jennifer. “The Pandemic Changed Us. Now Companies
Have to Change Too.” (2022). https://hbr.org/2022/07/the-
pandemic-changed-us-now-companies-have-to-change-too
• Townsend, Solitaire. “Could The Metaverse & Web3
Save Sustainability?” (2022). https://www.forbes.
com/sites/solitairetownsend/2022/09/29/could-the-
metaverse--web3-save-sustainability/?sh=169076
7b6463
• Trickett, Terry. “New Media Art as a Vehicle for Research and
Innovation”, (8. Conjectural coincidence). (2021). https://doi.
org/10.14236/ewic/EVA2021.41
• Trickett, Terry. “Through the Looking Glass to a Post-
pandemic World with New Media Artists as Our Guide.
(3. Museums and Galleries at the Crossroads), (4. Art &
Technology acting together to create Virtual Worlds). (2022).
https://doi.org/10.14236/ewic/EVA2022.40
• University of the Arts London (UAL). Creative
Computing Institute, 2023. https://www.arts.ac.uk/
creative-computing-institute
• United Nations Environment Programme. Global Status Report
for Buildings and Construction 2022. Open English edition.
https://wedocs.unep.org/handle/20.500.11822/41133
067 067/
TERRY TRICKETT
N
1 Throughout this article, the word ‘construct’ is used with two
dierent meanings: to erect a building (physical reality) or to
form an idea bringing together various conceptual elements
(virtual reality).
2 City of London, “Culture and Commerce Fuelling Creative
Renewal,” (2021). https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/assets/
Things-to-do/full-report-culture-and-commerce-fuelling-
creative-renewal.pdf
3 City of London, “London Wall West,” (2022). https://
londonwallwest.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/CoL.LWW_.
A0.Boards.WEB_.21.06.17.pdf
4 Net zero means no longer adding to the total amount of
greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Greenhouse gases include
carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane. Under the 2015 Paris
climate agreement, 197 countries agreed to try to limit global
temperature rises to 1.5C by 2100. To achieve this, scientists
said that net zero CO2 emissions should be reached by 2050.
However, the UN now wants countries to bring forward their
net zero targets by a decade. Not all emissions can be reduced
to zero, so those that remain need to be matched by actively
removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. This is known
as “osetting.”
5 United Nations Environment Programme, Global Status Report
for Buildings and Construction, (2022), Open English edition.
https://wedocs.unep.org/handle/20.500.11822/41133
6 Chai Hyoung-Yong, “Working in the metaverse: Does
Telework in a Metaverse Oice Have the Potential to Reduce
Population Pressure in Megacities? Evidence from Young
Adults in Seoul South Korea,” (2022),” https://www.mdpi.
com/2071-1050/14/6/3629/htm
7 Janier Lanier, Dawn of the New Everything. A Journey through
Virtual Reality, London: Penguin Random House, 2017, 1.
8 David Chalmers, Reality+ Virtual Worlds and the Problems of
Philosophy, London: Allen Lane, xvii.
9 Capgemini, “Is the metaverse inching closer to reality?,” (2022)
https://www.capgemini.com/insights/expert-perspectives/
is-the-metaverse-inching-closer-to-reality
10 Capgemini, “Want Digital Transformation Success?
Then preparation is key,” (2021) https://www.
capgemini.com/insights/expert-perspectives/
want-digital-transformation-success-then-preparation-is-key/
11 Cherner, “Zaha Hadid Architects is Building a Virtual City for the
Metaverse,” (2023) https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/
zaha-hadid-architects-building-virtual-city-metaverse
12 Whenever a reference is made to a virtual platform, e.g.,
Decentraland, the name is placed inside square brackets:
[Decentraland].
13 Solitaire Townsend, “Could The Metaverse & Web3
Save Sustainability?,” (2022) https://www.forbes.
com/sites/solitairetownsend/2022/09/29/could-the-
metaverse--web3-save-sustainability/?sh=169076
7b6463
14 Nick Clegg, “Making the Metaverse: What is it, how it will be
built and why it matters,” (2022). https://tech.facebook.com/
ideas/2022/05/making-the-metaverse/
15 Umberto León-Dominguez, Mastering Virtual Reality, London:
Amazon, UK, 2022, 25
16 University of the Arts London (UAL), Creative
Computing Institute, 2023 https://www.arts.ac.uk/
creative-computing-institute
17 Terry Trickett, “Through the Looking Glass to a Post-pandemic
World with New Media Artists as Our Guide. (3. Museums and
Galleries at the Crossroads), (4. Art & Technology acting together
to create Virtual Worlds), (2022) https://www.scienceopen.com/
hosted-document?doi=10.14236/ewic/EVA2022.40
18 Matthew Ball, The Metaverse And How It Will Revolutionize
Everything, New York: Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2022:
255.
19 Jennifer Moss, “The Pandemic Changed Us. Now Companies
Have to Change Too,” (2022). https://hbr.org/2022/07/
the-pandemic-changed-us-now-companies-have-to-change-too
20 Many other museums, including the Imperial War Museum and
the Science Museum Group in London, are now transgressing
their physical boundaries by engaging with emerging
technologies (e.g., volumetric displays, ray tracing, holograms
and Desktop AR) as a way of sharing 3D exhibits in remote
locations. Such lessons, learned during the pandemic, are
proving to be vital in establishing new audiences for arts and
culture.
21 Trickett, “Through the Looking Glass.”
22 Terry Trickett, “New Media Art as a Vehicle for Research and
Innovation”, (8. Conjectural coincidence). (2021). https://www.
scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14236/ewic/
EVA2021.41
