Luis Fernandez’s Virtual NFT Villas Work Across Metaverses – WWD

It’s been four years or more since the fashion world clocked the work of architect-turned-menswear designer-turned-architect Luis Fernandez. But it might be interested in his latest creation: a luxury virtual seaside resort called MetaEstates_Villa, which was just announced via NFT.

The villa has a rather unique feature: interoperability. Rather than being limited to one metaverse platform, owners are given a choice of where to place their new property – be it Spatial, Decentraland, Cryptovoxels, Unreal Engine 5, Nvidia Omniverse or other environments, spanning 10 virtual platforms in total so far, with more to come.

This flexibility comes from MetaMundo, a virtual technology platform gaining attention for its “open metaverse” approach.

“We partnered with MetaMundo and made it distributable-ready for all the different open source metaverses. So if you have land in Decentraland, you can drop it in there. If you have land in Cryptovoxels [and etc.]”, Fernandez explained to WWD. “And because all the metadata is updatable, as new platforms come on board, we’ll start updating those as well.”

The approach aims to solve a fundamental problem with today’s metaverse: the virtual world is not a single place, but multiple ecosystems, most of which do not work together. That may change one day—it has to in order to form the kind of seamless, connected wonderland that Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg envisions—but for now, the metaverse remains a disjointed patchwork of different platforms, graphics, and tech specs.

That’s a significant hurdle for brands, especially if they want to establish a universal, or at least consistent, virtual presence. They can build one digital storefront or headquarters for one environment, but they have to build it over and over again to cover other game or metaverse environments. These platforms have different specifications, file types and, in the case of real estate, land or lot sizes, so it’s not a one-size-fits-all situation.

The scenario looks like a complex, even terrifying affair. MetaMundo co-founder Mark Studholme, a serial entrepreneur with a background in developing digital tools for architects, understood these technical challenges and decided to take them on. Over time, his team developed an “internal conversion pipeline,” he told WWD.

Building 3D rooms, especially with beautiful settings and refined details, results in massive files and they can be difficult to manage. MetaMundo’s system takes these “seed” files and creates a more adaptable master file, capable of being retooled for a variety of metaverse platforms. The technical details of how it works run deep and involve a variety of file types, including those used by top animation and game developers, such as Pixar, Nvidia, Epic and others.

Ultimately, that means MetaMundo’s platform can meet a wide range of specifications – from the highest level of fidelity, as in award-winning animation and games, to lower-fidelity environments like Roblox and even augmented reality. In addition, the platform is constantly expanding its compatibility to include more file types and metaverses.

In other words, current owners of their NFT environments, including Fernandez’s villas, will have multiple virtual worlds in which to place them over time.

“That’s the future-proofed version you get in this NFT,” Studholme said, though he admits it doesn’t come without a lot of effort, including human intervention. “At the moment, I would say, it’s 60 percent automated and 40 percent [manual].” But MetaMundo is working towards fully automating it.

Last month, the company launched a 3D NFT marketplace that offers metaverse scenes as well as assets for use across Decentraland, The Sandbox, Cryptovoxels, and Spatial. The company targeted art galleries or public spaces, such as music venues and parks, but owners can use these stages however they want – that is, as long as they don’t violate the NFT’s terms.

For MetaEstates_Villa, the owner can host parties or hang out with up to 50 friends, or use it commercially as a showroom, for business meetings, event spaces and other purposes, up to a limit. Although the buyers own the NFTs, they do not own the intellectual property. It’s similar to buying a music record or MP3, but not actually owning the rights to the song itself.

That may not matter to buyers drawn in by their unique interoperability – or to owners simply charmed by the open aesthetic and design ethos.

Working with an architectural designer known as “The Line”, Fernandez created a sophisticated space with beautiful views, tall columns and a swimming pool, echoing the water theme of the surrounding sea directly on the property. Imagine a heightened fantasy version of a vacation on the Pacific coast, with the clean lines and minimalism that Fernandez is known for offering a balance against the dramatic side views of the cliffs.

Architecture fans may notice a Frank Lloyd Wright sensibility to the landscape, or a Mies van der Rohe-like spirit in the interior’s use of natural stone. But it’s all filtered through Fernandez’s lens.

A self-described “hybrid creative,” the designer has earned remarkable credibility in fashion as co-founder of Number:Lab, creative director of Craft Atlantic, and CFDA member. But even before he entered fashion – and one day could return, he suggested – he trained as an architect and had worked on high-profile retail projects.

“I first started designing stores as an architect. I did a lot of the Barneys stores at the time,” he continued. Fernandez was the project architect for Barneys New York’s flagship stores in San Francisco and Las Vegas. “I think that—combined with my experience with building a brand, selling product, making product—has informed a lot of my approach to designing metaverse spaces in the sense of, what are we doing in there? What’s the use of that?”

The contemplation is evident in the villas, which took more than a year to come together. It is a long time, but not everything was spent on concept and design. “This project has been 18 months in the making, and a big part of that was waiting for technology that allowed me to do something that was much more high-fidelity and much more refined than what exists out there,” he said.

This amount of thought – and time – is unusual, especially given the frenetic pace of digital real estate development. Buildings, campuses, even penthouses seem to be driven out at astonishing speed in what looked like a metaversal land grab. The real question, however, is whether people actually buy them.

A recent study by research firm Technavio estimated that the virtual real estate market would grow by $5 billion by 2026. A McKinsey report predicted that four years later, in 2030, the market would reach $5 trillion. But the bubble appeared to be bursting, with land prices plunging as much as 85 percent. That’s partly because of cryptocurrency volatility, which brings good, bad and often terrible news, depending on the day.

The second part is the demand. Is it someone? It was, at least based on the string of high-profile, high-value land deals at the end of last year. In November, Tokens.com’s Metaverse Group picked up a 116-parcel property, which equates to roughly 6,090 square meters, in Decentraland’s Fashion Street, hoping to lease virtual space to fashion brands. Then it came back to pick up more land, raising another $3.2 million. That same month, Republic Realm broke the record with sales of $4.3 million in The Sandbox.

If the craze subsides, the effect on projects like MetaEstates_Villa is hard to predict. Fernandez’s latest NFT offer does not actually include the sale of land, but it does require land ownership if buyers want to enjoy the space. Otherwise, they’re just staring at a set of VOX, GLB, and other Web 3.0-ready files.

So far, investors like Peter Martin, producer, VR director, futurist and CEO of metaverse developer “0,” aren’t buying one of the 100 NFT villas made available this week. At press time, just over a quarter of them have sold for 0.5 ETH each (or $924.71, as of this writing).

Regardless, projects like this highlight the need for interoperability across virtual worlds. MetaMundo and Fernandez may be early to this game, but such efforts are essential if the metaverse is to become the next evolution of the Internet, as promised by tech leaders like Zuckerberg and many others. In the future metaverse of the Meta founder’s dreams, visitors can gather, enjoy experiences and take their digital clothes and collectibles with them wherever they go.

The meta manager should be aware of this type of work. He has bet big – perhaps bet everything – on what so far seemed like a rather nebulous promise.

Now, however, it all seems a little more plausible.