The Revolution of Metaverse in the Construction Industry

Even if you spend a few hours on social media over the past year, it would be impossible for you to avoid seeing stories, conversations, and heated debates about the future of the Internet and a bold new world that would transform the internet, “Metaverse.” Facebook’s announcement in October 2021, that it was further entering the metaverse and rebranding itself as Meta set off a thunderstorm into the market. When asked about the metaverse, Mark Zuckerberg explained, “It’s the difference between peering through a window and actually being there right in the moment together.”

Meta is basically building a Virtual Reality (VR) social platform, framing it as a constellation of virtual worlds where people can hang out with each other, play games, and explore new experiences. 

To the people who are skeptical about it, the metaverse is nothing but a silly buzzword that is being pushed by the earliest adopters who have made its success a disproportionate part of their identity and have the most to lose if it fails. But experts from niche startups to tech giants have debated that this lack of clarity is because the metaverse is still being built, and it's too early and too new to define what it actually means. The internet came into existence in the 1970s, for example, but not every idea of what that would eventually look like was not entirely accurate. 

What exactly is the Metaverse? 

The loudest voices in the room claim that the Metaverse will redefine virtually every activity that humans currently engage in. To put it simply, the “Metaverse” can include VR– characterized by persistent virtual worlds that continue to exist even when you are not playing- as well as Augmented Reality (AR) which combines aspects of the digital and physical worlds.

As the Metaverse is gradually taking its shape and has begun to mirror & enhance all aspects of real life, various industries have started to find ways to reap the benefits out of this disruption. The Metaverse is not only impacting consumer goods, entertainment, and other sectors, but is also changing the face of the construction industry by transforming our understanding of co-development and co-design, spaces, businesses, and societies. 

What Can Metaverse Do For Civil Engineers? 

Consider going inside and out of a 50-story skyscraper. After passing through a lobby made of shining marble, take an elevator to a penthouse with a view of the expansive metropolis below. View a sample apartment, workplace, and hallway. Turn on taps while standing next to windows and adjusting five different spots. Do all of this before you even start construction on the structure.As with all the new technologies, the Metaverse is making waves and creating factions. Many believe that the world is about to get very meta and in the next two decades, we will see ourselves moving into and inhabiting our “second lives” as our second skins. 

Engineers and contractors whose work focuses on the built environment can benefit greatly by being able to see a digital representation of their work that can be manipulated and shared with collaborators and can also be updated in real-time on a daily basis. 

Think of the older versions of the Internet as two-dimensional. In order to enhance that experience, the metaverse aims to become completely three-dimensional and multisensory. There is a sense of being able to touch and interact with objects and environments using virtual reality headsets. Workers can bring all their project management tools, models, drawings, and data visualization into a virtual office. Build a bridge or a full-scale working model of a factory floor right on your desk– that’s the metaverse when it's been developed to its full potential. 

Civil engineers and contractors whose work mainly focuses on building structures can greatly benefit by seeing a digital representation of their work, that can easily be designed, manipulated, updated in real-time on a daily basis, and shared with key collaborators. 

Why should the Engineering & Construction (E&C) Industry invest in the Metaverse? 

As compared to the other industries, E&C Industry is considered to be a slow-runner in the race of technological advancement, which makes it vulnerable to certain market changes. In general, the E&C industry also has a low-profit margin in the world economy as compared to the other industries. And therefore, the E&C industry must take advantage of each and every technological innovation available to boost its productivity. And Metaverse is the exact investment that can help the industry to move past the stagnant stage. 

Another advantage of this investment would be that it will be the most useful to designers, engineers, and architects to enhance project collaboration. Currently, as we are transitioning from the work-from-office setup to a more remote working setup due to the COVID-19 pandemic, augmented and virtual reality can be extremely helpful in optimizing and enhancing the transition. Virtual reality collaboration will be far more valuable and powerful than a Zoom meeting. 

What’s next?

Metaverse is so much more than the hyperbole used by the tech and crypto crowd and it has tremendous potential for engineers to use virtual and augmented reality. If we as engineers decide to learn the ins and outs of virtual reality and a nascent technology that is still in development, we can position ourselves to be leaders within our fields and firms. 

Just like any new technology, there are still many advances that will be made before the metaverse is something that engineers can use on a daily basis, but as engineers, we should be aware of its potential and capacity and need to start taking baby steps to understand it, to implement it.