Metrotopia: A Virtual World for the Design Ecosystem | Unreal Fest Chicago 2026

Metrotopia Inc, is a US-based startup founded by Zaha Hadid Architects (London) and ArchAgenda (Chicago) after multiple years collaborating in the metaverse space.

Built on Unreal Engine 5 and accessible online via Pixel Streaming, Metrotopia is a virtual world offering a high-fidelity digital environment that enables new forms of architectural, cultural, and interdisciplinary exchange.

Designed as a global platform for the wider design ecosystem, it brings together architecture, industrial design, fashion, mobility, and speculative practices. The virtual environment showcases over 100 high-resolution projects by leading international architectural studios and designers, including Zaha Hadid Architects, Coop Himmelb(l)au, UNStudio, Sou Fujimoto, ArchiUnion, OMA, LAVA, as well as industrial designer Ross Lovegrove, fashion designer Yimeng Yu, and contributors working across conceptual and emerging design fields.

This session recorded at Unreal Fest Chicago 2026 explores how Unreal Engine can be used within the AECO industry, industrial design, fashion, automotive design, and the wider design ecosystem to showcase detailed high-resolution assets in an immersive fashion within one virtual environment thanks to features such as Nanite, Lumen and World Partition. The presentation shows the process of importing complex architectural models and high resolution assets and incorporating them into one large shared multiplayer environment.

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