With the rise of digitalised cultural and building experiences, like the Guggenheim and the Sir John Sloane Museum, we are now lucky enough to experience certain institutions like never before, without the queue and expensive ticket price.

2020 has raised the question of whether Digi-Tourism and the digitalisation of buildings will become an important design consideration beyond lockdowns.

Arguably it already has, architects and designers alike are already designing in that ‘instagrammable’ moment in the hope of some incidental marketing and buzz.

Why not keep pushing this into complete virtual experience? Are there parts of the building that can only be experienced digitally? A VR tour led by you? Can that favourite project of yours, that never came to fruition, be built on the internet instead?

It’s future embracing and it’s generous.

As the world contends with some significant issues surrounding travel, most obviously COVID-19, but perhaps most pressingly, the climate crisis, developing ways for architects and architecture lovers to still experience architecture and design will be a challenge.

With more and more impressive virtual experience tools becoming available, the onus is on the architect to find a way that doesn’t diminish the IRL experience.

Rather, how can we enhance both the virtual and the real?