With astounding realism multi-player online role-playing games offer us a window to the world of the known and the unknown, one space at a time. CAD graphic "fly-through" programs allow architects and interior designers to experiment, test and communicate large volumes of space and structural details in advance by rapidly producing a series of computer images. Media systems allow users to manipulate virtual objects with gloves, and goggles or cockpit contraptions enabling us to become a part of the action and collaborate with fellow users in a virtual world. These new electronic multi-media applications, combined with traditional media will ultimately work in tandem, complimenting one another.

We all have a fascination with other people, places and things, real places, places we grew up in or want to remember, places we hope to experience and spaces we want to create, experiment with or test. Virtual architecture, while in its infancy, offers limitless opportunities to experience various environments first-hand, not only for architects, interior designers and landscape designers, but also for engineers, developers, contractors, realtors, consumers and governments. From applications in entertainment theme parks and educational distance learning opportunities, to examining unprecedented building techniques or archiving historic structures, virtual architecture will allow us to safely visit new places, test theories and applications, improve performance or eliminate physical barriers, while reducing risk and minimizing failure or historically archive buildings and structures of the past for future generations.

Imagine walking through structures designed by renowned architects, landscape architects and interior designers, of past and present, to experience them virtually, to discuss, re-examine, hypothesize, understand and share these spaces with others for fun or educational purposes. Technology as a teaching aide then becomes the ultimate field trip, allowing these spaces to be experienced by all, especially those financially limited or physically handicapped.

Culturally, across the spectrum of race, sex, economics and physical abilities, virtual architecture will begin to permeate our lives with experiences we never imagined just a few years ago, making it possible to create a digital town hall or shopping center, attend a concert or a play, visit a museum, view a residence or office space, bet on a favorite sports event or stroll through the park from the privacy of home or the classroom. For those physically handicapped it provides the most liberating of opportunities and is destined to change the world of architecture and interior design as we know it today.