In a world first, a group of Australian entrepreneurs launched the world’s first architecture and design community on the blockchain, titled State of Address (S-of-A).

S-of-A uses non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to turn products of architecture and design into investable assets that are unique, scarce, and transferable. These assets can be on-sold, allowing investors to make long term gains from the assets. 

The community aims to democratise architectural designs and ensure affordability for the end consumer, as well as unlocking immense market potential for architects and designers alike. The group of entrepreneurs - Chris Stribley, Domenic Cerantonio, AJ Batra and Anmol Sekhon - claim good architecturally designed spaces of both physical and virtual qualities have never been so important in our lives.

“The current architect and consumer relationship is very linear,” says Architect and S-of-A Co-Founder, Dom Cerantonio.

Currently, architects need to find clients who will initially commission them, support their ideas and if they are lucky enough, pay them for their time. S-of-A aims to reinvent the architectural model whereby architects can create products at their own discretion that are scalable and sold in an open global market. We aim to provide perpetual royalties into our products that reward architects just like we see in other industries such as Music and Publishing.

“On the client side, there are also significant benefits. Prospective buyers will be able to shop through various design pieces till they find what they are looking for, purchase instantly and at a fraction of the cost. Via the use of NFTs S-of-A sets out to tokenize the architectural design industry and unlock significant economic value that exists in the underlying workcreated by architects and designers. In Australia, only 2% of all new homes between 2012-2021 we designed by architects - we hope that by reducing the cost to the end-customer, we can increase this statistic and improve the standard of living through better designing buildings and environments.”

While the launch of S-of-A signifies a new wave in architecture and design for our physical environments, it equally opens a world of possibilities for the digital space, claims blockchain specialist and fellow S-of-A Co-Founder, Anmol Sekhon.

“While it’s clear the ‘in real life’ benefits S-of-A can offer, what’s equally exciting is the untapped market opportunity for the digital spaces we’re all becoming accustomed to.

“S-of-A aims to provide unique digital immersive environments that could be utilised in various mediums. Think - dream homes, art galleries (to display digital art), Zoom backgrounds, virtual office spaces, digital classrooms - the opportunities are endless.”

A ‘Mint Pass’ S-of-A token has been created for inaugural members, allowing them to purchase new architectural design collections as they are released.

The online community has already partnered up with a number of emerging and leading architects and designers. As it grows, S-of-A plans to be the leading library of architectural design on the blockchain. 

To find out more about State of Address, visit their website at s-of-a.io.

Image: Supplied.