Metaverse or Urban Digital Twin: that is the question

ESSAY 144/09METAVERSEURBAN DIGITAL TWINAUGMENTED CITYThe growing interest in the Metaverse from the business world is a testament to its increasing importance and the poten-tial impact it could have on our society. Large companies and investors have rec-ognized the enormous economic poten-tial that the Metaverse can offer, prompt-ing them to invest significant amounts of money in its growth and the development of platforms and applications. The acqui-sition of land and properties in the Meta-verse by prominent figures in various sec-tors, such as finance, entertainment, and sports, reflects the rise of the Metaverse as a new form of expression, entertain-ment, and social interaction.Bringing these reflections into the field of urban planning, we can say that the tech-nological innovation behind the develop-ment of the Metaverse has dematerialised the urban object by transfiguring it into an immaterial digital content. Can new technologies merely replicate or simulate the city? Starting from this question, this paper seeks to overcome a naive fascina-tion with the Metaverse, proposing instead a reflection on the Urban Digital Twin and the Augmented City, in the firm belief that new technological tools can redefine and develop new dimensions of humanised space rather than reproduce a simulacrumof the city inhabited by cyber-citizens.