Buildings consume massive amounts of resources just to look a certain way. Houses could function perfectly well as simple, efficient structures that keep us warm, dry, and comfortable, but we demand gables, columns, brick facades, and decorative trim because we want them to look appealing. The materials and energy required to build and maintain those aesthetic choices far outweigh what’s actually needed for shelter. If we were all blind, the argument goes, our houses would be optimized spheres or domes with minimal material use and maximum efficiency.

The Virtual Reality Veneer proposes a radical split between what a house is and what it looks like. The physical structure would always be a simple white sphere, built from the most environmentally friendly materials available and outfitted with efficient energy systems. The appearance, however, would be entirely digital, generated by a computer inside the sphere and broadcast to special AR glasses worn by anyone nearby. Look at the sphere through those glasses and you’d see whatever aesthetic the owner chose, from a traditional suburban home to an abstract sculpture.

Designer: Michael Jantzen

The concept is illustrated through a series of renderings showing the same spherical structure in a green landscape. The base condition is just a plain white sphere on supports, accessed by a simple staircase. The other images show that same sphere with a virtual skin unfurling to cover it, transforming into a classic American house complete with gables, shutters, and landscaping. This isn’t a different building but just a digital veneer unfolding over the same unchanging physical form.

The system would work both inside and outside. When you approach the sphere wearing the glasses, you’d see the chosen exterior facade overlaid on the plain structure. Step inside, and the glasses would switch to a different set of images, replacing the minimal interior with virtual walls, furniture, and even window views showing landscapes that don’t physically exist. The owner could change everything on a whim without touching a single material.

Of course, this raises plenty of questions. What happens when different people want to see different aesthetics for the same building? Do non-wearers just see plain spheres dotting the landscape while everyone else experiences virtual variety? The concept assumes widespread adoption of AR glasses or possibly future retinal implants, which is a big leap from where we are now, even with mixed reality headsets becoming more common.

What makes the Virtual Reality Veneer interesting is how current technology is catching up to the idea. AR glasses, spatial computing, and AI image generation already let us overlay digital content onto the real world. The concept simply pushes that logic further, asking whether we could satisfy our desire for beautiful homes without actually building beautiful homes, using light and computation instead of lumber and stone.

The proposal works best as a provocation rather than a blueprint. It forces you to consider how much waste comes from wanting things to look a certain way, and whether we’d trade physical aesthetics for virtual ones if it meant reducing our environmental footprint. That’s a question without an easy answer, but worth asking as AR technology continues blurring the line between what’s real and what’s projected.

The post What If Houses Were Spheres and AR Glasses Showed the Facade? first appeared on Yanko Design.