Guide

What is the spatial web?

The spatial web is the web extended into three dimensions. Instead of flat pages read on a rectangle, content is arranged in space — with depth, perspective and room to move through it — and the same URL works on a laptop, on a phone, or inside an AR or VR headset.

For thirty years the web has been a stack of 2D documents. Screens are no longer the only place people browse: phones understand how they are held and moved, and headsets put the browser in the room around you. The spatial web is what the open web becomes when it takes advantage of that — built from the same HTML, CSS and JavaScript, linked by the same URLs, and open to anyone with a browser.

From pages to places

The idea is older than the hardware. In 1994, Muriel Cooper and her students at the MIT Media Lab showed Information Landscapes: text and data arranged in space, readable from any angle, navigated by flying through it rather than scrolling past it. The same decade, VRML let a browser load a 3D world from a URL — but it needed plug-ins, and it faded.

The pieces have since arrived natively in the browser. WebGL (2011) brought GPU graphics to every page without plug-ins. The W3C's WebXR Device API, shipping in browsers since 2019, lets a page open an immersive AR or VR session on a phone or headset. What has lagged behind is the content: most of the web is still designed, built and read flat.

Spatial web vs. spatial computing

Spatial computing describes computers that understand the space around you and place content in it — AR and VR headsets, and phones that track their own position. The spatial web is the open web's part of that shift. Native spatial apps are built for one platform and installed from its store; a spatial web page is built once, shared as a link, and runs in whatever browser opens it — flat on a desktop, tilt-aware on a phone, immersive in a headset.

What makes the web spatial

  • HTML and CSS — the content, structure, layout and style the web already runs on. CSS has had 3D transforms and perspective for years.
  • WebGL and WebGPU — GPU rendering for real 3D scenes: lighting, materials, depth and shaders.
  • WebXR — the W3C standard for immersive AR and VR sessions, with head tracking, controllers and hands.
  • 3D assets — formats like glTF for models that load like images.
  • The web itself — URLs, links, search, accessibility and progressive enhancement: the reasons people build for the web at all.

Why the open web matters here

Spatial computing doesn't have to mean a new walled garden. A spatial web page needs no install and no app-store review; it can be linked to, bookmarked, indexed by search engines and read by assistive technology. It also degrades gracefully: the same page that is immersive in a headset is still a working web page on a five-year-old phone. That is the web's long-standing promise — one page, every device — carried into a third dimension.

Ways to build for the spatial web

  • 3D engines and frameworks such as Three.js, Babylon.js and A-Frame. Powerful and flexible, but you build a 3D scene directly — cameras, meshes and materials — usually alongside, rather than from, your HTML.
  • Platform spatial APIs and SDKs that add spatial features for specific devices and runtimes, with deep integration into those platforms.
  • Rendering HTML and CSS as 3D — keep writing web pages the way you already know how, and let a library turn them into a spatial scene. This is the approach Fold.page takes.

How Fold.page builds the spatial web

Fold.page renders HTML and CSS as interactive 3D. It reads the browser's computed layout and styles — including media queries and responsive breakpoints — and builds a WebGL scene that mirrors the page, so any web page gains spatial power across platforms:

  • Desktop: depth, lighting, shaders and scroll-driven camera movement through the page.
  • Mobile: responsive 3D layout with touch and gyro-aware camera control.
  • WebXR: the same page and URL become an immersive AR or VR experience — no separate XR version.
  • Accessible by default: the original HTML stays in the document, so screen readers, keyboard navigation and search engines keep working on the real page.

Markup stays markup. Mark the region to render, add depth where you want it, and start Fold.page: 

<main class="foldpage">
  <h1 data-foldpage-depth="10">Hello, spatial web</h1>
  <p>Regular HTML and CSS, rendered in 3D.</p>
</main>

// npm install fold-page
import Fold from 'fold-page';
Fold.init();

It works for new projects and existing sites alike — plain HTML, or Angular, React, Vue and other single-page apps. See the getting started guide for the details.

Frequently asked questions

Is the spatial web the same as the metaverse?

No. "Metaverse" usually means shared virtual worlds run by a platform. The spatial web is the ordinary, open web — documents, apps and links — with a third dimension. The term is also used for broader standards that connect digital twins and devices to physical places; this page is about spatial computing in the browser.

Do I need a headset?

No. A spatial web page works on an ordinary screen and on a phone. A headset or an AR-capable phone adds immersion when WebXR is available; without it, visitors still get the 3D page. Fold.page works how you want it so you can still show a standard 2D web page On desktop and mobile but provide a 3D experence for spatial device users.

Do I need to learn 3D programming?

Not with Fold.page. You write HTML and CSS; data attributes add 3D-only features such as depth, lighting, animation and camera views. When you do want full control, the Scene API gives direct access to the Three.js scene.

Is a spatial page still good for SEO and accessibility?

With Fold.page, yes: the 3D scene is built from the real HTML, which stays in the page. Search engines index the same text, and assistive technology reads the same structure.

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