ABSTRACT
Spatial planning is currently being confronted with unprecedented change, which is taking place at the interface between traditional environments and the rapidly evolving virtual world (Axford et al. 2007, Sidhy and Doyle 2016, De Waal 2013). This situation provokes one of the most serious questions for contemporary spatial planning: How can we develop a frame of reference for planning action and planning intervention within a world of ongoing and discontinuous change? Change under discussion here is partially digitally constructed and virtually produced, affecting and transforming traditional space and place. No one knows precisely what the developments that emerge from this hybrid space between the material and virtual worlds will precipitate. Moreover, it is difficult to say what effects will materialize, not to mention the consequences of these developments: the current virtual world is already stunning and full of promise. New imaginary spaces are opening up (Sherman and Craig 2002), such as augmented realities, virtual realities, gamified environments and ‘sensored’ places within which digital access has replaced traditional mechanisms and means of interaction.
These rapid developments have consequences which are little understood and therefore need our consideration. Generally, at present, space is transformed into a place that is available for human use, with unique meanings and a specific kind of identity. And it is usually conditioned by institutional properties (LeGates and Stout 2007, Platt 2014). However, hybrid space is different from this usual space of development with enabling and constraining conditions, and to which we respond while also 12complying with conditions that are democratically set by society. Within hybrid space, a new reality is quickly evolving and is having a tremendous impact on our lives and on society as a whole. We see this happening and find ourselves intertwined in this process, allowing these developments to set the terms, which contrasts with an environment with societally accepted conditions.
Digitally constructed and virtually produced spaces might become places within which contemporary conventions evaporate, being replaced by new conventions which are little understood or discussed, or even evaluated in terms of their societal appreciation. The question of how to consider the conditioning of hybrid space between the material and the virtual brings a more abstract issue into focus: How should we consider the conditioning of space and place anyway? It would be a timely quest to contrast planning's traditional focus on the material world with unprecedented developments within the virtual world, and the effects currently ‘materializing’ in our environment.
