The Virtual and the Real in Planning and Urban Design

Perspectives, Practices and Applications

Claudia Yamu, Alenka Poplin, Oswald Devisch, Gert De Roo, Claudia Yamu, Alenka Poplin, Oswald Devisch, Gert De Roo

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781351981484
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: Architecture Design

The Virtual and the Real in Planning and Urban Design: Perspectives, Practices and Applications explores the merging relationship between physical and virtual spaces in planning and urban design. Technological advances such as smart sensors, interactive screens, locative media and evolving computation software have impacted the ways in which people experience, explore, interact with and create these complex spaces.

This book draws together a broad range of interdisciplinary researchers in areas such as architecture, urban design, spatial planning, geoinformation science, computer science and psychology to introduce the theories, models, opportunities and uncertainties involved in the interplay between virtual and physical spaces. Using a wide range of international contributors, from the UK, USA, Germany, France, Switzerland, Netherlands and Japan, it provides a framework for assessing how new technology alters our perception of physical space.

Part One
Perspectives in Planning and Urban Design

1
New Ways of Conditioning Space and Place in Dynamic and Transformative Environments

Liaising between the worlds of matter and the virtual

Gert de Roo and Claudia Yamu

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 complying 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.

The virtual versus traditional environments

What is the ‘virtual’? It is information made active, it is digital (instantly and on the spot), produced by algorithms and it assumes a sense of space and place, a sense of ‘whereness’. The virtual generates information in such a way that our brain can ‘understand’ it as a construct connected to and positioned within space and time – a fluid connection between our neurological network, virtual information and the world of matter.

It is difficult to define virtual space in terms of place, place-making (Sherman and Craig 2002) and place identity (Bassett 2013), or as space that can be made our own and to which we can connect and relate as a dimension of our daily living environment (Qvortrup et al. 2002). Moreover, it is even more difficult to understand how the virtual relates to rules and legislation, and to social conventions about how to interact with others. While we are used to these conventions within the world of matter, what about conventions within the virtual?

For urban planners and designers, the material-virtual interface refers to spaces which are, on the one hand, geographically located, physically constructed and somehow connected to the public domain and, on the other hand, are connected with, informed by or built out of digital data, circulating in social networks, computer games or mobile phone networks. Thus, we are confronted with the question of how to condition space and place at the material-virtual interface, with new ‘rules of behaviour’ telling us how to act and interact with each other. Consequently, these spatial conditions and how we interact in space (material, virtual or the hybrid space in between) are identity-shaping and should concern us, especially who we are and who we want to be. This is also relevant to the virtual world (Jacobson 1994, Sherman and Craig 2002, Wells, Rudnick and Miyoshi 1992).

Threats and fears

We can argue that the virtual is an imaginary place which is becoming an increasingly real part of our social existence, wellbeing and identity. However, there is another, more negative side to this, as it also has non-social or asocial effects. Indeed, in public space we can observe people who do nothing but stare at their screens, obviously unaware of their physical environment.

This is just one of the various reasons why the virtual, considered as an imaginary place in which we exist, act and socialize, forces us to redefine the notion of ‘public’ (Camp and Chien 2000). Another reason to redefine ‘public’ is because the virtual is an information-generating environment which is rapidly evolving towards a profile-generating algorithm. This algorithm makes use of all the information about us in the ‘cloud’.

One possible next step would be to be able to connect – through a face-recognition algorithm – with any other person in public space, on the basis of being provided with real-time information about the other person presented by an augmented device which allows us to interact instantaneously – when all the bells start ringing because of the perfect match with the other person we are just about to encounter (Gladwell 2005). How will this change socio-spatial behaviour? No doubt a new kind of socialization will emerge.

Social clustering, social exclusion, inequality and filter bubbles are just a few of the notions that are being presented to us, accompanied by warnings that virtual technology can lead to coldness and moral indifference, with digital observation replacing direct interaction and meaningful dialogue. One example of this is collectives interacting through social media on the basis of what participants share in common, and not being challenged by counter-arguments and opposing views (Pariser 2011).

In addition to potential segregation, another divide will emerge: that between the active and lazy users of the internet and social media, those who ‘lean in’ versus those who ‘lean back’. The former might make use of the ‘principle of collaborative filtering’ (Herlocker et al. 2004), and profit, for example, from the ‘Discover Weekly’ algorithm (Cowan 2017), broadly seen as the first well-functioning algorithm to understand taste (suggesting songs by establishing levels of appreciation).

Another warning that is heard concerns Airbnb, Instagram and other trend-setting virtual social constructs which appear to be resulting in cafes, hotels and bedrooms that are seemingly the same everywhere on the planet (Arvastson and Butler 2006). Planners have seen this before, in the 1960s, with egalitarian concrete constructions everywhere (Jencks 1977), supposed to be appreciated by society, which did not actually work that well, resulting in these constructions now being abandoned.

Possibilities and opportunities

Change comes with concerns and fears, a ‘natural’ defence mechanism to resist undesirable effects. However, in general, the interactions between the material and the virtual worlds have evolved along various routes of development, generating an almost endless range of possibilities and opportunities. Just to mention a few:

Being present elsewhere in the material world via the virtual: not the here and now, but the now and there. Teleworking and online shopping, for example, not only change daily routines and how we use spaces but also influence urban planning with respect to location theory (von Thünen 1826, Dicken 1990) and land use. Distance is no longer a physical barrier that needs to be overcome.

Being present elsewhere in the virtual with reference to the real: with 3D virtual reality headsets such as Oculus Rift and Gear VR or Google Glass. The possibilities range from existing opportunities to walk with dinosaurs or to do surgery with robots, to allowing us to walk through newly designed space and analyse it. It is fascinating, despite its visual bias.

Being guided in the physical world by the virtual: Global Positioning System navigators now allow easy navigation through unknown territory (a dynamic city for example) and can make suggestions about how/where to move. This could be important for sustainable traffic management and congestion mitigation to avoid traffic jams and/or endlessly patrolling through town to find a parking space. With the increasing precision in location and in time, car-sharing, self-driving cars and their actions are just a minor step away.

Being present in the here but through simulation going forward or backwards in time. In virtual reality (VR) environments (Sherman and Craig 2002) and through decision-support models and simulations (Geertman et al. 2015), urban planning and design issues can be shared with stakeholders in various ways. Interactive responses allow the generation of a better understanding of how, for example, future spatial development can result in feasible and appreciated solutions.

Being in virtual space and the specific rules that come with it: in other words, gaming. Apart from fun games, the field of serious gaming is emerging (Kapp 2012), quickly becoming a significant development for planning and decision-making. While gaming against the backdrop of an actual spatial situation, gamers are confronted with the various aspects, perspectives, options and solutions to the situation at hand and become aware of others in the game, their attitudes, desires, needs and willingness to commit and contribute to improving the situation.

Being informed by the virtual within the material: augmented reality. This development is known and appreciated for presenting information concerning material objects. It is likely it will further develop to address and replace various symbols now physically positioned in space, such as traffic signs and advertisements. Rooms in the material world with no more than the basic essentials might also be virtually decorated according to individual taste, with the user bringing in virtually symbolic and cultural values, generated autonomously in compliance with the user’s personal profile through information from the cloud.

Reciprocal awareness of the virtual and the material environments adapting to us: here we are thinking of smart environments with personalized response sensors, which not only sense but are nodes in virtual webs, and therefore open to information already generated by us, stored somewhere in the cloud and assessed by algorithms to inform these nodes, in turn, about how to respond to us, our environment and the various devices within that environment.

The city as user interface (1) – social media (De Waal 2013): this concerns activity awareness and spatial events. One of the unprecedented effects of social media is the coming together of many willing to give expression to a cultural or political standpoint within the material world and, as such, ensuring the ‘world’ is taking notice (e.g. a ‘flashmob’).

The city as user interface (2) – dynamic living lab (De Waal 2013): here we are thinking of the relationship between the local and the global, between the individual and the collective and between the situational and the generic. The city is a dynamic living lab, supporting mobility and liveability in a ‘smart’ way, with sensing and operational devices everywhere. Here, we have ‘the magic of software that will connect these devices into a seamless whole, making them an indispensable part of our everyday lives’ (Gates 2000).

Digitally constructed virtual spaces mirror material spaces and their structures and functionalities. It is these structures and functionalities we respond to. They influence our actions and the sequence of actions, such as when we move from A to B. The virtual relates somehow to similar laws and conventions, as long as it serves users to consume and/or reproduce the information presented to them. The virtual is understood as long as it resonates well with our cognitive brain, while the digital environment’s logic, with its models and simulations, is produced by algorithms which are usually not identifiable by or visible to the user, abolishing the laws of physics and social conventions. The virtual thus allows us to move, take shortcuts and make leaps which do not work in material space: ‘mirror worlds’, in the eyes of Gelernter (1992).

The route from one digital environment to another does not relate to spatial constraints. Connectivity is multidimensional within the virtual, which is the essence of digital space. Moreover, as virtual spaces are plentiful, it is the logic of possible connections that lead us through the virtual, allowing us to flow from one cluster of information to another, from one digital environment to another. This works well as long as our brain is able to understand and process what is being presented from within the virtual. This requires an understandable logic and conditions that are appreciated, as well as some representation of causality; a successive order of events and behavioural conventions. ‘We are moving towards a culture of simulation, in which people are increasingly comfortable with substituting representations of reality for the real’ (Turkle 1995, p. 23). Within the virtual anything is possible, with the conditioning factor being us: humans.

Trajectories of development

The differences between the material and the virtual are substantial. Nevertheless, the material and the virtual worlds do relate to each other in various ways. One way that we consider relevant in our quest for ‘conditions of space and place’ is their paths of development. We could easily argue that the idea of the virtual is a product of the world of matter. While this is valid reasoning, it does not help us much in identifying the origin of the new set of rules emerging with the virtual. The virtual has its own set of rules that somehow relate to us as humans, but which condition us in a way that is different from what we are used to. Therefore, despite their relations it is worthwhile to consider the material and the virtual having both their own trajectories of development.

The world of matter

The trajectories of the material and the virtual worlds produce fundamentally different conditions to which humans must relate. The material world builds on particles that conglomerate as material entities. The virtual relates strongly to waves of electromagnetic oscillations of packages of energy. In physics, both views – particles and waves – are required for an understanding of elementary processes. Since Einstein we have considered that matter and energy are equivalent in some sense: matter and energy are two sides of the same coin. However, although they are interconnected, matter and energy present themselves differently to us and are of use ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• CONTENTS
• List of figures
• List of tables
• List of contributors
• Introduction
• PART ONE Perspectives in planning and urban design
• PART TWO Help planners plan: decision support, methods, tools and applications
• PART THREE Get the public on board!
• Index