In Search of New Concepts of Physical and Virtual Space

Physical space is the material object of spatial planning and urbanism. It comprises, traditionally, zonesadapted to activities and channels of communication providing links between zones, catering to transport. Orvarious types of buildings, if one includes architecture. Virtual space opened by ICT, still is less familiar. Itis, after all, “no more than abstract flows of electronic signals, coded as information, representation andexchange” (Graham). This partly explains the frequent use of metaphors to describe it, among them spatialmetaphors (Graham, 1997). In dealing with the interactions between physical and virtual space, spatialmetaphors tend to obscure the issues and therefore better be avoided.Physical and virtual space must be defined as distinct entities. After all, only utopians believe in urbandissolution with all information supposed to become available at all times and places to all people. What arethe most important interactions between physical and virtual space