The Virtual and the Real in Planning and Urban Design

The Virtual and the Real in Planning and Urban Design: Perspectives, Practices and Applicationsexplores 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.

Claudia Yamu is an Associate Professor and Rosalind Franklin Fellow at the Department of Spatial Planning and Environment, University of Groningen, the Netherlands. Her work employs urban analytics, digital technologies, mixed methods, evidence-based design and civic engagement. She re-addresses urban futures from a non-linear perspective, linking complexity science with urban planning. Inter alia she has been awarded with the Michael Breheny Prize (2016) for the best research paper in Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science and the Rosalind Franklin Fellow of the Year Award (2016).

Alenka Poplin is an Assistant Professor of Geoinformation Science and GeoDesign at Iowa State University, USA and founder of the GeoGames Lab. Her research interests intersect geospatial modelling, interactive virtual geo-environments, game-based modelling and design and interaction with online mapping systems.

Oswald Devisch is an Associate Professor in Urban Design at the Faculty of Architecture and Arts, Hasselt University, Belgium. He is coordinator of the research cluster Spatial Capacity Building exploring themes such as collective learning, casual participation, autonomous transformation processes and community economies.

Gert de Roo is a Full Professor at the Department of Spatial Planning and Environment, University of Groningen, the Netherlands. His research interests are all related to choice making regarding interventions in public space. His research focuses on non-linear development of urban space. He is editor of Planning & Complexity: Systems, Assemblages and Simulations (Ashgate 2012), A Planner’s Encounter with Complexity (Ashgate 2010), and The Role of Actors in a Fuzzy Governance Environment (Ashgate 2007).