The Urban Canvas: Spatial Computing in Planning, Analysing, and Representing the Cityscape

This thematic issue aims to provide insight on the current and future role of spatial computing technologies in representing urban data, and to understand the opportunities and barriers of bridging physical and digital environments.

Contributions will cover practical and envisioned uses of spatial computing technologies to:

-         Improve city stakeholders' understanding and participation in urban design projects and data visualization in urban settings.

-         Explore scenarios and visions of utopian and dystopian futures of the cityscape.

-         Support climate adaptations practices in response to climate disruptions.

-         Access the palimpsest of multisensory memories in urban places.

Urban studies have predominantly relied on visual representation to plan, design, and communicate features of the built environment. Maps, renderings, interactive digital models, and synthetic immersive experiences have been explored using different techniques to test scenarios, monitor the performance of urban forms, and enable conversation among city stakeholders.

The advances and democratization in spatial computing technologies are set to further transform how planners model, visualize, and engage with cities. Like the gaming approaches explored in urban planning (Hudson-Smith & Shakeri, 2022), where gaming frameworks allowed planners and citizens to “play” with urban scenarios, spatial computing technologies enhance this capability by offering multi-sensory, layered, and contextualised interactive environments, promoting citizen participation and enriching the urban design processes.

Spatial computing emphasizes the role of space-as-a-medium. Through augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and mixed reality (MR) approaches, it enables the blending of digital and physical features, leading to innovative forms of designing, analysing, and representing the cityscape. Solutions introduced by companies like Meta, Apple, Niantic, and OpenAI, along with reality capture methods, demonstrate the ability to enable novel data-driven urban visualizations and simulations. They offer deeper understanding of scale, context, and the potential impact of urban interventions, allowing walkthroughs of cityscapes before they are constructed, promoting accessibility, playful experimentation, and co-creation activities (Batty & Hudson-Smith, 2001; Lovett et al., 2024).

Spatial computing not only enhances the level of immersion through enhanced visual fidelity and real-time data visualization, but extends further by providing layers of accessible urban knowledge using digital twins, portals and situated visualisations where urban spaces turn into canvases for digital habitation, blending with the physical experience of the city.

References:

Batty, M., & Hudson-Smith, A. (2001). Virtuality and cities: Definitions, geographies, designs. In P. F. Fisher & D. Unwin (Eds.), Virtual reality in geography (pp. 270–291). Taylor & Francis.

Hudson-Smith, A., & Shakeri, M. (2022). The future’s not what it used to be: Urban wormholes, simulation, participation, and planning in the metaverse. Urban Planning, 7(2), 214–217. https://doi.org/10.17645/up.v7i2.5893

Lovett, L., Signorelli, V., & Hudson-Smith, A. (2024). Exploring the materiality of augmented reality markers through arts-led cocreation: Drawing, weaving, and tiling. Leonardo, 57(4), 379–386. https://doi.org/10.1162/leon_a_02542