Vivir entre lo real y lo virtual. La hibridación del espacio público urbano Doctorado en Urbanismo

This thesis takes the COVID-19 pandemic as a crisis situation that has acted as a catalyst for the growth in the development and adoption of digital technologies, fostering a process of hybridization of public life that has divided its activities between the physical world and the virtual world, a process of which it is still difficult to understand what results it will have in the long term. Based on this condition, the main research question is: “What is urban public space in a hybrid era between the physical world and the virtual world? From this question, four supporting questions are derived, each one developed in a chapter of this thesis, and which pose from the different types of advances and interactions that existed and the new ones that have been developed with both digital technology and virtual environments: a) How is the relationship and influence of artificial intelligence systems, virtual reality systems and autonomous objects as actors with the ability to influence the use and interpretation of public space? b) If the above elements are considered as actors of public space, then how are the classical perspectives of what is conceived as urban public space altered? Is it necessary to propose a reformulation of the concept for the inclusion of these actors not only passively but actively? c) How are users’ perceptions and ideas of urban public space affected in an era of hybrid experiences between the physical and the digital? d) Finally, if urban public space includes both physical and virtual elements, then should urbanism be limited only to the physical context or should it also consider its position of intervention and participation within digital systems and virtual worlds?