The virtuality of the digital

This paper addresses the principal issues presented in the author´s doctoral dissertation, at the School of Architecture at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, supervised by professor A. M. Kotsiopoulos (main advisor), and assistant professors D. Papalexopoulos and S. Zafiropoulos (advisory committee). A transformation in the notion of virtual space is observed: from its conception as an autonomous reality to the merged reality of physical-digital. The conception of virtual space as cyberspace is crucial as it augmented the experience of physical space offering a new potential. A new syntax of space emerges from digital space. Focussing on specific studies of form generating mechanisms in digital space, it is presented that they have strong relations with Chomsky´s theory of generative grammar and with Hillier´s approach for the genotypic form of space. In the context of an augmented syntax of digital space through generative processes, it is shown that the notion of virtual is the filter between the field of possibility of the digital and the actuality of physical space