Dayan points out that the study of particularistic media is relevant when this media supports the existence of endangered culture, and acts as a maintenance link between geographically dispersed groups (1998, 107). We use our ongoing project of Palestine Architects Platform (PAP) – a project intended to re-bond Palestinian architects and facilitate communication in a virtual land using virtual means – as an example to argue that Virtual Environments and its inherently embedded spatial metaphor could compensate for the physical disconnectedness, and allow interaction on many different levels. 
We defend our argument first by reviewing the literature relevant to the meaning of real space, cyberspace and virtual environments. We then propose a model for the digital platform for Palestinian architects, and consequently a virtual environment.
Michel de Certeau defines place as a physical fabric of land and buildings, however, he asserts that space is denoted by the activities involved in it “including mental activities”. Hence, “place is physical and space is phenomenal [...] Places and spaces are related in that some places prevent some spatial activities and allow others” (in Ballantyne 2002, 22-23). 
'Real space'  features in both modes: material and immaterial, tangible and intangible, or real and virtual. The real tangible mode of space is the sensual material facts that are generated through our interaction with our surroundings; the virtual mode is formed by the flow of information and social networks interactions. This notion of multi-layered reality is clearly illustrated by Deleuze in his discussions about the Baroque , where the world is composed of two levels separated by a fold that echoes itself, “arching from the two sides according to a different order” (2001, 28).
Cyberspace is “The communication space made accessible through the global interconnection of computer and computer memories. This definition includes all electronic communications system, including wireless networks and conventional telephone systems,” (Levy, 1997, 74). Cyberspace is the constant future of space. Coyne (1995, 154) asserts that “Cyberspace is a world that exists in the future, not the present.”
Levy (2001, 29), in information technology world, defines virtual as “a universe of possibilities that can be calculated from digital model and inputs supplied by users”.  Community is a group of individuals that is characterised by sameness or natural understanding between its members and it is distinctive from other human grouping (Tonnies in Bouman, 2001, 9); Small, to be in the view of all its members, such that it can be self-sufficient (Redifield, in Bouman, 2001, 12), and characterised by distinctiveness, which divides people to “them” and “us” (Bouman, 2001, 12). However, an on-line community is a group of people communicating via the cyberspace and share common interests and goals, regardless of their geographical location, assuming the availability of technology through which the interaction happens, and messages are sent back and forth or post on a shared place  in cyberspace. Adding to that, what was called 'specialised communities' that are formed when on-line networks take the form of sociability constructed from specific interests (Castells, 2001, 132). On-line communities fall in two main categories (1) entertainment-oriented communities , (2) the special interest groups (Wellman, 1998). The later could be divided into six other types “Communities of practice, communities of inquiry, distance learning, communities of consumers and virtual environment” (Wellman et. al, 1996).
Virtual environments comprises communicating with human like figures 'Avatars'   on-line such as Alpha World, first appearing in 1995, and Second Life which is most popular nowadays,  where people can build their own world's buildings, design landscape, and choose there social network, in digital visual forms, it is also based on textual dialogue and simple interactions.

We utilise the instrumentality of virtual environments as a channel between Palestinian architects to enrich their experience by interacting through this medium and exchanging knowledge to create collective memories, thus, encouraging social communication and cultural heritage conservation. 
