A method for managing a display space for a 3D environment is provided. A 3D scene having at least one scene object (105) is displayed and the visible surfaces (110) of the scene objects are represented as visible space in a 2D view plane representation. Controllable objects that are to be placed in the scene are defined by parameters such as size, placement priority, proximity relationships and the like. The available space for placing controllable objects, which can include empty space and low priority background and foreground regions, is determined for each controllable object. The placement (125) for controllable objects in the 3D space is then determined in accordance with at least placement parameter and one of the visible space and available space of the view-plane representation (120) such that view management objectives, such as not occluding important scene objects, are accomplished.