I think there are a few 'fringe' modern-ish physics projects that actually do suggest that space could be made from something, and can flow (which can provide an explanation for gravity and relativity) Reg Cahill's "Process Physics" (from a while back) had a good crack at this I reckon and more recently Wolfram's work around graph-rewriting operations as a model for fundamental-space.. which sounded like it went pretty well!