Real time scene changes

I'm experimenting with time travel mechanics (similar to Prototype) that requires switching between similar scenes in real time. I'm new to Unity and it's a little hazy as to how I should approach this... I've read stuff about scene changes but I'm not sure it's what I want.

Each level might be composed of one or more time periods that the player can move between. The scenery in each era could be similar or very different. My thought was to make a component that contains the necessary changes (position of the object, whether or not it exists , the model that's used etc) for each era. Is this a good way to approach the problem? Also, how might I go about integrating this into the editor? It's important to be able to design these scenes concurrently.

Edit: To clarify, I am not talking about actual scene changes, I'm talking metaphorically, from the player's perspective.

Okay, this is old. But I’ll still answer it, even though there’s almost no chance that it still applies.

I would recommend running everything in parallel with multiple “worlds” in the same Unity Scene. They would be far apart, and when switching, just switch the camera input. The downside is that you would have to be running all parts of the world, so may cause some lag issues. However, I am pretty sure that if it’s far enough away, it should render fine.

I hope this helps you.