SpatialKey: Geotemporal Mapping

{D.C. Constuction 2004-2007, Image Via SpatialKey}

I'm increasingly interested in advancements in mapping technology.  Even as wanderlust young lad I'd would flip through my father's Rand McNally with the same feverish delight that other children would with Where The Wild Things Are.  Perhaps it stemmed from a feeling of worldly isolation growing up in a small town, but regardless I'm fond of maps, and as technology develops exponentially, I'm sure there will be plenty to discuss here at D.U.S.

A new mapping system comes from SpatialKey, which has created unique templates for looking at geotemporal datasets.  The four template setting include animation/playback, map comparison, drill down, and temporal heat index.  The software allows to even set your own specific measuring data, as long as there is time and location data.  An advantage of the program is that it is flash based, so you're not tied down to your software location like GIS, as long as you have web access, you can log in.

{Terrorist Attacks on Infrastructure 2004-2007, Image Via: Spatialkey}

I think holds a variety of potential for landscape architects, planners, developers, and urban designers as a site analysis tool.  An example shows a heat map of D.C. construction during a designated period.  An professional unfamiliar with the area can look at this information, setting the parameters to their specification and quickly gain insight to the hotbeds of growth.  Combined with cultural demographic data such as voter registration, remote access site reconnaissance can better aide in more efficient site development.

The maps also could benefit site monitoring and case studies.  In a public space, using geotagged cartography to map cell phone and wi-fi usage could define areas of pedestrian traffic flow and temporal spatial comfort zones.

If nothing else, the more information we have about a site, the better we can design.

{Sacramento Real Estate Sales Over 3K Sq. Ft., Image Via: SpatialKey}

{Sacramento Residential Burglaries Jan. 2006-Nov. 2007, Image Via: SpatialKey}

Related: Geotagged Photo Cartography, Complexcity

Complexcity

{Screen print varieties of the Seoul Complexcity diagram. Image via: Lee Jang Sub}

The Complexcity project explores major cities around the world focussing on how their urban sprawls have evolved over time. Using the patterns formed by roads in each city, Korean born designer Lee Jang Sub creates complex graphic configurations, combining the idea of natural and man made systems. In the process he finds a concealed aesthetic within the convoluted pattern of urban networks. He started with his hometown Seoul, and has already completed Paris, Rome, and Moscow.

Lee Jang describes his process: 

We can clearly see the mixed and disordered image of Seoul from a map of Seoul. Seoul is a city which has rapidly expanded to evolve into a modern city. Therefore, the map of this city is composed of naturally created patterns in which there is no rule or regularity. I have tried to find a new possibility from these disordered patterns.

My installation work consists of a tree and space surrounding it. The tree composed of patterns of a disordered city is actually maintaining a state of harmony, although invisible. Also it resembles lives of nature and symbolizes the invisible order of the city. The patterns surrounding the tree are connected to one another and they become more and more complicated. However as a whole, we can find it as a process of forming a new order.

Through this work, I would like to suggest they don't see the complexity of a city only as an object that should be neatly arranged. Instead I propose a new approach of finding order in the ComplexCity, Seoul.

Each one of branches in a big tree seems to be disorderly spreaded with no rules, but when you see the whole tree, you can find it is in perfect harmony. Nature has a balance which we cannot see with our vision. I created this tree with patterns of roads spontaneously developed in a city, Seoul. I could find the patterns in a map of Seoul which represents the complexity of the city.

{Graphic Development Diagrams. Image via: Lee Jang Sub}

{Final Seoul Diagrams. Image via: Lee Jang Sub} 

{MoscowDiagram. Image via:Lee Jang Sub} 

{Paris Diagram. Image via: Lee Jang Sub}

Jang Sub speaks of an "invisible order" of a city, which I think exists, but in an actual less choatic order then he suggests.  If you look at fractal geometry, it could be said that nothing is created without pristine mathmatical order.  We are for the most part incapable of seeing it because of the two opposite spectrums of scale in which they occur.  Cities grow like a living creature, like an amoeba, fungus, or coral reef, regenerating itself in a manner that best suits the needs of the organism.  Its growth evolves through the makeup of its different "cells", or components, the geography and environment from which it orginated, and the effects of outside factors (i.e. war, weather).

Like any other organism, the health of the city depends on its ability to maintain homeostasis and to fight off infections, a result from poor planning and design.  Dare I theorize that is the cancer of a city?

Schwartz vs. Alsop

An entertaining debate between landscape architect Martha Schwartz and architect Will Alsop*, conceived from comments from Alsop questioning the role of landscape architecture in the development of public spaces and Schwartz's need for a retort.

Video: Alsop and Schwartz Debate

What I found interesting was Alsop's invitation to Schwartz to truly combine forces to design a "satellite town". Was some one inspired by D.U.S.??

{Via:  Wallpaper}

*Pretty gnarly Alsop site.  Please tell me the concept, it may take some time to figure out though.

Avant Garde in the Elements I

  

As Andy Goldworthy says in his documentary River and Tides, "Why talk about sculpture when you can photograph it".  Meaning I suppose that if sculpture is worth talking about then it probably doesn't need talked about, just look upon it and it will say all it needs to say.

That being said, discussion could arise from whether it speaks differently to the individual.

{Lamp installation and photographs by Rune Guneiussen}

   

 

 

{Melting Men installation by Nele Azevedo calls attention to global warming, Image via:  Inhabitat}