When we have a map in our hands we look at the reality and then we look at the map, trying to find correspondences between the outside world and that piece of paper full of colors, lines and symbols. We navigate the reality through the map’s hints or maybe it’s the other way around, we are able to read the map linking symbols and shapes to real entities in the outside world.
A map indeed it’s not the reality. Rather than being a picture of the world, a map it’s an abstraction of space and dimension. Most of the times a map it’s an attempt to represent with visual cues one or more particular aspects of the space around us.
The map we want to show you are an example on how the world is filled, transformed, sometimes even deformed with the purpose of communicating a peculiar and specific aspect of the world itself.
Take a look and be inspired!
CityMurmur_Madrid
CityMurmur tries to understand and visualize how media attention reshapes the urban space and city.
Sha Hwang_New York
Sha Hwang, from Stamen Design, has recently created a series of though-provoking visualizations on the NYC subway ridership over the last decades.
Space Syntax
Space Syntax
Professor Bill Hillier and his colleagues at University College London through over twenty years of research-informed consulting, they have developed a powerful computer-based modelling technique that demonstrates the key role of spatial layout in shaping patterns of human behaviour. These patterns include movement on foot, on cycles and in vehicles; wayfinding and purchasing in retail environments; vulnerability and criminal activity in buildings and urban settings; co-presence and communications in the workplace.
Jeorge Ayala_China
The model from the architect Jeorge Ayala consists of a mesh of densities within an urban framework that seeks to understand, articulate, and visualize possibilities for the hyper dense, programmatic difference, and radically optimized new agglomerations in China.
Ork posters_Chicago
A really nice and graphical visualization of the neighbourhoods of Chicago by Ork.
Aaron Koblin_Flight patterns
This interactive map charts air traffic over North America, visualizing data about aircraft models, flight routes, and altitudes.
Brandon Martin-Anderson_Shortest Path Tree of Seattle
Derived from the Open Street Map of Seattle, this representation of bicycle and walking paths within the city was created by artist and designer Martin-Anderson.
Oscar Karlin_London tube map redesign
Oscar Karlin_London tube map redesign: detail
Time Travel was part of one of Oskar Karlin’s final projects at London College of Printing (now London College of Communication). It started as an attempt to redesign the London Underground map. As Karlin puts it: “How could I come up with some innovative ideas to this piece of design that is by many considered as one of the best in graphic design ever”
Karlin started thinking on what’s currently different in the world from when the map was designed, and pointed time as the key differentiator. As he explains: “Today you never tell anyone how far away in miles you live, but in minutes or perhaps hours if you’re unlucky”. Therefore, Karlin decided to create a re-design based on time instead of geographical distance.
Since Karlin’s school was in Elephant & Castle, he used the station as time 0 and then created zones for each 5 minutes travel from Elephant & Castle. The idea is that the background is different on each station around the system.
Lee Jang Sub_ Complexcity: Moscow
Lee Jang Sub_ Complexcity: Paris
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.The first image illustrates the intricate urban pattern of Moscow, while the second is representative of Paris.
Kim Ji-Hwan, Jin Sol_ Tokyo subway system
Kim Ji-Hwan, Jin Sol_ Seoul subway system
According to the authors, each city’s various subway structures and railway systems should reflect somehow the character of that city. In an effort to infuse the city’s identity into its subway map, while also trying to simplify and beautify the original diagram, Kim Ji-Hwan and Jin Sol produced a series of original maps for three city subway systems.
The first image depicts Tokyo’s intricate network of subway, lightrail and monorail, with more than 1500 stations covering the metropolitan area. Placed in the city center is the Imperial Palace, the residence of the current Ten-no (Japanese Emperor). Subway lines circumvent the expansive ground claimed by the Imperial Palace. This characteristic is visualized in this map by the concentric circles spreading out to the entire city, with the center in the Imperial Palace ground. This strong representation of circles is reminiscent of the national flag of Japan and the Japanese identity expressed in the flag.
The second represents Seoul’s network. The city boasts 600 years of history as the capital of the South Korea and its crossed by a river of great magnitude, which has become one of its most important symbols, the Han Gang. The depiction of Han River in this map mimics the curvature in the middle of the Tae-Geuk mark of the national flag of Korea. The overall circular shape of the map was also inspired by the Tae-Geuk mark. The brighter area in the center of the map shows the territory of Han Yang, the old capital of Cho-Sun Dynasty. This was the old Seoul marked by the Four Gates, and the growth of the city becomes clear when compared to the modern metropolitan sprawl.
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