DATA VISUALIZATION
a lecture by Covadonga Lorenzo Cueva
Master Urban Interior Design
The lecture was focused on the use of Data Visualization for the
representation of the urban environment. Based on Kevin Lynch Theory of
Good City form, it deals not only with the representation of urban
physical features (the morphology of the city), but with the city sense,
a concept introduced by Lynch in “The idea of the city”, related to
explore a sort of connections hidden beyond the evidence (as identity,
structure, meaning, transparency, congruence or legibility) that
organize complex urban environments. Data visualization allows to
develop diagrammatic representations to describe and unveil all those
non tangible connections.
After a historical approach looking for dating back the first data visualizations, analyzing the Catalhöyük map, the Ebstorf map, the clover leaf map discovered in Itinerarium Sacrae Scripturae, William Playfair’s graphics, Minard’s flow diagrams, Götz’s maps for the Atlas Ceskoslovenské Socialistické Republiky, Neurath’s isotype diagrams, Beck’s tube maps, Caron`s deconstructive plans and Holmes graphic designs, some case studies are analyzed organized in two groups: physical data and city sense.
The first one explores visualizations developed by the Lunar and
Planetary Institute in Houston; a collection of Urban Morphologies based
on the NASA shutle radar topography mission data, using MatLab;
dynamic interactive maps analyzing the flows of different cities,
using Phyton; visualizations related to urban arterial
roads, fiber-optic cable systems or airline routes to get a
sophisticated visualization using Processing or some examples developed
by some architectural offices as Peter Eisenmann, Dominique Perrault or
Coop Himmelblau among others.
The second one analyze the works of Erick Fisher, related to social
networks; Diffusse facade by Nerea Calvillo, focused on the study of the
air components, Remittances to study the economic
crisis, the work developed by Data Idea Lab in Berkeley University or
the possibilities of new diagrams as tree layout, bubble charts, force
graphs or hive plots to materialize ideas related to fluctuations,
impact of social media, travel time, population flows, and so on.
