Lisbon Traffic
Pedro M Cruz has been developing visualisations of Lisbon’s traffic movements over various periods of time. I particularly like this one above, which has been somewhat abstracted, but the overall effect is visually stunning. His Empires Decline animation is also well worth a view as it provides a fascinating depiction of the evolution of the empire-orientated world order between the late eighteenth and twentieth centuries.
Dutch Power
Anonymous utility buildings dot our cities, keeping the other buildings humming – but they’re almost never part of the aesthetic fabric of the urban scene. Taking this into account, it is exciting to see this unique power plant clad in one square meter beautiful Delftware tiles. Designed by Dutch architecture design firm Cie in collaboration with artist Hugo Kaagman, this new Combined Cycle Energy plant (CHP) in downtown Roombeek is an extraordinary ode to the past and a celebration of modern infrastructure. The building has been named Stadshaard (which translates to ‘city hearth’), to honor the source of the city’s light and heat.
Via: Inhabitat
London Underground Live
The above video demonstrates use of TFL’s new API Beta, which fetches live departure data and places it onto a Google map in realtime. A live version is normally available but the API is currently down due to overwhelming demand.
The project was realised at the 2010 Science Hackday by Matthew Somerville (with support from Frances Berriman and James Aylett), with station icons by Tim Diggins. The source code is available here.
Yell Maps
Having been impressed with Google’s steady introduction of their auto-generated 3D city meshes, I was equally surprised with Yell’s offering (above), which is the first of its kind for London. Powered by C3 Technologies the photo-realistic 3D maps are created from aerial film footage shot from light aeroplanes, which is then merged with other film taken from ground level. Unlike Google’s offering (below), this seems to produce a far more seamless effect as there is no obvious transition between aerial and plan projection. The result is a novel way to explore with the 3D map providing all sorts of otherwise unobtainable views and vistas.
In the Air
Landscape from In the Air by Nerea Calvillo
In the Air is a visualisation project which aims to make visible the microscopic and invisible agents of Madrid´s air (gases, particles, pollen, diseases, etc), to see how they perform, react and interact with the rest of the city.
I am particularly interested by this project namely due to the provocation that environmental data (not just pollution) relating to the living, breathing city could be mapped spatially – possibly even in realtime (this particular data is sourced hourly from the Ayuntamiento de Madrid) - and viewed via the Web or through AR. Of course a real benefit would be for this to be part of the semantic city where the data can be used beyond purely visual means perhaps enabling city-wide Building Management Systems (BMS) to actively respond to changing conditions.
Physical Prototype from In the Air by Nerea Calvillo
Developed at Visualizar’08 and directed by José Luis de Vicente at Medialab-Prado, the team propose that the data feeds a physical prototype called a “diffuse façade,” a massive indicator of the air’s components through a changing cloud that serves to “blur the architecture with the atmosphere it has invaded.”
System Diagram from In the Air by Nerea Calvillo
TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION
1. Organic colourant used for deserts
2. Urine dispensary plastic bag
3. Mini-motor +plastic pin + dispenser
4. 25L plastic tank
5. Submergible fountain pump
6. High pressure pump
7. Arduino
8. 10 units water diffusor system
9. Brumizone diffusor
10. Lights
The Geotaggers’ World Atlas
Image: New York from The Geotaggers' World Atlas by Eric Fischer
Eric Fischer has conducted some interesting studies of major world cities by re-mapping them according to the frequency of geo-tagged images sourced from both Flickr and Picasa. His method is not exactly clear but I assume the vector information is generated by joining a single user’s individual snaps in order of sequence. The product is something of considerable beauty and may help to pre-empt the spatial extent of computing such information via programmes such as GRAIL’s Building Rome in a Day project, as demonstrated in their animation of San Marco Square, Rome. The image underlay is extracted from the OpenStreetMap dataset.
Image: London from Locals and Tourists by Eric Fischer
In addition Fischer has conducted a second study aimed at differentiating between photos taken by locals and tourists, which he demarcates as follows:
Blue points on the map are pictures taken by locals (people who have taken pictures in this city dated over a range of a month or more).
Red points are pictures taken by tourists (people who seem to be a local of a different city and who took pictures in this city for less than a month).
Yellow points are pictures where it can’t be determined whether or not the photographer was a tourist (because they haven’t taken pictures anywhere for over a month).
Augmenting the Berlin Wall
Layar is clearly leading the race in developing AR for the smartphone masses. As the number of layers approaches 1000, I would argue there has been little in the way of real interest and quality to date, but this one – developed by German programmer Marc Gardeya – certainly stands out.
German news magazine Der Spiegel recently met Gardeya and the interview can be read in full here.
Augmented History
Entrance Sequence
This is a short test sequence showing the transition between the street and ground foyer. This is the ‘open’ configuration with shutters rotated to form a canopy above with the aim of drawing people in. The space is deliberately minimal and cavernous with a stair leading up to the existing roofscape level. The finish is predominantly masonry and fair-faced concrete with exposed corten steel beams. A roof-lit ‘slot’ runs along the far wall allowing sunlight to illuminate it for during the afternoon. It is my intention to put together a two minute film sequence to portray the materiality and character of the scheme for the final exhibition.
Design Diary
AR Pilot
I have been exploring the use of Augmented Reality (AR), a pivotal part of my Thesis in terms of experiencing both the building and the city. This is a quick demo showing a range of geometries including simple animated content, which are being tracked simultaneously. I hope to use this technique not only to represent different aspects of the scheme interactively but also to portray different layers of the digital city relevant to the story and experience of my building. The big issue now of course is the interface…
Update
This is a selection of images from the last crit. There is a long way to go with the detailed resolution but I feel it is beginning to move in the right direction. The next step is to begin detailing the structural elements and additional internal/external architectural expression based on the requirements of the physical-virtual ‘promenade.’
Axo Study
Unity Pilot
Unity is a integrated authoring tool for 3D content visualisation capable of producing applications for Windows, Mac, Wii or even the iPhone. Although primarily conceived for the gaming industry, it has great potential for the distribution and experience of virtual content relating to the built environment.
Once the Unity Web-Player has been installed, the arrow keys and cursor can be used to navigate the virtual environment – in this case a demo scene of my evolving Thesis scheme.