Mapping

I hope to map transportation networks of some sort. I am especially interested in studying the travel time between locations as a basis for reconfiguring the continents. (Much like the cutting and folding examples from the Agency of Mapping reading.)

On a global scale this analysis has the potential reveal the non-spatial proximity of locations around the globe.

Precedents:


Japan Travel-Time Mapping


Non-Geographic Mapping


London Travel-Time Map

Tracing (focus on highways):

Total length of roadway ranking by country:

1 United States 6,407,637 kilometers

2 European Union 4,634,810

3 India 3,851,440

4 China 1,809,829

5 Brazil 1,724,929

6 Japan 1,183,000

7 Canada 1,042,300

8 France 891,290

9 Russia 871,000

10 Australia 810,641

11 Spain 666,292

12 Italy 479,688

13 Sweden 424,981

14 Poland 423,997

15 United Kingdom 387,674

16 Indonesia 368,360

17 South Africa 362,099

18 Mexico 349,038

19 Turkey 347,553

20 Kazakhstan 258,029

21 Pakistan 255,856

22 Bangladesh 239,226

23 Germany 231,581

24 Argentina 229,144

25 Vietnam 222,179

World 32,345,165

Map Underlays

high res satellite image

illustrator file

Another option is to paste together screen shots from Google Maps in the satellite, map, or hybrid modes to create a high resolution map that would be more customizable.

Hyper Building- The Vertical City

The Hyper Building is a conceptual design project by Paolo Soleri, an Italian-American architect who worked for a time with Frank Lloyd Wright. The Hyper Building is an "arcology," which according to Wikipedia is:

....a hyperdense city designed to maximize human interaction; maximize access to shared, cost-effective infrastructural services like water and sewage; minimize the use of energy, raw materials and land; reduce waste and environmental pollution; and allow interaction with the surrounding natural environment.

The Hyper Building seeks to reduce human impact on the earth by equipping a single structure with all elements necessary for life. The inhabitants live, work, and play in the structure while the countryside around them is preserved for enjoyment, conservation, and farming--reducing the land use by 90 percent compared to a megalopolis or suburban sprawl.

As seen above in one of Soleri's diagrams on Arcosanti, the hyper building's footprint is significantly smaller than the foot print of downtown Los Angeles. The hyper building's density is 101,000 people for every 1 square kilometer, compared to the density of downtown LA of 100,000 people for every 33 square kilometers.

Energy Diagram

Not only does the arcology combat sprawl, it reduces waste and pollution. The building is powered by solar generators and windmills.

The tower's foundation extends 195 meters below grade and the tower rises to a height of 1000 meters. (That's 3281 feet, or over two times the height of the Sears Tower.)

(orginal illustration)

Soleri addresses an increasingly pressing issue of resource conservation; however at the proposed scale (1 kilometer tall!), the Hyper Building seems a little overly ambitious at this time. Besides the doubtful feasibility of construction, the Hyper Building is a fascinating study of the blend of architecture and ecology--creating an inhabitable and self-sustaining environment. In the future, perhaps buildings similar to the Hyper Building will be integrated into existing cities, rather than being isolated as the architect has proposed. That way, the structures would replace older buildings as condensed living environments.

Hyper Buildings "Invading" Phoenix

Graphics Proposal Part 1

Graphics Proposal Part 2

Sumo with Polycarbonate Siding

Pipelines

Pipelines are used throughout the world to transport gasses and fluids over land and sometimes under the sea. They are used to most commonly transport oil, but pipelines carry water, slurry (aggregate mixed with liquid), and even beer.



Druzhba, in Russia, is the world's longest pipeline, spanning 2,500 miles. Built under Soviet reign, the name Druzhba means "friendship," as it was intended to bring oil to poor parts of the Soviet Union and Western Europe. The pipeline carries 1.2 to 1.4 million barrels per day (that's 50,400,000 to 58,800,000 gallons.)



Though heavily criticized for their environmental impact, pipelines due provide an efficient means of transportation. And, in fact, if the goods currently being carried by pipelines were transferred to truck transport, the highways would be extremely congested, which would undoubtedly cause more road expansion and cause possibly an even greater environmental impact through pollution than pipelines currently do. With the growing emphasis on reducing oil use and environmental impact in general, pipelines could become more widely used, especially as the technology required for maintenance and monitoring develops.

Though pipelines are rather uncommon forms of transportation, in the mega scale, the potential of pipelines as more than just means of transporting goods becomes evident. In a larger scale pipelines could replace highways as elevated tubular networks, as illustrated by Walter Chalk below. His drawing inspired a similar concept in relation to the US. Cities could become dense networks of tunnels, bridges, and pipelines-- a tubular city.




Tubular Nation.

Habitat, Montreal 1967

Habitat is a mega structure built of 158 randomly stacked, modular concrete box houses. The method and type of this structure were seen to be the way of the future.

Moshe Safdie designed this mega structure for the Montreal Expo of 1967. In an early phase of design, the structure consisted of a structural skeleton into which the boxes would be inserted. Later in the design process, this was modified so that the boxes were stacked in a stepped, ziggurat-like profile.

The result was an eleven-storey disorderly array of boxes resembling Italian hill towns.

365 modular units make up 15 different apartment sizes varying from 600-1800 sq. ft. to total 158 apartments in all. (Initially, Safdie planned on 900 apartments.) Each apartment has a roof garden and playgrounds and "pedestrian streets" interspersed between the complex formation. Core structural elements house elevators and secure the units through tension rods and cables.

Safdie's intention was for this to become the prototype for new methods of housing construction; however the cost and time associated with building this structure showed it not be an improvement from traditional methods. Though certainly, the innovations of Habitat are necessary for further studies in prefabricated construction methods, they are still in need of greater development to be feasible.

I think a success of this building is how it is a high density development without the monotony and banality of many similar developments. The roof gardens and the ever-changing vistas and perspectives create a dynamic and harmonious assemblage. Habitat is said to be simple and disciplined in its parts but complex and chaotic in its whole. Thus, Habitat, becomes an interesting social study as much as it is a study of method.

In the mega scale, modular buildings could be integrated into and even become cities--one giant structure built of stacked blocks. The adaptabiliy in terms of customization and size of these modules would allow for several activities to coexist wihin the same network. Transportation would occur within and on the megastructure that holds all the modules in place.

Door Addition

Photos of the door addition to the full-scale mock-up.




Secondary position.




Hinge detail.

Thoughts

Communicating with Ron online has been going well. Today we had an impromptu crit around Vinnie's laptop to talk about our models, and it seemed to work well with us demonstrating our models and moving the camera around so that Ron could see. Although Ron can't always see the entire group at once, in this instance it definitely helped to be able to move around and show things to the camera rather than gathering around a table as usual.

Communication within the group is at times almost more
difficult than communicating with Ron. A few times there has been a
lack of efficiency because of this. But, we have improved. Having group
talks separate from our talks with Ron help to establish criteria for
design and assign duties, etc.

We are very close to a final design, and because of our recent findings, we should be able to produce the SUMO within budget.

Full Scale Mock-Up

We constructed a full-scale mockup of the pod to test the structural capabilities, portability, and ergonomics. With a jigsaw we cut six ribs out of laminated 1" thick cardboard squares. The ribs are joined with 1/2" wooden dowels. We placed a couple of sheets of cardboard on the seat area so we could sit in it.

Video shows rolling.



Masonite/foam test.

Digital Communication Pod

Melissa and I have developed a proposal for the MINI MEGA that sets acoustics as a priority in design. The pod is to provide an adaptable soundproof station for web conferencing.

The design involves a spherical pod suspended by elastic material within a wood frame. The suspension allows for the pod to be isolated from its environment so that sound vibrations are less likely to pass into and out of the pod. The pod is divided into four sections two of which are fixed and two of which are mobile so that the user can enter and exit the pod as well as providing adaptability to the noise level in the room and the number of users who wish to participate in the video conferencing.

A video of the transformation can be seen here.

The pod is constructed of wood ribbing with an outer fiberglass shell. Spray-in open-cell foam insulation is filled in between the ribs and a vinyl barrier is installed over this. The entire interior is lined with soft, sound absorbing foam.

The interior houses all the electronic components, a seat, and a platform for the user's laptop to be inserted. Speakers are built-in to the walls of the two fixed quadrants as well as the movable quadrants; thus, the station becomes accessible to more than one person while open and completely isolated and soundproof while closed.

The two movable quadrants are operated by a cable and pulley system accessible from the interior. These two quadrants are detachable for portability.

Thoughts

Communicating as a group with Ron listening in went very well, even though the video wasn't working most of the time. The disconnections that occur during our communication are annoying, but they do not cause miscommunication-- I feel that the studio and Ron are on the same page.

Acoustics

A collaborative acoustics team post can be seen here: MEGA MELISSA

Desk Crit

The impromptu video conference was an improvement over discussion through only chat. Our group discussions coupled with individual discussions worked well to answer questions and get immediate feedback on work.

My real challenge at this moment is developing speed and efficiency in my digital work-- to communicate in this medium both clearly and quickly.

The Trans-Global Highway

The idea of a global highway network has been around since the 18th century perhaps even longer, but it has become increasingly plausible because of the rapid expansion of highways in the world, especially in the US and China.

Frank Didik has envisioned a "Trans-Global Highway" that would connect existing highways of major continents by bridges and tunnels.



The global highway would connect Africa, Asia, and Europe to North and South America via existing and proposed bridges. The major bridges would be at the Bering Straight, linking North America and Asia, and other bridges and tunnels would be built to join Europe and Africa and many of the water-bound nations of Asia.

Didik claims that a global highway would streamline trade of raw goods between the continents, thereby increasing global security through trade dependence and ultimately promote global peace.



The above comparison shows that linking North America and Asia across the Bering Strait would be nearly twice as long as the Chunnel which links France and Britain. Technologically, the link is feasible. But economically and politically, the link is not. Peace between countries to be joined would be a prerequisite to the project getting underway.

Didik's proposal does not account for links to Greenland, Australia, and Antarctica. Though linking Antarctica to the rest of the world is unfeasible, the omission of Australia and Greenland in his plan weakens the notion of a truly trans-global network. Perhaps a future revision would include these nations:



Though Didik's proposition is rather undeveloped, it is an interesting study into the increasing importance of highways among the growing nations of the world. The idea of a trans-global highway solely for automobiles is somewhat in opposition to the recent emphasis on reducing vehicular fuel consumption. Perhaps a global railway would be more agreeable to environmentally-conscious nations.