“The drawing of a parallel between cartography and architecture is instructive. Each lies in the field of the practical arts; each is older than history; and each, since its beginnings, has been more or less under the control of its consumers.”
— Arthur H. Robinson, The Look of Maps, 1952
The ascendance of “mapping” and data visualization in design culture has changed the way architects, landscape architects and urban designers communicate ideas about buildings and landscapes, often privileging abstract forces and flows over the material conditions of the site. This exhibit reimagines the projective potential of cartographic practices that afford greater proximity to the ground itself. The approaches presented here seek to reconcile the precision and instrumentality of the plan with the geographic and territorial scope of the map.
Cartographic Grounds investigates a range of surface conditions and representational tools, cutting across multiple disciplines. It follows the contour line from its origins in early European bathymetry to its terrestrial arrival in 19th-century Parisian parks to its projective potential in the contemporary work of James Corner Field Operations. The stratigraphic column is celebrated as the means to create vibrantly colored geological maps and, by extension, to depict any subsurface condition. The work of Prussian geographer Alexander von Humboldt demonstrates the power of the section; he translated his field notes from an 1802 expedition to Mt. Chimborazo in Ecuador into an intricate rendering and cut-away — techniques that provided the opportunity to combine the physical characteristics of the surface materials with his botanical survey information. Lines, often deployed to delimit territory, are used instead to describe topographic morphology and to explore interfaces between surface and subsurface, land and water, earth and sky.
There are no absolute standards or conventions in cartography, but there are logics, systems and precise techniques for describing the ground that are capable of transcending scales — from the body to the territory — and materials — from the aqueous to terrestrial — without losing fidelity to the condition being depicted. In Cartographic Relief Presentation, Eduard Imhof reacted against loose cartographic practices and pushed for the careful rendering of terrain, the foundational layer of many maps and landscape plans. As design extends its purview to cartography, it is time once again to look closely at maps and plans, to immerse ourselves in their beauty but also to uncover their projective potential. We have an even greater challenge now, as our drawings are required to read at numerous scales, to be interactive, to make sense of big data, and to describe increasingly complex systems.
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Alexander von Humboldt, Humboldt’s Distribution of Plants in Equinoctial America: According to Elevation above the Level of the Sea, 1854. [Courtesy of Harvard Map Collection]
Felipe Correa/Somatic Collaborative, The Section as a Tool: A Regional Framework for Alexander von Humboldt’s Avenue of the Volcanoes, 2004.
STUDIO 09, Bernardo Secchi and Paola Viganò, Le Grand Paris, The After Kyoto Metropolis, 2009.
Service Géologique Des Mines, Paris et Ses Environs—Carte Géologique Détaillée, 1890. [© 2000 Cartography Associates]
Detail, Paris et Ses Environs—Carte Géologique Détaillée.
Imprimerie Nationale, Les Travaux de Paris, 1889. [Courtesy of the Frances Loeb Library, Graduate School of Design, Harvard University]
Detail, Les Travaux de Paris.
George F. Becker, Comstock Mine Maps—Numbers IV and V, 1882. [© 2000 Cartography Associates]
Detail, Comstock Mine Maps—Numbers IV and V.
Stoss Landscape Urbanism, The Thick 2D (with a nod to Stan Allen): The Plaza at Harvard University, 2012.
Detail, The Thick 2D (with a nod to Stan Allen): The Plaza at Harvard University.
Aaron Straup Cope/Stamen Design, Pretty Maps, 2010.
Matthew Paris, Map of the British Isles, 1250. [© British Library Board]
Alison and Peter Smithson, Cambridge Walks, 1976. [Alison and Peter Smithson Archive, Courtesy of the Frances Loeb Library, Graduate School of Design, Harvard University]
Detail, Cambridge Walks.
OPSYS/Landscape Infrastructure Lab—Pierre Bélanger and Alexandra Gauzza, Coastal Piracy or Coast Guard?, 2012.
Detail, Coastal Piracy or Coast Guard?, 2012.
Jason Kelly Johnson and Nataly Gattegno, Future Cities Lab, AURORA, 2009.
Clemens Steenbergen, Johan van der Zwart, Joost Grootens, Atlas of the New Dutch Water Defence Line: Contour Map, 2009. [Courtesy of 010 Publishers]
Detail, Atlas of the New Dutch Water Defence Line: Contour Map.
Architectural Research Office and DLANDSTUDIO, MoMA Rising Currents: Projects for New York’s Waterfront, 2010.
Nicolaas Cruquius, De Rivier de Merwede, 173–? [Courtesy of Harvard Map Collection]
United States Geological Survey, Grand Canyon: Bright Angel, 1903. [Courtesy of Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division]
Detail, Grand Canyon: Bright Angel.
James Corner Field Operations, University of Puerto Rico Botanical Gardens, 2003–2006.
Detail, University of Puerto Rico Botanical Gardens.
Yamashiro no Kuni ezu, 1800. [Courtesy of Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division]
Detail, Yamashiro no Kuni ezu.
Bureau Bas Smets. Parc des Ateliers, Arles, France, 2009.
CHORA, Vision towards a Low Carbon Incubator Region: Taiwan Strait Smart Region (TSSR), 2009.
Detail, Vision towards a Low Carbon Incubator Region: Taiwan Strait Smart Region (TSSR).
B. Secchi, P. Viganò, L. Fabian, P. Pellegrini, Water and Asphalt: The Project of Isotropy, 2008.
Stamen Maps, Watercolor Maps, 2012. [© Stamen Design]
Eduard Imhof, Karte der Gegend um den Walensee, 1938. [Courtesy of Alpines Museum der Schweiz, Bern]
Detail, Karte der Gegend um den Walensee.
Zaha Hadid, The Peak Leisure Club, Hong Kong, 1982–1983.
Jean-Charles Adolphe Alphand, Plan des Courbes de Niveau du Parc des Buttes Chaumonts, 1867–1871. [Courtesy of the Frances Loeb Library, Graduate School of Design, Harvard University]
Giambattista Nolli, Nuova Pianta di Roma Moderna, 1823. [Courtesy of Harvard Map Collection]
Detail, Nuova Pianta di Roma Moderna.
Joan Busquets, The Old Town of Barcelona, 2000.
Detail, The Old Town of Barcelona, 2000.
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