As part of our 5th semester projects, we have a lengthy workshop in which we are to contribute to an atlas of Copenhagen. This atlas assignment is done with close collaboration with Dutch architect/graphic designer Joost Grootens, who has great experience with making graphical atlas books on topics such as cities, architecture and social subjects through the use of simple and plain, yet extremely clear infographics. Grootens believes that the atlas is a tool of great worth and one that can often make complex topics and issues more clear through the simple, yet strong use of direct factual statistics. He tries to deliver information on the chosen topics as clearly as possible, or to quote his own words "In such a clear way, that it hurts.". Below is a short film that introduces Grootens and his works.
Our first assignment was to analyze individual real-life locations measuring 300m by 300m within cities in the Øresund Sound area (Greater Copenhagen, Malmö, Lund and Helsingborg). My plot was Lund University's Faculty of Engineering, which is basically a university complex. My analysis of the site will be posted shortly in a separate post.
Our second assignment (the one I'm currently working on) is a group assignment, in which we are given the subject Political Economies. This subject contains themes such as politics and economic factors on urban development, as well as case studies on the process of large scale city planning. While we have argueably been given one of the most complex subjects within the contents of the atlas, it is also perhaps one of the most interesting, especially due to its complexity. Since we have still a lot of work before us on the topic, it is yet too soon to post about this work of ours, but nevertheless, I'll make a post about one of the more lively discussions we've had on one of the sub-topics we've had. We'll have several different workshops that are independant from the atlas during the process, but I'll keep updating about our discussions and ultimately of our final content during the process.
Further reading:
- Andy Minchev
