Design, Science and Technology

Topography, architecture and traffic routes give every city a unique structure.
'These conditions create the typical and individual inner structure of a city. I didn’t only want to show these structures in the conventional way from above, but also including the exact three-dimensionality of topography and buildings – a real world visualisation.
The OpenStreetMap data enabled me to visualize the satellite-based information using DEM Earth in Cinema 4D. The results are some extraordinary views of large capitals and small towns.'

Artist Emily Garfield maps places that don't exist. "I think that's related to the way cities grow in real life."

Emily Garfield like to say that she grows cities. With pen, ink, and watercolor, the Boston-based artist creates maps of imaginary places that tap into the essence of urban form.

Garfield has long been interested by the presentation of architecture in visual art. The inviting, surrealist arcades and sidewalks of the Italian painter Giorgio de Chirico inspired Garfield to begin producing her own street-level dreamscapes as an art student at Brown University.

But it was when she created her first aerial view of a fantasy city—an abstract web of streets, bridges, and blocks—that she got a particularly positive response from other people. Even without any text, Garfield's drawings were strongly recognizable as maps...

Climate change isn't just a problem for future generations — it's already affecting broad swaths of the United States.

That's the upshot of the National Climate Assessment, a massive new US government report detailing the current and future impacts of global warming around the country. The report is particularly useful in detailing how specific regions and sectors will be affected — and outlining some possible ways we could adapt.

There's a lot of information in the report, but find nine highlights at the link.

'The digital maps we loved in 2013 didn't simply illustrate novel or useful information. They did it in ways we'd never seen before, manipulating time, dimensions, perspective, even the atmosphere. These maps weren't just interesting in content; they were innovative in design. That's our new bar for 2014.

So this December, instead of sharing our top 10 maps of the year, we're looking at 10 ways we've learned to think about maps in entirely new ways. This may well have been the year when maps ceased to impress us for what they convey and began to stun us instead for how they did it.'

Mapmaker Max Roberts has created a new way to map out subway lines.  Conventional maps usually emphasize “straight lines, clean angles and geographical accuracy”. Unlike those maps, Roberts’ circular design is a blend of “aesthetics and usability”. 

Roberts discovered this “completely new way of designing maps” when he was designing a map for the London Underground that took into account the circular nature of the Orbital rail link. He realized the potential of the new design in forcing “cities into an unprecedented level of organization” and the coherence achieved. Sacrificing geographical accuracy, his schematic design shows how elements in the map relate to each other logically, while taming the web of criss-crossed lines usually found in subway maps.

View maps of the New York City Subway, the London Underground and the Paris Metro at the article link, or head over to hiswebsite to see more circular maps of other cities. 

From the moon to the cosmos, this is the universe we live in.

The internet increasingly pervades our lives, delivering information to us no matter where we are. It takes a complex system of cables, servers, towers, and other infrastructure, developed over decades, to allow us to stay in touch with our friends and family so effortlessly. Here are 40 maps that will help you better understand the internet — where it came from, how it works, and how it's used by people around the world.

“Where people post geotagged photos to Flickr from and geotagged tweets to Twitter from.” via Eric Fischer

Red dots are locations of Flickr pictures. Blue dots are locations of Twitter tweets. White dots are locations that have been posted to both. 

If you’re a visual learner, then you know maps, charts and infographics can really help bring data and information to life. Maps can make a point resonate with readers and this collection aims to do just that.

A few of these maps are important to know, some interpret and display data in a beautiful or creative way, and a few may even make you chuckle or shake your head.

If you enjoy this collection of maps, the Sifter highly recommends the r/MapPorn sub reddit. You should also check outChartsBin.com. There were also fantastic posts on Business Insider and Bored Panda earlier this year that are worth checking out. Enjoy!