Finding and Mapping

Rail Networks by James Corner

“Finding entails the act and process of searching as well as the outcome, the thing discovered. It is both activity and insight.”
- Christophe Girot

Mapping your site is an excellent tool for Finding as it provides a vehicle for you to visualize information and represent abstract concepts graphically. During your mapping exercise you will need to consider the following:

Environmental Conditions:
+ Compass Rose
+ Site Coordinates
+ Topographic Elevations
+ Sun Patterns
+ Wind Patterns
+ Vegetation
+ Tidal Fluctuations

Constructed Environment:
+ Natural Lanscape vs. Landfill
+ Existing Structure (buildings)
+ Historical Trends

Phenomenal Landscape:
+ Sounds
+ Views
+ Smells
+ Politics
+ Economics
+ Social Influences

James Corner explains mapping in his essay, The Agency of Mapping: Speculation, Critique and Invention as "a creative practice, mapping precipitates its most productive effects through a finding that is also a founding; its agency lies in neither reproduction nor imposition but rather in uncovering realities previously unseen or unimagined." Mapping does not represent the obvious but rather uncovers a hidden truth that exists between the layering of information. With your physical mapping exercises you should be prepared to explain how the mapping revealed unique characteristics about your site. What does the map reveal to you?

Below are some examples of maps that effectively begin to describe an "other" quality that exists when you begin to layer visual information. Look for the connections that may exist, seek more truth in the maps that you create.

Maps of the Seven Deadly Sins Across America
How does your geographic region begin to suggest you belong to a particular demographic? This mapping can begin to suggest that climatic and cultural influences affect our behavior.


The Nuclear Fallout Map of the United States plotted out significant threat areas and nuclear powerplants, then overlaid prevailing wind patterns to approximate what populations would be worst hit by a nuclear attack, ah the good ol' days of the cold war. While the threat of thermonuclear war is not perceived as being as much a danger as it was several decades ago, the map offers an eerily elegant exercise in visual representation.


Mousepath: Download Here
An application that creates a visible path of your mouse movements. Lines indicate travel, dots indicate stationary points and grow with time.



The work of Perry Culper:

Belle Isle

Belle Isle's James Scott Memorial Fountain designed by Architect Cass Gilbert

Belle Isle is Detroit's Central Park. In the late 1800's Frederick Law Olmstead was commissioned by the city of Detroit to provide order to this wild island for the purposes of creating a naturalized respite from the city. The island is rich with history as you will begin to discover through your exploration of this plot of land that sits nicely between Detroit and Canada in the Detroit River.

The MacArthur Bridge that connects Belle Isle to Detroit

The docks at the Detroit Boat Club

During your visit you surveyed three distinct sites listed on your dossier as Tacoma, Okonoka, and Muskoday. Consider each site carefully as you land upon your surroundings. Cristophe Girot explained “Nothing is allowed to remain obvious or neutral to the designer; rather everything is apprehended with wonderment and curiosity, with subjective and interpretive eyes.” Take this sentiment to heart and record your landing through the postcard sketching assignment and by photographs.

Bio-Mimicry : Structure

Thomas Shahan's photos of Arthropods provide an astonishingly detailed view of the exoskeletons that support our tiny friends. Consider how exoskeletons structurally support the weight of their bodies of and how appropriating themes found in their anatomies might assist your designs.



German biologist Ernst Haeckel produced over 1000 visually stunning etchings, many of which are part of a body of work know as Kunstformen der Natur. Within this body of work, Haeckel obsessively documented thousands of plant and animal species. His documentation and survey of capturing the details of each species can provide insight into furthering our understanding of biomorphic structural concepts.

If the Shoe Doesn't Fit...

I stumbled across this interesting little tidbit about Bernard Rudofsky today from dpr-barcelona's blog:

Architecture, unlike chemistry, biology and other sciences, tolerates free and creative thinking; these characteristic are really present in Rudofskys ideals. He believed this cultural inertia had profoundly negative sociological and physical consequences, against modern forms of architectural education, Rudofsky advocated a return to spontaneity, play, and instinct. As a result, he devoted his life to exposing the West to foreign architectural paradigms, unfamiliar customs, and evolving attitudes about the body and fashion. Rudofsky used this photograph to show how modern shoes do not match the shape of the human foot.

Check out dpr-barcelona.

Remarkable Prosthetics!

Aimee Mullins


Ueli Gegenschatz

Humanz Vs. The Universe!

Just how big are we? It's hard to say. Big is a relative term.

Nikon launched Universcale in 2005, it does a nice job of illustrating just how big, or little we are! Check it out.

Invasion of the Body Mappers

Here are some images of other representations that have been created to map the human form. They may seem unconventional ways of representing the body, but for each intended use they are in-fact, very conventional.

Also consider devices that measure things: Protractors, Compases, Astrolabes, Rulers, Gauges, Graduated Flasks, Scientific Equipment, etc.

Use these as inspiration and let them help inform your mapping exercise!

Dress Forms:

For more images of this click here

Acupuncture Diagrams:

From Edward Tufte's books:


Joseph Cornell:

Here are some other interesting things to check out:
(some are a little out there!)

Ben Van Dyke - beautiful use of type

Paul Laffoley - for his compositional and diagrammatic use of space, one of my favorites:


Alex Grey
(Thanks Toon!)