Cartographic Grounds: Projecting the Landscape Imaginary

by Jil Desimini (Editor), Charles Waldheim (Editor), Mohsen Mostafavi (Foreword)

Mapping has been one of the most fertile areas of exploration for architecture and landscape in the past few decades. While documenting this shift in representation from the material and physical description toward the depiction of the unseen and often immaterial, Cartographic Grounds takes a critical view toward the current use of data mapping and visualization and calls for a return to traditional cartographic techniques to reimagine the manifestation and manipulation of the ground itself.

Each of the ten chapters focuses on a single cartographic technique—sounding/spot elevation, isobath/contour, hachure/hatch, shaded relief, land classification, figure-ground, stratigraphic column, cross-section, line symbol, conventional sign—and illustrates it through beautiful maps and plans from notable designers and cartographers throughout history, from Leonardo da Vinci to James Corner Field Operations. Mohsen Mostafavi, dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Design, introduces the book.

Genres: Architecture, Maps, Nonfiction, Landscape Architecture, Geography, Urban Planning, Science

272 pages, Hardcover

First published May 24, 2016

Reviews

[Manuel Frias · Rating 2 out of 5]

I learnt virtually nothing and it’s writen with such a pompous language.

[Jacob Wall · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book would make for a beautiful coffee-table art book or something similar. It's filled with with images of fantastic looking maps. The text is where it falters. Admittedly, I think I went into it with wrong assumptions. From the title and blurb I was really hoping to get something that really tackled the intersection of cartography and design and presented me new ideas about how to convey information in my maps to people in visually pleasing ways. Instead, the text seemed more like a basic primer on maps for non-cartographers (and again, I think this is geared more towards architects and others that might use maps but aren't really familiar with the cartographic process) with examples of well executed maps. That is, of course, useful in its own way, but it lacked the depth I was hoping this book would have.

[Christa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this in digital format on Hoopla and it was wonderful - the quality of the images was excellent. I was interested in making art that evoked maps and this was a wonderful resource for that purpose. So many images were art!

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a beautifully constructed coffee-table book that contains scores of historical maps and walks the reader / viewer through the history of cartography and the early incarnations of cartographic techniques now considered routine: contour lines, hatching and cross-hatching, and light coloring. The creativity of early cartographers, both in terms of data acquisition and visualization, was joyful to watch unfold, and the medium: high-quality, glossy paper with wide dimensions, makes this a book that you can page through ad-nauseum for inspiration.

Final note - my favorite map in the entire book was a map of Cape Cod, one of the earliest North American bathymetric maps, that implicitly showed the primitive method of data acquisition via the distribution of soundings.

Highly recommend.

[Ji Le · Rating 4 out of 5]

Une belle analyse des outils cartographiques et des magnifiques illustrations de cartes des derniers siècles. Didactique et esthétique!

[Heather Duris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Visually stunning book