ISOBATH / CONTOUR 51 green, and white, the other dominant colors of topographic description, without overpowering the representation. In design drawings, brown contours are rare, black and gray are most prevalent, white appears on dark backgrounds, and warm red or orange makes appearances. Design, as compared to cartography, permits greater representational freedom and with it the opportunity for a range of interpretation in the use, identity, and formation of the contour line. The following examples trace the representational trends and variations across time, media, and subject. 1 Eduard Imhof, Cartographic Relief Presentation (Redlands, CA: Esri, 2007), 111. 2 Antoine Picon, French Architects and Engineers in the Age of Enlightenment (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2010). 3 Ann E. Komara, “Measure and Map: Alphand’s Contours of Construction at the Parc des Buttes Chaumont, Paris 1867,” Landscape Journal 28, no. 1 (2009): 22–39.
54 CARTOGRAPHIC GROUNDS 2.2 ( pp. 52–53 ) 47.1167° N, 9.2000° E, Jill Desimini, Contours, 2012. After Robert Gerard Pietrusko. 2.3 46.0000° N, 2.0000° E, Jean-Louis Dupain-Triel Jr. and J. B. Dien, Carte de la France, 1798–99. Jean-Louis Dupain-Triel Jr. produced the first contour map of France in 1791, one of the earliest examples of terrestrial contours. The map was republished in 1799 (pictured) and included stylized, scalloped contours at ten-meter intervals. With the distribution of this map, DupainTriel successfully lobbied for the contour as a standard of topographic representation. 2.4 18.4517° N, 66.0689° W, James Corner Field Operations, University of Puerto Rico Botanical Gardens, 2003–6. Scale: 1:2,500 (shown at half size). The plan of the University of Puerto Rico Botanical Gardens comprises flat swaths of color that imply topography as an underlying condition of the design work. The design itself is organized into three layers: surface fields, or mats; circulation loops; and forest plantings. The articulation of these layers reveals the topographic particularities of the site: larger swaths in the flood-prone flat land of the north; a more intricate, at times concentric language responding to the varied slopes in the south; and a set of offset ribbons along the central riverine corridor describing the subtle slopes of the spreading banks. CARTE DE LA FRANCE Ou Lon a essayede donner la Configuration de som Territoire, Par une NOUVELLE METHODE de Nivellements.
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ISOBATH / CONTOUR 57 2.5 51.8167° N, 4.6667° E, Nicolaas Cruquius, De Rivier de Merwede, ca. 1730. Scale: approx. 1:10,000 (shown at half size). As waterborne transport increased, systematic advances in measuring navigable channels began to proliferate. With much of its land below sea level, the Netherlands was understandably at the forefront of fluvial surveying. Dutch surveyor Nicolaas Cruquius was a pioneer in the field, and his yearlong mapping of the mouth of the Meuse River demonstrates his innovative use of contour lines to depict the shape of the river bottom. The drawing is remarkable both for its technical prowess and for the way the thin bathymetric lines evoke the ephemeral qualities of the water, especially when juxtaposed with the heavy line weights of the fortified bank. 2.6 40.7823° N, 73.9658° W, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, Map Showing the Original Topography of the Site of the Central Park, 1859. In contrast to the presentation drawing of the competition-winning Greensward Plan of 1858 by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, a deceivingly flat representation, the original topography plan shown here clearly demonstrates the extensive earthwork required to construct the park, to make it suitable for public recreation. Olmsted’s park presentation drawings, like the Greensward Plan, did not include contour lines. Contour lines were reserved for the technical drawings used to dictate construction rather than the imaginative ones used to envision design. This map of the original topography was included in the Second Annual Report of the Board of Commissioners of the Central Park. MAP SHOWING THE ORIGINAL TOPOGRAPHY OF THE SITE OF THE CENTRAL PARK JANUARY 1859. with a Diagram of the ROADS and WALKS now under construction MAP SHOWING THE ORIGINAL TOPOGRAPHY OF THE SITE OF THE CENTRAL PARK
58 CARTOGRAPHIC GROUNDS GENERAL BATHYMETRIC CHART OF THE OCEANS (GEBCO) CARTE GÉNÉRALE BATHYMÉTRIQUE DES OCÉANS (GEBCO)
ISOBATH / CONTOUR 59 2.7 38.4667° N, 28.4000° W, International Hydrographic Organization, General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans 5.12, 1978. Scale: 1:10,000,000 (shown at half size). The hypsometric color ramp of the General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans draws inspiration from the soft hues—blues, yellows, and grays—of the clouds and the sky. As the graphically astute Edward Tufte describes, the chart “records ocean depth (bathymetric tints) and land height (hypsometric tints) in twentyone steps—with ‘the deeper or higher, the darker’ serving as the visual metaphor for coloring. . . . Every color mark on this map signals four variables: latitude, longitude, sea or land, and depth or altitude measured in meters.” The result is strikingly clear and resoundingly beautiful. 2.8 43.6725° N, 1.3472° W, Agence Patrick Arotcharen and Estudi Martí Franch, Les Echasses Golf and Surf Nature Resort, 2013. The plan of Les Echasses resort by Estudi Martí Franch, a Barcelonabased landscape architecture firm, draws clear inspiration from cartographic techniques. The project is driven by topographic manipulation, and the representation supports this emphasis on landform. Beginning with a flat cornfield site, the designers created an intricate lake and dunescape to maximize water access. The combination of hypsometric and bathymetric tints with hatches expands and blurs the line between land and water.
60 CARTOGRAPHIC GROUNDS 100 110 120 130 140 150 160 170 180 190 200 210 220 230 240 250 depth in meters 100 110 120 130 140 150 160 170 180 190 200 210 220 230 240 250 DEPTH IN METERS 2.9 43.7000° N, 77.9000° W, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Great Lakes Data Rescue Project-Lake Ontario Bathymetry: Rochester Basin, 2000. Scale: 1:50,000 (shown at half size). A heat map is a graphical representation of data whereby different values are assigned different colors. The ROYGBIV color scheme is common though not prescribed. Ubiquitous in thematic mapping, the heat-map visualization can be applied to contour mapping through the tradition of hypsometric tints. In data visualization, the heat map can be interpolated from discontinuous data to create a surface, whereas in contour mapping, the ramp gradient reflects the continuity of the terrain.
ISOBATH / CONTOUR 61 EL. +90’ EL. +80’ EL. +70’ EL. +60’ EL. +50’ EL. +40’ EL. +30’ EL. +20’ EL. +12 EL. +10’ EL. +7’ EL. 0’ EL. +90’ EL. +80’ EL. +70’ EL. +60’ EL. +50’ EL. +40’ EL. +30’ EL. +20’ EL. +12 EL. +10’ EL. +7’ EL. 0’ 2.10 40.6905° N, 74.0165° W, West 8 Urban Design and Landscape Architecture, Governors Island Park and Public Space Master Plan, 2007–13. The West 8 hypsometric ramp presents elevation levels with different hues, rather than tonal variations of a single hue. Blues and greens are low elevations, yellows are mid elevations, and grays are higher elevations. This color scheme emphasizes the topographic changes from existing to proposed, highlighting the new raised landforms in the southern portion of the island. 2.11 24.1470° N, 120.6744° E, Stoss Landscape Urbanism, Taichung Gateway Park, 2012. Extracted from a three-dimensional model, the proposed contours of Stoss’s Taichung Gateway Park describe a syncopated, water-driven landscape. The cuts create basins to capture, clean, and ultimately program Taiwan’s voluminous rainfall. The perspectival view of the contours animates the shifts in topography across the linear park, allowing the eye to wander, to imagine the movement of rain and park visitors alike.
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ISOBATH / CONTOUR 63 2.13 37.7833° N, 122.4167° W, Hargreaves Associates, Crissy Field, 1985. Topographic manipulation is central to the work of Hargreaves Associates, as exemplified at Crissy Field, a linear park along San Francisco Bay. The landform design is studied in model and translated into a two-dimensional representation that emphasizes gesture, grain, and choreography. Sandwiched between the continuous contours of shoreline and upland, the designed topography provides a counter scale and orientation, directing the movement of wind and people on-site and the eye through the drawing. 2.12 48.8742° N, 2.3470° E, Jean-Charles Adolphe Alphand, Plan des Courbes de Niveau du Parc des Buttes Chaumonts, Promenades de Paris. Paris: J. Rothschild, 1867–71. Under the direction of GeorgesEugène Haussmann, engineer and parks director Jean-Charles Adolphe Alphand transformed a former quarry and refuse dump into romantic parkland. The technique of overlaying the before and after contours, with the proposed highlighted in red, shows the dynamic process in a single image. The curvilinear design language emerges from the rough site, accentuating and amplifying the existing landforms, while deliberately leaving rough edges in places. The accompanying engraving uses shadow and texture to fully render the character of the ground plane. The pair of drawings demonstrates the merger of the technical and aesthetic mastery found in the design.
64 CARTOGRAPHIC GROUNDS 2.14 43.6481° N, 79.4042° W, OLM; Atelier Girot; ARUP; J. Mayer H. und Partner, Architekten; ReK Productions; Applied Ecological Services, TRM Toronto—Lower Don, 2007. The double ramp of this hypsometric tint creates a dramatic read of the topography proposed for extension of the city fabric into the port lands at the mouth of the Don River in Toronto. Known for its landform-driven approach to design, OLM carved the water’s edge away to reintroduce lacustrine marshes and to amplify the city-water interface. The drawing further blurs the reading of the citywater boundary. The lower elevations go from darker to lighter, but the gradient repeats. The result highlights the interface between land and water—the white—and produces the effect of a glowing edge. 2.15 40.7697° N, 73.9735° W, Architecture Research Office (ARO) and dlandstudio, MoMA Rising Currents: Projects for New York’s Waterfront, 2010. Scale: 1:3,000 (shown at half size). This drawing, a proposal to accommodate sea-level rise in Manhattan, shows bathymetric information as isolines and articulates the amphibious salt marsh through a color gradient from deep blue to deep green. Both color and contour index the elevation levels, representing the likelihood of flooding. Upland water capture strategies are rendered typologically with different values of green assigned to each strategy. Changes in elevation are indicated through contour alone. The subtle grading of the land-water interface is reinforced through the use of two techniques for describing terrain—line and tint— focusing the viewer on the area most susceptible to rising tides.
ISOBATH / CONTOUR 65 2010 EXISTING BUILDINGS 2100 PROPOSED BUILDINGS 2100 CATEGORY 2 STORM SURGE AREA 2100 WATERSHED PARK 2010 RECREATIONAL OPEN SPACE 2100 WATER BASIN 2100 LEVEL TWO STREET 2100 SALT MARSH 2100 LEVEL ONE STREET 2100 LEVEL THREE STREET 2100 CATEGORY 2 STORM SURGE AREA 2010 EXISTING BUILDINGS 2100 PROPOSED BUILDINGS 2010 RECREATIONAL OPEN SPACE 2100 WATERSHED PARK 2100 WATER BASIN 2100 LEVEL ONE STREET 2100 LEVEL TWO STREET 2100 LEVEL THREE STREET 2100 SALT MARSH
66 CARTOGRAPHIC GROUNDS 2.16 12.5458° N, 48.1456° E, OPSYS/Alexandra Gauzza, Coastal Piracy or Coast Guard?, 2012. The map shows an increasing number of attacks along primary shipping lanes, juxtaposing incidents of coastal piracy against maritime routes off the coast of Somalia. The drawing makes visual the results of the complex social, economic, and political circumstances involved in the defense of the 3,300-kilometer coastline. The drawing, through the near omission of land information, and the transparent offset along the edges, highlights this long coast while drawing attention to water-driven activity. The ocean and its floor are richly rendered using a shaded relief to show the intricate topography and bathymetric tints to give clarity to the overall morphology. 2.17 52.2066° N, 5.6422° E, Clemens Steenbergen, Johan van der Zwart, Joost Grootens, Atlas of the New Dutch Water Defence (Rotterdam: nai010 Publishers, 2009), 68, 132. The maps contained within Atlas of the New Dutch Water Defence Line use classic cartographic techniques— color, hachures, contour, line symbols, conventional signs—in innovative ways to examine the complexity of the 135-kilometer line of fortifications encompassing the cities of Amsterdam and Utrecht through history. The first map shows the polder drainage. The second map shows the location and height of the polders within the floodplain, using tints to both describe the topographic subtleties and highlight the region under Dutch control.
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68 CARTOGRAPHIC GROUNDS 2.18 81.3500° S, 163.0000° E, United States Geological Survey (USGS), Nimrod Glacier, Topographic Reconnaissance Maps of Antarctica, 1963. Scale: 1:250,000 (shown at full size). The USGS began sending surveyors to Antarctica annually in 1957 to work with the navy in establishing geodetic control and to gather mapping-quality aerial photography. The topographic reconnaissance maps that resulted are visually extraordinary, with a combination of terrain-rendering techniques that bring a visceral quality to a remote environment. Contours, shading, hachures, and color are all used to describe the topography and ground condition (moraine, glacier, crevasse, ice shelf, iceberg, fast ice). 2.19 ( p. 70 ) 36.0574° N, 112.1428° W, USGS, Grand Canyon: Bright Angel, 1903. Scale: 1:48,000 (shown at full size). François Emile Matthes, a renowned topographer and geologist, completed the first real survey of the Grand Canyon Bright Angel area between 1902 and 1904. His method— taking multiple sights through the transit from exceptional vantage points and then sketching the rough form of the land—resulted in beautiful sketches, refined contour lines, and new routes through the landscape. The USGS quadrangle from 1903 highlights the Matthes topography with contour alone. The simple language of the drawing allows for a focus on the landform. The steepness of the canyon—the density of lines—express the threedimensional quality of the place without the need for further shading and texture. 2.20 ( p. 71 ) 36.0574° N, 112.1428° W, William T. Peele, Richard K. Rogers, Bradford Washburn, Tibor G. Tóth, The Heart of the Grand Canyon, 1978. Scale: 1:24,000 (shown at half size). Inspired by the work of Matthes and motivated by their own sense of cartographic adventure, Bradford and Barbara Washburn led an expedition to map the Grand Canyon in 1974. The effort focused on the 170-squaremile heartland of the canyon— the area most visited by tourists— and the same area included in the 1902–4 Matthes survey. The mapping expedition required 146 days of fieldwork spread across four and a half years. The process included extensive climbing and exploration and a recorded 695 helicopter flights, as well as a recently introduced laser beam, allowing for new degrees of precision across massive distances. The final map, a National Geographic classic, embodies incredible precision, both in its underlying survey and in its drawing technique. LEGEND
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Lines, often short, following the direction of maximum slope, which in a series indicate shadow, relief, and texture. CHAPTER 03 HACHURE / HATCH
73 H achures—lines that perpendicularly fill the space between contours—are used to indicate slope and shadow in cartography. Designed as a reproducible alternative to tonal shading, the system is simple and effective. Despite advances in printing technology, the hachure refuses to go away completely. Through experimentation, this tried and true technique remains a means to depict terrain and shadow. In design culture, the hachure equivalent is the hatch, both of which derive from engraving. The hatch, originally a series of closely spaced parallel lines used to create shading, has evolved into patterned swatches of dots, lines, and shapes in architectural drawing practice. [FIG. 3.1] Rather than being used to describe shadow or topographic relief, the hatch describes textural and material qualities. Through time, specific marks have come to represent specific construction materials—for example, stipples and small triangles for concrete—producing a clear language shared among designers and builders. As a technique, the hatch is a close relative of the hachure; but as a concept deployed in plan and section, its cartographic cousin is found among land-classification techniques (SEE CHAPTER 05). In cartography, the caterpillar-like forms of early hachures descend from a pictorial tradition of representing relief where hills and mountains were drawn in elevation (SEE CHAPTER 04). These shapes were drawn intuitively and did not adhere to precise rules. Yet, despite the generalization of form in these early hachures, they mark a transitional moment of greater measure and precision in topographic representation, when surveying and drawing techniques advanced to better reflect the geographic location of key physical features. With time, hachures were derived directly from contours, following clear rules and becoming less subjective and dramatic. Two remarkably simple yet powerful systems emerged: slope hachuring and shadow hachuring. Johann Georg Lehmann, a Saxon military cartographer, is the father of the slope-hachure system that, according to Imhof, successfully tamed the “hachuring chaos.”1 Contours formed the basis of his system with evenly spaced hachures drawn strictly perpendicularly to contours and therefore in the direction of the steepest slope. Slope angle determined the thickness of the line or relationship of black to white. The steeper the angle is, the greater the percentage of black present and the darker the area of the drawing. With shadow hachures, the illuminated side has thin lines, and the shade side has bolder lines. Mountainous forms roll like ripples in fabric. While the hachured landform is instantly visible,
74 CARTOGRAPHIC GROUNDS graphic keys accompanied hachures in atlases, translating slope angle to hachure spacing. The resultant maps show how a concise system of lines alone can yield a rich depiction of the ground plane. The representation of hachures is experimental yet restrained. Color is rarely used, and when it is, a neutral brown tone is usually elected for all hachures. In even rarer cases, a variety of colors is used to represent differing elevations or ground conditions. Thus, experimentation occurs in the way lines are used to describe the form, rather than in the graphic variations of the lines themselves. For example, in situ cross sections (SEE CHAPTER 08), considered a form of hachure that does not follow the direction of the steepest gradient, use the technique of cutting tight sectional slices through the landform to represent terrain. The result describes the topography with a series of closely spaced sections that are geographically positioned in plan. With the increase of two-dimensional line work being generated from digital three-dimensional modeling in design, representing topography through nontraditional contouring and hachuring has become prevalent. Cartographically speaking, however, the hachure still has limitations. Given that lines are drawn perpendicular to the contours, significant generalization of the landform geometry is required for legibility. Tight contour radii, showing rocky and rough terrain, must be smoothed to avoid hachure overlap. Thus, the contour alone, the skeletal backbone of the hachure, is a more precise articulation of topography. With the ability to produce even tones between contours, the hypsometric tint and shaded relief offer smoother readings of form and shadow. In spite of these limitations, the hachures demonstrate the power of the line alone and the ability to achieve complexity through restraint. The beauty of the hachure, as evidenced by the following examples, is found in simple variation and repetition of a single element. The representation does not overshadow the landscape it emulates but rather reveals it in a discerning manner. To date, the cartographic hachure, with centuries of refinement and harmonious abstraction, is a more sophisticated representational tool than the architectural hatch, whose patterns can be coarse and tend to verisimilitude. This chapter argues for an elevation of the hatch in design drawing through a stronger alignment with the hachure and its rich past. 1 Eduard Imhof, Cartographic Relief Presentation (Redlands, CA: Esri, 2007), 111.
HACHURE / HATCH 75 3.1 Jill Desimini, Hatch Typologies, 2014.
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HACHURE / HATCH 77
78 CARTOGRAPHIC GROUNDS 3.2 ( p. 76–77 ) 47.1167° N, 9.2000° E, Robert Gerard Pietrusko, Animation Still, 2012. 3.3 46.2000° N, 122.1892° W, Patrick Kennelly, Mount Saint Helens, 2011. Scale: approx. 1:15,000 (shown at full size). Originally published in “Cross-Hatched Shadow Line Maps,” The Cartographic Journal 49, no. 2 (May 2012): 135–42. American geographer Patrick Kennelly’s cross-hatched shadow line maps do not represent terrain with the traditional hachure; rather, they show only the shadows cast by landforms through a parametrically varied cross-hatch mark. His maps are hybrids, using multiple terrain drawing techniques. Angle illumination determines the length and thickness of the lines (a higher angle yields a thicker and longer line). The cross-hatch is the descendant of the hachure and the hatch but recognizes the inherent difficulty in representing the continuity of terrain through discontinuous lines.
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HACHURE / HATCH 81 3.4 ( p. 79 ) 46.5592°N, 8.5614°E, Johann Heinrich Weiss, Atlas Suisse. Le mont Gotthard et partie des Grisons, 1786–1802. Scale: 1:120,000 (shown at full size). Maps are collaborative efforts. The Atlas Suisse was the vision of the wealthy industrialist Johann Rudolf, who after seeing the Pfyffer relief model [FIG. 3.6] was inspired to commission a modeling and mapping project to further describe the Alps. The final map is the creation of Johann Heinrich Weiss, who used a terrain model built by Joachim Eugen Müller as the basis for his hachured terrain rendering. This pretrigonometric survey atlas relied on modeling to understand the mountain forms and to guide the representation of them. Relief is represented through horizontal depiction, oblique lighting, and hachuring. The hachures—unlike later, more systematic examples— are random. They are not always drawn perpendicular to the contours; they cross in instances, and their gradation is not even. 3.5 46.5592°N, 8.5614°E, Guillaume-Henri Dufour, Topographische Karte der Schweiz, 1833–63. Topographische Karte der Schweiz, more commonly known as the Dufourkarte, is the canonical example of the shadow hachure technique. As director of the Eidgenössische Topographischen Bureau between 1832 and 1864, GuillaumeHenri Dufour guided the creation of this first state-sponsored topographical map of Switzerland. Drawn from numerous trigonometric surveys, the Dufourkarte is a unified work in twenty-five sheets, allowing for the complete visualization of the entire country, setting the precedent for subsequent Swiss mapping endeavors. The early drafts of the Dufourkarte include contours, color, and detail up to a scale of 1:50,000, but the published version is streamlined and monochromatic, highlighting the Swiss topography exclusively with hachures.
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HACHURE / HATCH 83 3.6 46.8637° N, 8.1028° E, Joseph Clausner, Carte de la partie la plus élevée de la Suisse, 1799. Scale: approx. 1:150,000 (shown at half size). This map of the high Central Alps is an early example of the translation of landscape model to plan. The model, built by Franz Ludwig Pfyffer, was impressively large, measuring nearly 13 by 22 feet at a scale of 1:11,500. The resultant map, drawn by Joseph Clausner, uses a combination of more pictorial methods to represent 3.7 39.3253° N, 77.7392° W, John E. Weyss, Military Map Showing the Topographical Features of the Country Adjacent to Harper’s Ferry, Virginia, 1863. Scale: 1:15,840 (shown at half size). The Weyss map of Harper’s Ferry, Virginia, has exemplary slope hachures. Closely derived from contours, the hachures follow the standard rules of hachuring: they are drawn in the direction of the steepest slope gradient, form rows perpendicular to the contour, and have consistent spacing within rows. Thicker lines represent steeper slopes, and the overall density is uniform across the map. The system of short, monochromatic lines effectively indicates the slope and form of a continuous terrain. The river is also given texture, heightening the overall flow and sinuosity of the land and the drawing. dramatic landforms and caterpillarlike hachures for areas of lesser relief. The drawn forms were supplemented with spot elevations, a very early use of this technique and evidence of measurements behind the drawing. TABLE TABLE TABLE TABLE TABLE 00 TABLE TABLE 00 00 TABLE 00 00 000 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 TABLE 00 00 00 TABLE 00 TABLE 00 00 TABLE OF DISTANCES
84 CARTOGRAPHIC GROUNDS 3.8 34.2683° N, 108.9419° E, Plasma Studio and Groundlab, Flowing Gardens—Xi’an International Horticultural Expo General Plan, 2011. Flowing Gardens—a competitionwinning entry for a horticultural exposition campus—emphasizes movement. The site plan drawing calls attention to flow lines by hatching the dynamic spaces, distinguishing these corridors 3.9 34.2683° N, 108.9419° E, Plasma Studio and Groundlab, Groundcovers Layout, 2011. Scale: 1:300 (shown at half size). The hatches refer to the type of planting materials—tulip and hyacinth varieties—populating the exhibition gardens. Hatches are common as a means to communicate material intent between designer and builder. While architectural materials often have standard patterns, planting hatches from the rest of the site. The lines pinch and expand in response to constraints, giving an overall dynamism to the drawing. The built form and the landscape blend through the representation, design, and execution of the complex. are varied. In this example, there is a wide array of textures and responses to the hatch boundary. Some patterns are independent, while others shift direction with the frame and give a near topographic reading to the drawing.
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HACHURE / HATCH 87 3.10 43.6434° N, 79.3676° W, Claude Cormier + Associés, Sugar Beach, 2008–10. The sheer length of the key indicates the richness of the materials in the Sugar Beach design. Claude Cormier + Associés are known for their bold, graphic landscapes—red and white–striped bedrock outcrops, a leaf paving motif, pink beach umbrellas— and the construction plan for Sugar Beach highlights these elements. 3.11 6.2359° N, 75.5751° W, LCLA Office, Tactical Archipelago, Kiev, 2012. The hatching versus solid fill offers a clear contrast between land and water, vegetation and open ground. Plantings are rendered in elevation as a planimetric field of implied density. Within this landscape, a system of programmatic units is deployed forming micro islands, objects within a relational field. Through aggregation and repetition, the small architectural interventions populate the landwater interface, adding intricacy and patterning to the edge condition.
88 CARTOGRAPHIC GROUNDS 3.12 6.2359° N, 75.5751° W, LCLA Office and AGENdA, The River That Is Not: Master Plan for Medellin’s River, 2013. This hybrid drawing collapses three parallel projections—plan, section, and axonometric—into a single image. Through the layering of viewpoints, the relationships between channelized river, infrastructure, program, planting, and ground material become clear. The hatching is not indexical but rather describes the grain and detail associated with the project. The texture brings the public realm to life much in the way the design introduces occupation to the riverbanks. 3.13 35.4856° N, 139.3433° E, Junya Ishigami + associates, Horizon: Cafeteria at Kanagawa Institute of Technology, 2011. Originally published in Junya Ishigami, Another Scale of Architecture (Kyoto: Seigensha, 2011), 96–97. This drawing superimposes the floor and roof plans, graphically interrogating the relationship between the two levels. The drawing shows the gridded structure, the amorphous island forms of the sculptural roof, the canopy, and foliage, interspersed with Latin species names and spot elevations. The effect is not a clear architectural plan but the feeling of being immersed in the space. The overlapping of multiple patterns and grains highlights the feeling of being in a forest, with small clearings or gaps emerging through the field.
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90 CARTOGRAPHIC GROUNDS 3.14 41.0740° N, 1.1787° E, Estudi Martí Franch, La Pineda Park, 2010. The La Pineda Park project is represented through a series of plans—the last of which is shown here—that indicate the project transformation over time. The layered landscape is represented with hatches of diagonal lines in different colors to indicate existing pine vegetation, three types of proposed trees, and various ground materials. The hatches, with their nonsolid quality, allow materials to overlap without obscuring clarity. 3.15 6.2359° N, 75.5751° W, Gustavus Bechler, Map of the Sources of Snake River, 1872. Scale: 1:316,800 (shown at threequarter size). The hachures on Map of the Sources of Snake River are particularly soft and warm, allowing ridgelines to dissipate into plateaus. The sandy tones of the Teton landscape complement the subtle blues of the waterways. The map is inviting, allowing the eye to explore and trace the discoveries of the expedition of 1872, led by Ferdinand Hayden and James Stevenson. Stevenson was responsible for the Snake River mapping, and his team included topographer Gustavus Bechler, as well as a geologist, an ornithologist, a botanist, and a photographer. Main road Wooden footbridges Wooden fence Facilities (bar, beach, library…) Existing pines New pines Existing Tamarix New Tamarix Pittosporum tabira Dune vegetation
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A continuous tone that represents changes in elevation and landform by simulating a cast shadow thrown upon a raised relief map or model. CHAPTER 04 SHADED RELIEF
93 T he most vivid and illustrative form of topographic depiction, the shaded relief paints a more complete picture of the landscape, using color and tonal gradients to blend varying elevations. The terrain is not abstracted into a series of lines with diminished white space indicating steepness, as with hachures, nor is it abstracted into concentric horizontal slices that indicate steps and terraces where they do not exist, as could be said of contours. Rather, shaded relief captures the most intricate forms in a fluid gradation of tonal variation. In Leonardo da Vinci’s 1502 Bird’s-Eye Map of Western Tuscany, the hill forms are individually depicted, drawn in a pictorial tradition of molehill-like and conical shapes representing relief features. [FIG. 4.4] Yet in this case the landforms are also continuously related, blending into one another to show the aggregation of smaller hills into larger masses that frame the river valleys. The chiaroscuro technique, known for its strong contrasts, allows the voluminous qualities of the undulating ground to emerge through the interplay of light and dark. It is these last two qualities, the continuity of topography and the adept use of shadow, that are the key characteristics of shaded-relief drawings. Emerging from both the pictorial tradition of depicting relief and the use of hachure as a lines-only approximation of tone, the shaded relief is a painterly technique of landform depiction. There are two types of relief shading: slope shading and oblique, or hill, shading. With slope shading, tones are graded on the now familiar principle of “the steeper it is, the darker it is.” In oblique shading, tones correspond to shadows illuminated from an oblique angle, mimicking an aerial photograph with the sun at a certain position; the light is diffuse, and the shadows are most effective with westerly or northwesterly illumination, depending on the hemisphere and the type of landform. Both slope shading and oblique shading are sometimes combined to heightened effect. In this instance, contradictory demands defy strict rules, and compromises are made especially when it comes to steep, sunny slopes—where the slope shading would normally be dark (to convey steepness), the shadow shading normally light (to convey sunniness). Because shaded relief plays on our perception of light and shadow, mathematically accurate representations can appear false. For example, a sunny slope would exhibit less contrast with flat areas than a shadowed slope at the same angle would. The result is technically defensible but visually misrepresentative. Of the two systems, slope shades yield greater consistency, but even they fail to represent clearly the myriad
94 CARTOGRAPHIC GROUNDS terrain variations. Thus, despite (or perhaps because of) the seamless representation, a shaded-relief drawing can be deceptive. The lack of omission or hierarchy is, in fact, its limitation. In this regard, the fully rendered plan is the design drawing equivalent to the shaded relief map. Pre-aviation, pre-Google cartographers exhibited great skill in the imagination and projection of three-dimensional features into a twodimensional drawing. Large-scale, physical relief models were the tools for this endeavor and formed the basis of the shaded-relief simulation. Today these models are digital. Design practice similarly places great emphasis on the model as the ultimate tool to envision space. Terrain models are fundamental, central to the work of numerous design practices, notably those led by landscape architects Kathryn Gustafson, Philippe Coignet, and George Hargreaves. The model aids in the generation, testing, and construction of the designed landscape. Here, the cartographic process is reversed. While historic mapmakers worked from landscape to model to drawing, designers often work from drawing to model (or model to drawing) to landscape. A well-executed shaded-relief drawing has the potential to evoke mood, sensation, composition, and atmosphere. Much of this is affected by the selection of tones and tints. The coloration of shaded relief has received much attention within the cartographic discipline, with conflicting ideas about appropriate schemes. At the most basic level, there is a divide between using color to describe physical and cultural features or simply using it to define elevation. Further, the palettes that seek to emulate the natural colors of the earth can be differentiated from those that use a system based on convention rather than physical properties. One convention uses green for lower, presumably damper elevations and brown for the more arid, higher elevations. Another, by contrast, uses a heat map spectrum with green for lower elevations and red or white for higher elevations. A third approach deploys shades, from light to dark, of a single color. The continuously rendered landscape is most instrumental when it strays from realism and the goal of accurate reproduction. To fully stimulate the imagination, the vividness of the drawing must supersede the reality and bewilder the mind. With the prevalence of aerial imagery, it is possible to virtually visit the far reaches of the earth. With drawing and modeling tools, computational capacity, and data availability, it is also possible to produce full and accurate landscape depictions. To be projective and provocative, editing is required. It becomes crucial to balance the
SHADED RELIEF 95 real with the imagined, the fully described with the deliberately omitted, the distant with the immersive. Digital modelling facilitates landscape rendering, allowing for the layering of material and cultural features atop a shaded terrain image. The challenge is to produce a plan drawing that is not banal and generic but engaging and specific, as exemplified by the PROAP drawing of the Porto Waterfront. [FIG. 4.12] This chapter covers relief shading from pictorial to planar, terrain model to drawing, grayscale to color, phenomenological to material. 4.1 Jill Desimini, Shaded-Relief Palettes, 2014.
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98 CARTOGRAPHIC GROUNDS 4.2 ( pp. 96–97 ) 47.1167° N, 9.2000° E, Robert Gerard Pietrusko, Animation Still, 2012. 4.3 National Geographic Society, Mount Everest, 1988. Scale: 1:50,000 (shown at half size). Under the direction of Bradford Washburn, National Geographic’s Mount Everest map combines advanced surveying, skilled rendering, and geopolitical collaboration. The execution is a joint effort between Chinese, Nepalese, and American cartographic teams, and the multicultural authorship is reflected in the trilingual place names. The terrain is shown through shading, contouring, spot elevations, and cliff drawing in the Swiss tradition, by National Geographic staff cartographer Paul Ehrlich. The contours distinguish between the terra firma of the mountainous forms and the liquidity of the glaciers. 4.4 ( p. 100, top ) 43.4100° N, 11.0000° E, Leonardo da Vinci, A Bird’s-Eye Map of Western Tuscany, 1503–4. Da Vinci’s drawings are noteworthy for their topographic rendering and optics as well as for the engineering information embedded within them. He surveyed and depicted the Arno River region extensively and proposed ambitious canals to divert the river as part of a Machiavellian project during a war between Florence and Pisa. The Bird’s-Eye Map of Western Tuscany has incredible hill shading, one of the finest examples of chiaroscuro applied to topography, making it a precursor to later shaded-relief drawings. 4.5 ( p. 100, bottom ) 36.2833° N, 136.3670° E, Yamashiro no Kuni ezu, 1800. This map is a product of a nationwide, multiyear, governmentally coordinated mapping effort that aimed to standardize and coordinate the description of each province in Japan. The goal was to describe the physical characteristics (topography, water bodies, roads, coastlines), economic interests (rice-crop yields), and political entities (boundaries and administrative units). The villages are represented with small ovals, agricultural fields in solid colors, rivers in blue, and roads in red with varying thicknesses to denote hierarchy. The mountainous terrain encompasses the drawing, with the profiles radiating out from the center. This form of terrestrial mapping descended from celestial mapping and the effects resonate in the polydirectional, constellation-like representation. 4.6 ( p. 101 ) Bruno Taut, Alpine Architektur (Folkwang, Germany: Hogeni, 1919), plate 13. In response to World War I, GermanJewish architect Bruno Taut envisioned a utopia largely articulated through his five-part manifesto Alpine Architektur. The vision unfolds in a series of annotated illustrations, arguing for the enhancement of alpine architecture with crystalline structures. Taut inserted elegant assemblies—glass arches, shrines, metal thorns, crystal spheres— into the topography to beautify the Alps, to render more evident the spectacular terrain. The result is an integration of morphologies, of built form and mountain form. WASHINGTON, D.C. NOVEMBER 1988 Transverse Mercator Projection, Origin Meridian 87E SCALE 1:50,000 2 CENTIMETERS = 1 KILOMETER OR 1 INCH = 0.79 MILE Contour interval 40m/index contours 400m Altitudes in meters KILOMETERS STATUTE MILES 0 0 1 1 2 2 METRIC CONVERSIONS 1 centimeter = 0.393701 inch, 1 meter = 3.280833 feet 1 kilometer = 0.621371 mile MAP LEGEND Stone walls Shelters and houses Trail Ruin Lake River Crevasse Moraine Spot height Rock Scree Sparse vegetation area Depression Forest Low forest Bushes Intl. Boundary Glossary of Chinese, Tibertan, and Nepali terms: chang Col Khola La Lho Ling north pass stream pass south mountain COPYRIGHT 1988 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY, WAHINGTON, D.C. 20033 Nup Pokhri Shan Shar Tse Tsho west lake mountain east peak, summit lake Place-names for this map were provided by linguistic experts in consultation with the Chinese and Nepalese mapping authorities Names appearing within the Chinese area are given in their official Pinyin spellings with generic terms, where feasible, anglicized. To aid the mao user, these names are listed below with other commonly used or familiar equivalents in parentheses. Basang Pass Beifeng Glacier Bei'ao Bei Peek Betangaze Dong Rongpu Glacier Kangxung Glacier Karbo La Karda Glacier Karchagri Peak Karchagri Glacier Kardpu Peak Karze Kumbuze Lhangba La Lhoze Dongfeng Lhoze Peak Nan'ao Qutar Glacier Rindonglabo Rongpu Glacier Rongpudoi si Samdopo Si Toinzhubling Xarlungnama Xi Lingchain Xi Rongpu Glacier Yuandong Rongpu Glacier (Pasang Fall Col) (Changtse Glacier) (Chang La, North Col) (Changtse, North Peak) (Pethangtse) (Rongbu Shar Glacier, East Rongbuk Glacier) (Khangshung Glacier, Kangshung Glacier) (Karpo La) (Kharta Glacier) (Kharta Changri) (Kharta Changri Glacier) (Khartaphu) (Kartse) (Khumbutse) (Lhaka La) (Lhaka La) (Lhostse) (South Col) (Rongto Glacier) (Ritunglhabu) (Rongbu Glacier, Rongbuk Glacier) (Rongto) (Samdrupo) (Tundrupling) (Sharlungnama) (Lingtren Nup) (Rongbu Nup Glacier, west Rongbuk Glacier) (Far East Rongbuk Glacier, Far East Rongbuk Glacier)
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