Data-Spheres of Planetary Urbanization

Data expanding design practices, No Density, Territory and mobility, Urban Theory Lab.

Dataviz & simulation, Global Awareness, Infrastructure, Territorial dimension, Urban environment, Urban geography, Urban research, Urbanisation.

How can we map the urbanization of the planet? This exhibition explores this question through a series of experimental visualizations of the worldwide urban fabric. Twelve globes serve as “data-spheres” that depict the urban world on the basis of important indicators related to the spatial imprint of cities, the geographies of their supply zones and the logistics networks that connect cities to one another and to diverse regional hinterlands. Reversing the mainstream, city-centric metageography of urbanization, the data-spheres reveal the importance of operational landscapes beyond the city (zones of agriculture, extraction, forestry and fishing), as well as planetary logistical infrastructures, that directly support urban life.