View Full Version : From the Air
Been travelling around a bit using Google Earth.
It is amazing the different patterns that one can find and the different ways we have of affecting the landscape. Some of these could almost be turned into textures. The graphics that we create in this scale is sometimes mind blowing. In addition to that, it is also interesting to look at the different response that we find across the globe to how we build our cities and how we populate the landscape.
Start with some farms in Arizona
More farms, Arizona again
Mikael, shot #2 is really amazing. Looks like an abstract social housing façade! I recall flying around looking for similar images. I'll post some if I find some. :D
Setlement, around Hong kong
primocordara
15-11-2005, 16:13
check this one out!!
Housing and restaurants, Aberdeen Hong Kong Island
Hillside village, Tuscany
primocordara
15-11-2005, 16:16
goes on and on...
And finally, shipping containers in Barcelona.
If anyone have something more, feel free to add...
Thought you would get into this Primocordara... :D
primocordara
15-11-2005, 16:23
Thought you would get into this Primocordara... :D
JajA!! sorry I got into your posts, this air base is amazing, here the kmz!
BTW Michel, Ryo, there is a Tulip street here too (not a very floral setting though!)
imasayer
15-11-2005, 16:25
If you find these photos interesting, you will love this book (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0300086962/qid=1132068093/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/103-2839109-2426219?v=glance&s=books)! My wife used this one for her thesis, about dwelling and mans relationship with the land.
And of course, don't forget (I'm sure most of you already know it) the excellent and fascinating book 'EARTH FROM ABOVE' (LA TERRE VUE DU CIEL (http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/ASIN/2732428701/171-5321682-4263413) ) from french photographer YANN ARTHUS BERTRAND (http://www.yannarthusbertrand.com/yann2/affichage.php)
primocordara
15-11-2005, 16:40
here the deserts in Africa... looks like JP's been covering the world here!
Suburbs Arizona
Geez, this shot does a great job of showing off our developers great talent for creating unnatural, overly-contrived, angst-filled communities. Beautiful. They should have designed it to look like a giant peace sign.
lavardera
15-11-2005, 16:46
viral infection
And of course, don't forget (I'm sure most of you already know it) the excellent and fascinating book 'EARTH FROM ABOVE' (LA TERRE VUE DU CIEL (http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/ASIN/2732428701/171-5321682-4263413) ) from french photographer YANN ARTHUS BERTRAND (http://www.yannarthusbertrand.com/yann2/affichage.php)
Yes, I am familiar with it (have it), I drag it out sometimes, but it is a bit of a project! That goes for the Phaidon Atlas too, you need large tables...
Primo, I was looking for the airplane graveyard, thought it was somewhere around Phoenix, turned out it was Tucson instead...
viral infection
Wow! someone's taken the idea of fractal cities to heart..
Some of these aerial pictures really do look like fractal geometries.
.....compare to these. :)
http://www.fractal-recursions.com/files/mech0025.html
primocordara
15-11-2005, 17:13
Primo, I was looking for the airplane graveyard, thought it was somewhere around Phoenix, turned out it was Tucson instead...
Yes, I gave you the Kmz!
Check out this site, called the "Confluence project"
http://www.orbitals.com/dcp/dcp3a.htm
The idea is to elaborate a world map mosaic with pictures taken at "confluence points" that is where lat. and long. are round numbers.
Here a picture of those taken so far...
Woaw, the virus is growing fast (around Pheonix) :D
takesh h
15-11-2005, 18:18
Mikael, post#13 is even better from higher up.
takesh h
15-11-2005, 18:22
Yes, Japanese are golf-crazy.
Frenchy Pilou
15-11-2005, 18:23
Villeneuve Saint Georges :)
takesh h
15-11-2005, 18:25
Farms are always interesting. These squares are really huge.
takesh h
15-11-2005, 18:27
A lumberyard by the coastline.
Alienskin north-east Russia... :D
close up
looks like an half-life monster :D
Woaw, the virus is growing fast (around Pheonix) :D
That one looks like a circuit board.
Interesting man made patterns from the air. Not of ground but flight patterns. See movies H E R E (http://www.aaronkoblin.com/work/faa/)
CHECK OUT "BLOBULAR"
Interesting man made patterns from the air. Not of ground but flight patterns. See movies H E R E (http://www.aaronkoblin.com/work/faa/)
CHECK OUT "BLOBULAR"
Now that is pretty cool. I like that these flights start defining the shape of the US. It's also cool to see the burst of incoming flights from Europe.
primocordara
15-11-2005, 23:23
Check this out:
http://www.radicalcartography.net
About:
If we were able to take as the finest allegory of simulation the Borges tale where the cartographers of the Empire draw up a map so detailed that it ends up exactly covering the territory (but where the decline of the Empire sees this map become frayed and finally ruined, a few shreds still discernible in the deserts--the metaphysical beauty of this ruined abstraction, bearing witness to an Imperial pride and rotting like a carcass, returning to the substance of the soil, rather as an aging double ends up being confused with the real thing)--then this fable has come full circle for us, and now has nothing but the discrete charm of second-order simulacra.
Abstraction today is no longer that of the map, the double, the mirror or the concept. Simulation is no longer that of a territory, a referential being or substance. It is the generation of models of a real without origin or reality: a hyperreal. The territory no longer precedes the map, nor survives it. Henceforth, it is the map that precedes the territory--PRECESSION OF SIMULACRA--it is the map that engenders the territory and if we were to revive the fable today, it would be the territory whose shreds are slowly rotting across the map. It is the real, and not the map, whose vestiges subsist here and there, in the deserts which are no longer those of the Empire but our own: The desert of the real itself.
Mikael, post#13 is even better from higher up.
ahhh home sweet home... Atlanta... :)
talk about sprawl and viruses...
Scott M
jparchitectus
15-11-2005, 23:58
Texas!
Nice site PeterE! I'm sharing that one with lots of folks!
The whole topic is pretty cool! Thanks for the refreshed perspective on our world.
Frenchy Pilou
16-11-2005, 09:02
A gorgeous Borges'site themodernword.com (http://www.themodernword.com/borges/) :cool:
And many other authors are present (http://www.themodernword.com/themodword.cfm) :peace:
JesseJacob
16-11-2005, 09:23
Hawaii
JesseJacob
16-11-2005, 09:23
Hawaii close.
Trippy:peace:
Another nice pattern: Lençóis Maranhense - Brazil
primocordara
16-11-2005, 15:00
Another nice pattern: Lençóis Maranhense - Brazil
cool, I remember seeing plane shots on TV, its such a sureal landscape!
cool, I remember seeing plane shots on TV, its such a sureal landscape!
For sure. It looks like some kind of bug on Google Earth!
Here's an image from the ground:
A gorgeous Borges'site themodernword.com (http://www.themodernword.com/borges/) :cool:
And many other authors are present (http://www.themodernword.com/themodword.cfm) :peace:
Merci Frenchy! :cheers:
Thanks to everyone for chipping in on these images.
What I was kinda hoping for, by putting this in the theory section, was perhaps a discussion around these images. I know it is not easy, but it would be interesting to see how we as architects/landscape architects/planners/designers look at the marks on the landscape that we (the human spices) make at this level. The scale is enormous compared to what we usually deal with. I, personally, am also more interested in the effect that the humans make on the landscape, rather than the natural landscape in itself (although being very beautiful).
I know that this is a huge topic and it runns the risk of becoming too abstract for any serious discussion but...
Anyway, to give it a shot, here are few questions:
1.Should we as designers have a say in how these patterns form? is it important?
2. There seem to be two different driving forces at stake here; things happen cause they can, large areas are needed to grow crops for example, and they are laid out in the most rational way in a flat landscape(post 1 and 2 for example); someone have actually decided upon these shapes (post 7). Is there a justification in that?
3. What do these regular patterns (machine made?) do to a landscape that are by nature extreamly unregular? For example, post 2 contra the image below. Regular versus a more organic approach to the spread of farming (or cities for that matter)?
4 As a follow up on question 1, are we going to experience the landscape more like this as time goes on? For many of us, the image below may be the closest we ever get to the rice fields of china.
There are probably many more questions like this, please add as they may come up.
Anyway, dunno if this is useful or not, please feel free to say that it is all a lot of crap. Yet, when circling the globe on my computer screen and occasionly from a view out of a window at 33 000 feet, I can't help myself thinking about these things...
Below: Rice fields, southern China.
*Dubai as seen from above, the biggest manmade island on the record.
http://www.thepalm.co.ae/
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a377/kurdapya/dubai.jpg
primocordara
16-11-2005, 16:23
I was making myself the same questions as you Mikael:
Why are we humans so devoid of geometry (remember its original meaning "Geo-earth metry-measure )? We need to control our environment and symplify it to our limited comprehension?
So from Ancient Egypt to these days we have the need to create our own landscape in our own "simplified" way...
Will this evolve to more complex "geometry" with the use of computers (fractals for example)?
I'm sure you could develop softwares for creating sprawl patterns over a 3d terrain model automatically! BTW I like sprawl patterns better than grid ones!
As GE technology evolves and becomes more widespread, I'm shure this view will also become a concern in design, for example, laying out planes and weapons could be a way of showing off military might, it you know they are visible by the world??
Will Donald Trump build a spraul with his name visible from space??
imasayer
16-11-2005, 16:49
I was making myself the same questions as you Mikael:
Why are we humans so devoid of geometry (remember its original meaning "Geo-earth metry-measure )? We need to control our environment and symplify it to our limited comprehension?
Someone has been reading Heidegger.
BTW I like sprawl patterns better than grid ones!
Seriously? Do you mean from space or from a human scale? Because from a human scale point of view, they are horrible places and very difficult to navigate. Not that the grid is always the best option, but I think that a very simple, logical geometry makes the best cities. What is wrong with contrasting the natural with the man-made? I have found that typically when we try to blur those lines the end product is less than ideal.
As GE technology evolves and becomes more widespread, I'm shure this view will also become a concern in design, for example, laying out planes and weapons could be a way of showing off military might, it you know they are visible by the world??
Will Donald Trump build a spraul with his name visible from space??
Interesting fact: We have to keep thos planes visible to (Russian, I think) satellites to prove that we are distroying a certain number per year; cold war era treaties. Not to show our might but to show our efforts towards peace. (as long as you have nukes)
As architects (or landscape architects) I think that we should play a role in the development of the landscape a larger scales than we typically do, but the human scale is much more important.
jparchitectus
16-11-2005, 16:53
Even better in Texas!
jparchitectus
16-11-2005, 16:56
Chicago!
jparchitectus
16-11-2005, 17:00
Hey more circles in TABUK!
imasayer
16-11-2005, 17:00
Even better in Texas!
You can fly over anywhere in the midwest and it looks like that. Really cool. Would be interesting to see images of the different seasons.
What are the light blue areas in Tabuk? Some kind of mineral deposits?
jparchitectus
16-11-2005, 17:01
yeah I never knew that...guess I never looked from that high up before ;)
takesh h
16-11-2005, 17:03
Even better in Texas!
Just curious... Why do they grow crops in circle shapes in the US? :wondering
imasayer
16-11-2005, 17:09
Just curious... Why do they grow crops in circle shapes in the US? :wondering
They usually have a water source in the middle and irrigation pipe that moves around in a circle.
What if the land had been laid out according to this method of irrigation, instead of a circle overlaid in a square? How much more food would be grown per year if we used the corners of that land? Just a thought.
"Someone has been reading Heidegger."
Dunno if I remember my "Building, dwelling, thinking" correct, but it had to do with the relationship between the Earth, the Mortals and the Divinity. It is an interesting take, since we are here now looking at it from not the second of those words, but rather the third! Perhaps not relevant, but interesting none the less as a side note...
They usually have a water source in the middle and irrigation pipe that moves around in a circle.
What if the land had been laid out according to this method of irrigation, instead of a circle overlaid in a square? How much more food would be grown per year if we used the corners of that land? Just a thought.
Do we need to grow more food? I thought we are allready dumping it cause we have too much (since we refuse to give it to the third world). But, space could be saved (and thus the agricultural sprawl) if the surface was used in a more economic manner perhaps.
imasayer
16-11-2005, 17:33
"Someone has been reading Heidegger."
Dunno if I remember my "Building, dwelling, thinking" correct, but it had to do with the relationship between the Earth, the Mortals and the Divinity. It is an interesting take, since we are here now looking at it from not the second of those words, but rather the third! Perhaps not relevant, but interesting none the less as a side note...
I think that his writing had a lot to do with how man finds his place on earth, and understands his role. Understanding where we dwell, between the earth and sky. I think that divinity is a metaphor. Humans have refered to the "divinity" occupying the sky throughout history.
primocordara
16-11-2005, 18:12
Interesting fact: We have to keep those planes visible to (Russian, I think) satellites to prove that we are destroying a certain number per year; cold war era treaties. Not to show our might but to show our efforts towards peace. (as long as you have nukes)
This explains why there are so many disassembled ones !:) but then this is INTENTIONALLY done to be seen from space! so neatly placed to be easily counted, very interesting fact!
That was what interested me of the image, the way they were layered out in such a huge scale...
I assume the Soviets have a similar place?
About the sprawls, I get your point on the scale and the huge proportions they get, but I guess the winding streets give you a nicer perspective than straight lines. They LOOK organic, though this is misleading I guess...
imasayer
16-11-2005, 18:30
About the sprawls, I get your point on the scale and the huge proportions they get, but I guess the winding streets give you a nicer perspective than straight lines. They LOOK organic, though this is misleading I guess...
I am not saying that an "organic" layout could not be nice, but I have never seen it done well. I have yet to visit Europe though.
The way we do it in the states, however is horrible. We are responding more to traffic patterns than the actual topography.
primocordara
16-11-2005, 18:35
I am not saying that an "organic" layout could not be nice, but I have never seen it done well. I have yet to visit Europe though.
The way we do it in the states, however is horrible. We are responding more to traffic patterns than the actual topography.
I think Le Corbusier said the streets (pedestrian) on irregular terrains should be drawn by the path of a donkey!
If you look the old towns in Europe you find the streets follow this rule to a certain extent.
The grid originated as Roman military camps (cardus and decumanus) and then evolved into cities. The spanish crown used it as a norm for its new colonies too, that is why it is so popular in south america.
Frenchy Pilou
17-11-2005, 09:09
...
sigue2000
19-11-2005, 20:38
South African Shards
Frenchy Pilou
29-11-2005, 02:35
...
WilsonMetry
29-11-2005, 02:46
Coral Gable, Florida, USA
WilsonMetry
29-11-2005, 02:47
Palouse, Washington, USA
WilsonMetry
29-11-2005, 02:48
Kansas, USA
WilsonMetry
29-11-2005, 02:50
unknown reservoir, Nebraska, USA
Frenchy Pilou
29-11-2005, 09:55
Type "Crop circles" in the Search Forum of the Google Eath Community (http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/search.php?Cat=) and fly away! (THX Primo) :not worth
Generaly Irrigation's system but sometimes funny things :)
Yes the crop circle is on the right :D
http://static.flickr.com/28/55690670_8f255d621a.jpg
La Paz, Bolivia, the Central Urban Park project, my design space for 2005
Frenchy Pilou
30-11-2005, 00:23
...in flying!
You can see a lot of in this thread (http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/showthreaded.php/Cat/0/Number/123225/page/0) :rolleyes:
The dual color is the result of a double exposure.
The satellite that takes many of Google Earth Satellite based (high resolution) images is QuickBird it employs linear array CCDs. One set takes panchromatic images (grey scale) and the second set takes multi spectral images (MSI). The MSI imager is mounted in different physical location on the satellite so its images are acquired later in time.
These images are time re-aligned on the ground on the assumption that there are no moving objects in the field of view. As a consequence any moving object will have a colored image that appears ahead of the moving object and at lower resolutions. These images are double exposures.
If you look on highways closely where you know vehicles are traveling at 60 plus mph you will observe the same red and blue shadows. Hope this helps.
WilsonMetry
30-12-2005, 19:49
now pave 'em
WilsonMetry
02-03-2006, 06:49
Malaysian tank farm
WilsonMetry
18-03-2006, 21:49
the gods of flight (or food maybe)
WilsonMetry
18-03-2006, 21:52
clothing and style
WilsonMetry
18-03-2006, 21:56
(well, not sure, unfinished ;) )
jparchitectus
18-03-2006, 21:56
was that plane in flight>>>or was that added?
Any idea what the differing colors are? One is sand (duh) the other looks like snow or water....but I really don't think that either of those answers are correct.
naught101
20-03-2006, 00:52
it's kind of scary that only posts 6 and 9 (of the town and farming pictures) have any kind of organic structure, following the contours of the land.
naught101
20-03-2006, 01:21
1.Should we as designers have a say in how these patterns form? is it important?
2. There seem to be two different driving forces at stake here; things happen cause they can, large areas are needed to grow crops for example, and they are laid out in the most rational way in a flat landscape(post 1 and 2 for example); someone have actually decided upon these shapes (post 7). Is there a justification in that?
3. What do these regular patterns (machine made?) do to a landscape that are by nature extreamly unregular? For example, post 2 contra the image below. Regular versus a more organic approach to the spread of farming (or cities for that matter)?
4 As a follow up on question 1, are we going to experience the landscape more like this as time goes on? For many of us, the image below may be the closest we ever get to the rice fields of china.
1. yes and no. regardless or our intentions, we will in the end.
I think some of the best laid out cities in the world are in italy, and are older than the roman empire. these cities tend to follow the contours of the land, in a sort of grid, with most road going around the hill, and slightly sloped, and the odd connecting road going straight up and down the hill. this makes it very comfortable to walk around in.
modern cities are designed for cars. cars are so powerful that we don't need to care about anthropometric city layouts. this could be a problem when peak oil starts being felt seriously.
for the farms: the cirle irrigation pattern is hugely economic, bu environmentally destructive. and farming pattern that doesn't follow the contours of the land leads to massive soil erosion and bad drainage.
the best (in terms of environment and crop health) is thing, short strips along the contour, with strips of trees and wild plants in between.
2. someone have actually decided upon these shapes (post 7). Is there a justification in that?
yeah. fucking economic rationalism.
I think Le Corbusier said the streets (pedestrian) on irregular terrains should be drawn by the path of a donkey!
yeah.. I can't remember who it was, but some time in the 1800s (I think), there was a commission to build a highway from Port Elizabeth to cape town, through hundreds of miles of temperate forest. the guy staking it out followed elephant trails all the way, and completed the project in less time, and at less expense than had be forseen, simply because elepants follow the easiest path.
Paul Jaques Grillo has a theory about this too, in his book "Form, Function and Design" - he says that walking paths should never be designed, but should be created by the natural pattterns that humans take between point A and point B, and worn in to the ground. later on they can be upgraded to paved paths.
most national parks have paths like this.
OldmacDonald
21-03-2006, 21:35
The airbase featured in the shot is the Tuscon airbase - aka boneyards, the b-52s stratobombers are wrecked :bang head using a giant gilloutine and left for the russians to verify by satelitte - all part of the dearmament agreement
Kantar Vladimir
15-04-2006, 15:45
Here are some pictures of cities from bird perspective :)
Cheers :cheers:
DUBAI
Kantar Vladimir
15-04-2006, 15:47
Pyramids
rocking Burj Al Arab
Nice picture.
Kantar Vladimir
15-04-2006, 15:49
Venice
Kantar Vladimir
15-04-2006, 15:53
And Rome... :)
Sim City in Karachi, Pakistan :D Quite incredible :eek:
has anyone thought of the relationship between our city patterns and our cemeteries
how we bury our dead is often a reflection of how we live
cemeteries as a microcosm of city panning (or non-planning)
a recent trip to Japan reinforced this in 3-d - cemeteries presenting as mini towered cities, almost
the google earth image seem to re-inforce the notion
jparchitectus
24-05-2006, 18:47
Man Michel - that is very Sim Like
CRAZY!
Yep Jason, it's a very "grahical" pattern! Incredible to see they bothered to trace all the streets while having absolutely no constructed building. I suppose some people are planning to have a massive arrival of neighbors... :D
Yep Jason, it's a very "grahical" pattern! Incredible to see they bothered to trace all the streets while having absolutely no constructed building. I suppose some people are planning to have a massive arrival of neighbors... :D
This is actually quite interesting as I have been helping out on some designs for homes recently that will be built in Pakastan... and no, they won't be making an appearacne on PPB :)
imasayer
26-05-2006, 00:20
North of the Montana Saskatchewan border. Cool land paterns.
imasayer
26-05-2006, 00:21
And the .kmz of course.
primocordara
11-06-2006, 07:59
Google earth has added wide strips of land throughout all latin America and the rest of the world.
Most of former low-res kmz have now become HI-RES!:rock on: :rock on:
primocordara
11-06-2006, 09:03
Been checking a few locations: Chandighard, Machu Pichu, Nazca Lines, comune by the great wall, Kalkriese archeological site, Chernobyl..!
Mountains in Afganistan...
sigue2000
20-07-2006, 17:44
Beautiful.
found this looking in Bolivia in GE for THIS (http://www.pushpullbar.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3845)
an interesting pattern that I have no idea what it could be... anyone?
A_Minima
25-07-2006, 21:26
This link could help you to find an answer :
http://www.fas.org/irp/imint/docs/rst/Sect3/Sect3_5.html
This link could help you to find an answer :
http://www.fas.org/irp/imint/docs/rst/Sect3/Sect3_5.html
thanks... great link... interesting...
Archjake
25-07-2006, 22:05
found this looking in Bolivia in GE for THIS (http://www.pushpullbar.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3845)
an interesting pattern that I have no idea what it could be... anyone?
Beautifully sad! Looks like they are farming after they cut the trees.
franjayo
01-08-2006, 13:01
Another source of views from the air:
Gateway to Astronaut Photography (http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/sseop/clickmap/)
Click anywhere to see photos from space around the world, larger photo downloads by request, free.
takesh h
01-08-2006, 16:00
Hippo (lots of them).:eek: :eek: :eek:
takesh h
01-08-2006, 16:01
and kmz.hippo:o
Broken Wings
09-08-2006, 15:13
north of Mali - South Africa. I don't really know what it is but I found it interesting...
A_Minima
30-08-2006, 10:03
north of Mali - South Africa. I don't really know what it is but I found it interesting...
Desert, sand waves...
WilsonMetry
27-09-2007, 00:13
where planes go to die
WilsonMetry
27-09-2007, 00:27
GE file
shinnecock golf course, southampton, ny
oil fields or those crop circles like things in previous posts, in saudi arabia
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