1500 – Plans-Reliefs

The first terrain/city models date back from the 16th century and were created for military purposes. Left image: a plan-relief of Bayonne, created by Sébastian Vauban (1633–1707), a famous fortification engineer of King Louis XIV. Right image: a plan-relief of Grenoble from 1848. These scale models were highly prized for the tactical advantage they brought, and they were also shown around for dissuasive purposes. “Il y a un relief de Namur dans les Tuileries, je vous demanderai d'avoir la […]

The first terrain/city models date back from the 16th century and were created for military purposes. Left image: a plan-relief of Bayonne, created by Sébastian Vauban (1633–1707), a famous fortification engineer of King Louis XIV. Right image: a plan-relief of Grenoble from 1848. These scale models were highly prized for the tactical advantage they brought, and they were also shown around for dissuasive purposes. “Il y a un relief de Namur dans les Tuileries, je vous demanderai d'avoir la complaisance d'y venir avec moi. Je vous ferai toucher au doigt et à l'œil tous les défauts de cette place, qui sont en bon nombre [...].” There is a relief of Namur in the Tuileries, I would ask you to kindly come with me. I will make you touch with your finger and your eye all the defects of this place, which are in good number. — Vauban's letter to Le Pelletier, president of the constituent assembly (1695). “Le Moniteur parle d'un plan de la Suisse, du feu général Pfiffer. Faites examiner ce plan, et, s'il est meilleur que celui que j'ai acheté dernièrement, faites-le acheter et transporter à Paris. Comme il est possible que nous ayons encore la guerre, il n'y a point de meilleure carte que ces plans en relief.” The Monitor speaks about a map of Switzerland, from the late general Pfiffer. Have this map examined, and if it is better than the one I bought recently, have it bought and transported to Paris. Since it is possible that we may still have war, there is no better map than these relief maps. — Napoléon's letter to Maréchal Berthier (1805). Sources: Institute of Cartography and Geoinformation, ETH Zurich (2006-2015) www.terrainmodels.com Yvonne Jansen (2014) Physical and Tangible Information Visualization. Robert-Max Antoni (1992-2000) Vocabulaire illustré de l'Art urbain - Relief Model. Napoléon I (1858) Correspondance de Napoléon 1er. Wikipedia Plan-relief de Grenoble. Left image from www.terrainmodels.com, right image from Jean-Pierre Dalbéra (Flickr). Related: Also see our entry on modern solid terrain modeling.

Added by: Pierre Dragicevic. Category: Physical model Tags: cartographic, plan relief, terrain model, walkable

1949 – Mississippi River Basin Model

As a response to devastating floods of the Mississippi river in the early 1900s, the US Army Corps of Engineers built a large-scale hydraulic model of the entire river system. The model, 2.5 times the size of Disneyland, allowed them to design better flood control infrastructures and to eventually save millions of dollars. In 1973, the physical model ceased to be used and was replaced by computer models. Nevertheless, mathematical equations still cannot capture all the complexity of river […]

As a response to devastating floods of the Mississippi river in the early 1900s, the US Army Corps of Engineers built a large-scale hydraulic model of the entire river system. The model, 2.5 times the size of Disneyland, allowed them to design better flood control infrastructures and to eventually save millions of dollars. In 1973, the physical model ceased to be used and was replaced by computer models. Nevertheless, mathematical equations still cannot capture all the complexity of river dynamics, and physical models (albeit smaller) continue to be used by hydraulic engineers. Sources: 99 Percent Invisible Podcast (2016) America’s Last Top Model. Wikipedia (2016) Mississippi River Basin Model. Left image from 99 percent invisible, right image from Wikipedia.

Added by: Pierre Dragicevic, sent by: Wesley Willett. Category: Physical model Tags: cartographic, hydraulic, physical computation, terrain model, walkable, water

1957 – US Army Corps of Engineers San Francisco Bay Model

A working hydrodynamic model of San Francisco Bay and the surrounding waterways, with tides. It is still open to the public as a demonstration, although it is no longer used for research. <em>Source:</em> Wikipedia <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Army_Corps_of_Engineers_Bay_Model">U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Bay Model</a>. Related: Also see our related entry 1949 – Mississippi River Basin Model.

Added by: Ed Mooring. Category: Physical model Tags: cartographic, hydraulic, physical computation, terrain model, walkable, water

1979 – Planetenweg Uetliberg: The Solar System as a Hiking Path

“Planetenweg Uetliberg” is a 2h hiking path near Zurich in Switzerland. It enables people to experience the sizes and distances between the different main bodies in our solar system. The hike starts at the sun (image above). Following the path, a hiker visits the different main bodies at a scale of 1 : 1 billion (see overview included above), that is, 1 meter on the path corresponds to 1 million kilometers in space. The sun has a diameter of 1.39m. Venus has the size of a pinhead in […]

“Planetenweg Uetliberg” is a 2h hiking path near Zurich in Switzerland. It enables people to experience the sizes and distances between the different main bodies in our solar system. The hike starts at the sun (image above). Following the path, a hiker visits the different main bodies at a scale of 1 : 1 billion (see overview included above), that is, 1 meter on the path corresponds to 1 million kilometers in space. The sun has a diameter of 1.39m. Venus has the size of a pinhead in comparison (it’s embedded in the rock in small window to the right of the panel). Sources: Wikipedia: Planetenweg Uetliberg [German only]. The images showing the sun and venus were taken by Roland Zh and made available via wikimedia. See here for the sun and here for venus

Added by: Yvonne Jansen, sent by: Jason Dykes. Category: Physical model Tags: solar system, walkable

1979 – Great Polish Map of Scotland

The "Great Polish Map of Scotland" is a 50 x 40 m concrete terrain model of Scotland. It was built by a Polish sergeant who stationed in Scotland during WWII and ended up living there. It is claimed to be the world's largest terrain model, although the Chinese built a 900 x 700 m model in 1999. Source: Atlas Obscura. Great Polish Map of Scotland.

Added by: Pierre Dragicevic, sent by: Benjamin Bach. Category: Physical model Tags: cartographic, scotland, terrain model, walkable

1980 – People on a Giant World Map

The World Game Workshop used a giant (basketball court size) world map to display population growth, distribution, and density, energy use, food and a host of other global variables and problems. 100 people were placed on the map, located where humanity is currently in the world, each one representing 1% of the global population. They were then placed in charge of their region and given the responsibility of solving the world’s problems. Sources: Post by Medard Gabel, Executive Director, […]

The World Game Workshop used a giant (basketball court size) world map to display population growth, distribution, and density, energy use, food and a host of other global variables and problems. 100 people were placed on the map, located where humanity is currently in the world, each one representing 1% of the global population. They were then placed in charge of their region and given the responsibility of solving the world’s problems. Sources: Post by Medard Gabel, Executive Director, World Game Institute, Global Solutions Lab. Images from https://designsciencelab.com/worldgame-2-0/. (archived version) Related: Also see our other entries on physical visualizations made of people.

Added by: Medard Gabel. Category: Passive physical visualization Tags: cartographic, people, participatory, rearrangeable, large-scale, walkable

1996 – Ned Kahn's Wind-Visualizing Facades

Since 1996, Nothern California artist Ned Kahn creates large-scale installations that visualize wind patterns. The left image shows Wind veil (2000), a facade of a parking garage covered with 80,000 small aluminum panels that are hinged to move freely in the wind. The right video shows Wind arbor (2011), a facade of a hotel lobby in Singapore covered with a cable net structure composed of a half a million hinged elements. Sources: List of Ned Kahn's wind sculptures on his website. David Mather […]

Since 1996, Nothern California artist Ned Kahn creates large-scale installations that visualize wind patterns. The left image shows Wind veil (2000), a facade of a parking garage covered with 80,000 small aluminum panels that are hinged to move freely in the wind. The right video shows Wind arbor (2011), a facade of a hotel lobby in Singapore covered with a cable net structure composed of a half a million hinged elements. Sources: List of Ned Kahn's wind sculptures on his website. David Mather (2009). An aesthetic of turbulence: the works of Ned Kahn. Tech Insider (2016) These mind-blowing installations make buildings ripple.

Added by: Pierre Dragicevic, sent by: Samuel Huron. Category: Passive physical visualization Tags: embedded, facades, wind, wind sculpture, walkable

2015 – Dan Gilbert's TV Ads

The famous psychology professor Dan Gilbert made a series of TV commercials for the insurance company Prudential, together with Ray Del Savio from Droga5 and Colin McConnell from Prudential. These TV commercials make a clever use of participatory physical visualizations to demonstrate and explain human biases in financial planning. Ribbon Experiment (left image): Dan Gilbert asks bystanders to estimate how much money they will need to retire. He then gives each of them a ribbon and asks them to […]

The famous psychology professor Dan Gilbert made a series of TV commercials for the insurance company Prudential, together with Ray Del Savio from Droga5 and Colin McConnell from Prudential. These TV commercials make a clever use of participatory physical visualizations to demonstrate and explain human biases in financial planning. Ribbon Experiment (left image): Dan Gilbert asks bystanders to estimate how much money they will need to retire. He then gives each of them a ribbon and asks them to cut it according to how long that amount will actually last. Ribbons are then assembled into a large-scale radial visualization. Age Stickers (middle image): Dan asks people how old is the oldest person they know, and gives each of them a sticker to place on a wall to construct a histogram. Magnets Experiment (right image): Dan asks people to recall something that happened in their past and something that might happen in their future. Good things are put on yellow magnets, while the bad ones are put on blue magnets. The resulting participatory visualization clearly shows that people tend to be overly optimistic about their future. Also make sure you watch the Dominoes Experiment which set a new world record for the tallest domino stone ever toppled, watch Dan Gilbert's amazing TED talks, and check out our other entries on participatory physical visualization and storytelling. Sources: Freakonomics podcast (2015) How to Make a Smart TV Ad. Photos above from Prudential Financial, Inc.

Added by: Pierre Dragicevic. Category: Passive physical visualization Tags: participatory, storytelling, walkable

2016 – Walkable Collaboration Network

Designer Dario Rodighiero created a large (15x15m) walkable visualization showing scientific relationships between researchers and laboratories at the ENAC school of EPFL in Switzerland. The visualization was printed on tarpaulin, a heavy covering employed for trucks. Two years before, Dario created a coauthorship network visualization for the Digital Humanities 2014 conference. He initially considered showing a large poster, but since sticking posters was not allowed at the conference center, […]

Designer Dario Rodighiero created a large (15x15m) walkable visualization showing scientific relationships between researchers and laboratories at the ENAC school of EPFL in Switzerland. The visualization was printed on tarpaulin, a heavy covering employed for trucks. Two years before, Dario created a coauthorship network visualization for the Digital Humanities 2014 conference. He initially considered showing a large poster, but since sticking posters was not allowed at the conference center, he decided to create a six-meter wide carpet instead. Sources: Dario Rodighiero (2016) The world’s largest data visualization. Dario Rodighiero (2018) Printing Walkable Visualizations. Images from Dario Rodighiero's paper. Related: Also see our other entries on walkable information artefacts.

Added by: Pierre Dragicevic, sent by: Benjamin Bach. Category: Uncertain Tags: collaboration, network, walkable

2021 – Walkable Bar Chart

A bar chart conveying two quantities, one of which is clearly larger. The activists and artists at the Respect New Haven rally yesterday offered this stunning graphic to visualize Yale's $32 Billion endowment compared to its paltry $13 million contribution to the city of New Haven...a FRACTION of the taxes it would pay if properly assessed. Source: Tweet from Davarian L. Baldwin. Related: Also see our other entries on walkable physical visualizations.

Added by: Pierre Dragicevic & Yvonne Jansen, sent by: Benjamin Bach. Category: Passive physical visualization Tags: walkable, city, politics, taxes, bar chart, street, paint