A significant component of my project is placemaking through uncovering buried layers of history. I repeatedly state that I'm going to "map the invisible" but this is proving to be easier said than done.
The work of Hajime Ishikawa, a Japanese landscape architect and map enthusiast has been instructive and inspirational. This English article is a better resource for me than his site.
Maps literally evoke sense of place through imagined inhabitation when reading a map. Further, the maps enhance the experience of places by establishing context.
"When you use a map, it adds some depth to the real experience in the city. For example, when you see the slope in the Akasaka area, it’s just slope land. And when you walk through it, it becomes part of the big topographic land. But you cannot see the whole dimension of the land form. But when you study the map, you see that slope as part of the whole topographic area and a part of the valley and river form. You use the map to locate yourself in the area and you use this sort of image to identify your place."
Topographical map, with white revealing higher areas. Several hundred years ago the Asakusa area consisted of temples and shrines. This fine-grained topographic data show transitions from land to street with accuracy of a meter. Old land uses remain evident "like scratches" on the ground.
(Image by Geographical Survey Institute: digital map 5m grid (elevation) of Tokyo’s 23 wards, digital map 25000 (map image)+Kashmir3D)
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