Breathing life back into groundbreaking urbanism from the 1970s
L12 – Jane Jacobs in the Sky by Sanja Šćepanović, Sagar Joglekar, Stephen Law, Daniele Quercia and Edyta Bogucka
Last month, our designers visited the London Data Visualisation meet-up, a community for coders, artists, analysts, journalists, and designers who find beauty and clarity in data. Hosted by the London College of Communication, the event introduced us to Edyta Bogucka, who shared her scientific and artistic processes behind the project Jane Jacobs in the Sky.
Today, 56% of the world's population live in cities, that’s 4.4 billion people, and this figure is set to double by 2050. But what makes a city thrive or fail? According to Jane Jacobs, who was a groundbreaking urbanist and activist in the 1970s, for cities to thrive they need to meet four conditions – diversity of land use, small block sizes, dense and continuous concentration of people, and a mix of economic activities.
To test this theory at scale, a small team of researchers used open-source satellite imagery to collect and analyse data from six Italian cities. They used image processing techniques to identify colour patterns in the sky, and explored how each one measured up to Jacobs’ four conditions. For example, a vast, monotone landscape of roofs hints towards a dull, industrial area, whereas vibrant colours indicate residential areas and city hubs sprawling with urban activity.
We love how the team has taken a historical theory and applied it to create a visual essay. By unfolding the connections between urban density and unique city colours and features, the visualisation provides city-dwellers with crucial insights into what makes a healthy city.
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