serial consign

The Tokyo Subway is undoubtedly one of the world's most complex rapid transit systems. Maps of this network have even eclipsed Harry Beck's famed London Underground Tube Map as the benchmark graphic representation of sprawling urban infrastructure . While sifting through ffffound! yesterday I (actually, my girlfriend Jordan) found a series of related graphics that expand on the Tokyo Subway map proper. Please note the following eye candy, which is long on sophisticated diagrams and short on commentary.

This is an axonometric diagram of Otemachi Station, the largest subway station in Tokyo (it is served by five lines). Above and beyond the expected system maps, the Tokyo Metro also provides diagrams for station-specific wayfinding. These drawings identify spatial layout, connecting transit lines, interior circulation, amenities and locations of information within each subway station. There is a definite abstract quality to these drawings as they reduce station architecture to a series of untethered platforms, ramps, elevators, escalators and stairways that seem to float in white space underneath a dense layer of annotation and iconography.

Check out a much larger version of the above image here - this shrunken screen capture doesn't do the drawing justice. Oddly enough, we couldn't find these diagrams on the "global" (English) version of the Tokyo Metro website.

This is the axonometric diagram for Ginza Station - another key transit hub. You can view a larger image of this drawing here. [via securecat]

I could have sworn I finished it four months ago, but I've found myself revisiting Information Visualization and Pervasive Interface Culture, the book chapter I was working on earlier this year. This has sent me out into the (graphic) wilds in search of a few more precedents to discuss, one of which is the subject of this post.

This is the first image from labRAD's entry into White House Redux an international ideas competition organized by the Storefront for Art and Architecture. This competition called for a dramatic rethinking of the White House as an icon for democracy in the 21st century - no small task. If anybody was to undertake this venture, it had may as well be the architecture community as their labour costs about three cents on the dollar compared to Halliburton consultants.

This optimistic proposal, entitled White House 2.0, is based off an extensive historic and programmatic analysis of the American government, the legislative process and speculation as to how public opinion might more directly influence governance. Wayne Congar of labRAD describes the scope of research conveyed in this infographic as follows:

The composite image on the right is a a fairly sophisticated analytic tool which serves as a timeline, political index and a people's history. It is also contains architectural annotations tracking the minor alterations that 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue has undergone over the last two centuries (these are quite well documented on wikipedia).

This image develops the proposition that the White House could act as an "information parsing machine" and consolidate a steady stream of web-powered polling and demographics...

...and filter these flows of realtime data into content for projection onto the various interior surfaces of the White House. The labRAD scheme serves up this "informatized interior" alongside a flexible plan for managing labour and space based off public opinion. While my inner pragmatist is not entirely convinced by some aspects of this proposal, I respect the fact it approaches redesigning the White House as an exercise in systems management rather than simply delivering a spectacular edifice. Beyond this, there are a diverse range of representational strategies at play within this work that manage to appeal to information visualization purists one moment and read like a graphic novel the next.

You can check out the full proposal via the following PDF which is archived on the labRAD site.