Metropolis: Mapping the City - Hardcover

Black, Jeremy

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1844862208 ISBN 13: 9781844862207

Publisher: Conway, 2015

Synopsis

The city: a place of hopes and dreams, destruction and conflict, vision and order. The first city atlas, the Civitates Orbis Terrarum, was published by Braun and Hogenburg in 1572 for the armchair traveller interested in a world that was opening up around him. Since then our fascination with foreign cities has not abated. This sumptuous volume looks at the development of the mapping and representation of the city revealing how we organize the urban space. From skyline profiles, bird's eye views and panoramas, to the schematic maps of transport networks and road layouts to help us navigate, and statistical maps that can provide information on human aspirations, cities can reveal themselves in many ways. Focusing on key points in the development of urban representation and including visions of the future of how we would be living today, this enlightening book illustrates some of the oldest, youngest, liveliest, and most contested cities in the world. Each map has a purpose and its design reflects this. Extended captions explain its relevance and elegance. For anyone interested in the city in which they live or with the desire to explore the history and culture of a metropolis overseas, this book is an enlightening companion.

About this title

Product Description:

Illustrated with more than 150 historic and modern maps, this large-format volume shows how cities developed and how they were visualized by individual cartographers, from an ancient plan on a Mesopotamian clay tablet to the pixelated images of today. Through the panoramas of Renaissance map-makers such as Braun and Hogenberg, the city plans of the 19th century and the schematic public transport diagrams of the 20th, Metropolis charts the increasing complexity of urban life and urban mapping.

Review:

A beautiful collection of maps, showing how we have drawn cities. (Daily Telegraph: 100 books for Christmas)

A cartographic feast. Delicious. If you've ever wondered why cities work, you'll find the answer in this beautiful book. (Geographical)

Of such global variety that even readers who are familiar with the subject will discover many treasures here for the first time ... Black's ambitious text gives us a short global history not only of city mapping but also of the development of cities themselves. All the many aspects of this essay in human geography, from economics and imperialism to mathematics and environmentalism, are touched on in the author's easygoing style. Most impressive are the well-informed captions. (Times Literary Supplement)

An absorbing collection of maps or paintings from every century that show how humans have struggled to represent their cities. (Daily Telegraph)

About this edition

• Publisher: Conway
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1844862208
• ISBN 13: 9781844862207
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 224