Mapping visualises the complexity of the built environment down to the smallest detail and results in better-informed designs, argues Marc Schoonderbeek in his thesis ‘Place-Time Discontinuities: Mapping in Architectural Discourse’. In his view, it should be a standard instrument in the architect's toolbox.
The Jewish Museum Berlin is an excellent example of what mapping can do. Architect Daniel Libeskind mapped historic locations and locations relating to Jewish and German culture in Berlin. The lines formed by connecting these locations are the basis for the building's design, leading into the ‘void’ brought about by the Holocaust. Schoonderbeek: ‘In doing this he achieves a sort of “ground zero” in architecture, and from there he begins his design.’
According to Schoonderbeek, mapping visualises deep underlying connections and weaves together many different types of information. This is because the designer is able to make use of the discontinuity of time and place in a mapping. When an architect borrows from cartography, the result is a richer framework for embedding a design in its context.
In his thesis, Schoonderbeek distinguishes between three modalities in mapping: a map functions as an ‘instrument’, an ‘operation’ or a ‘concept’.
The most basic method is that in which the map functions as an instrument. Bernard Tschumi's ‘Manhattan Transcripts’ are a classic example: Tschumi used a series of scenario mappings to develop an architectonic visual language.
In mapping as an operation, the map is a tool for explicating an explored idea. Libeskind’s approach in Berlin is an example of this.
As a concept, mapping helps to formulate a theoretical position in architecture. An example of this is the way in which Aldo Rossi uses ‘urban artifacts’ to map patterns and historical lines in his ‘analogue city’.
Scant use has been made of mapping during the past thirty years, and then only by way of experiment in most cases. But it deserves much more attention, Schoonderbeek argues in his thesis. Mapping enriches architecture, leads to a greater understanding of the relationship between spatial analysis and architectonic design, and to greater insight into the architect’s thought processes. ‘Mapping demystifies the black box in the design process - the architect - and results in better-founded designs.’