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I’ve never been a terrain representation expert, but occasionally I get briefly super interested in some DIY technique for relief mapping, not using typical GIS tools or rendering software. Tom Patterson’s old (but still applicable) Photoshop tutorials were my introduction to the magic simplicity of turning a grayscale image into fancy shaded relief. Some years […]
over a year ago

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More from Cartogrammar

Seasonal relief

Just a map for fun, made without writing any code, which is a nice change of pace. I finally spent a bit of time catching up with the great Daniel Huffman’s excellent tutorial on creating shaded relief maps with Blender. Do try it out if you haven’t; he’s written it up thoroughly and helpfully, showing […]

over a year ago 25 votes
Camino de Santiago sketch maps

Back in October in Montréal I finished my term on the NACIS board of directors at the annual conference. (Side note: see video of the conference talks!) Tanya Buckingham (recent NACIS executive director, current candidate for local office) has always kindly handed out thank-you gifts to people who help with the meeting; this time it […]

over a year ago 27 votes
Beyond the Sea, flowing and exploding edition

Last year I took a whack at mapping what you’d “see” if you looked straight across the ocean from coastlines around the world. Since then, an interactive version of that has been a back-burner idea. Well, finally, here we go. To recap, these arcs represent straight-line paths out to sea, perpendicular to the coastline at […]

over a year ago 26 votes
The rain on terrain

If you poured water over the terrain somewhere in the world, where would it go? That’s perhaps one way to think of the thing that distracted me in the evenings this week. [Edit: an interactive map should appear here, but there are some unresolved issues. Check out the GitHub-hosted version for something at least partly […]

over a year ago 28 votes
Land by latitude and longitude, or, a pile of continents

Bill Rankin’s graphs of world population by latitude and longitude popped into mind for no particular reason the other day, followed by a silly-sounding question: “but, like, what about land area by latitude and longitude?” Silly because, duh, a chart of land area by latitude and longitude is a map. Then again, a map is […]

over a year ago 31 votes

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Blending Into Nature: A Half-Buried House With A Green Roof

Set in the lush terrain of Galamares, a small village in Sintra, Portugal, this minimalist home is more than a place to live, it's a personal milestone for architect Vasco Lima Mayer. Designed while still a student, it was his first independent commission, making it both intimate and deeply intentional. Every decision was shaped by the surrounding mountains, resulting in a home that embraces quiet simplicity and a deep connection to nature.

yesterday 2 votes
The Irony of Nigeria’s Resilient Democracy and Growing Legacy of Urban Tyranny

Planning policies reflect a deep disdain for the poor, prioritizing elite aesthetics over social equity.

2 days ago 3 votes
Open Borders

A border is an idea so powerful that we never even have to see it to believe it. Or believe in it. Global borders can be sites of peace and conflict, violence and celebration, opportunity and confinement. And borders as they exist today – which is to say, increasingly militarized and clearly defined – are

3 days ago 6 votes
Outdoor Seating You’d Actually Want to Visit: Where Nature Is Wrapped in a Whimsical Birdcage

At the heart of San Francisco’s Mission Rock development, The Garden Party by Min Design transforms a bustling pedestrian path into something softer, slower, and more inviting.

3 days ago 3 votes
Andrés Duany and Others on the Legacy of Léon Krier

With tributes from Witold Rybczynski, Gerhard W. Mayer, James Howard Kuntsler, and Jeff Speck.

4 days ago 5 votes