By Antoine Picon & Carlo Ratti

What have smart technologies taught us about cities? What lessons can we learn from today’s urbanites to make better places to live? Antoine Picon & Carlo Ratti argue that the answers are in the maps we make. For centuries, we have relied on maps to navigate the city. As the physical world combines with the digital world, we need a new generation of maps. Pervasive sensors allow anyone to visualise cities in entirely new ways—pollution, traffic & internet connectivity. This book explores how the growth of digital mapping, spurred by sensing technologies, is affecting daily life. It examines how new cartographic possibilities aid planners, technicians, politicians & administrators; how digitally mapped cities could reveal ways to make cities more efficient; how monitoring urbanites has political and social repercussions; and how the proliferation of open-source maps and collaborative platforms can aid activists & vulnerable populations.