Harvard Graduate School of Design

2022 

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The map explores the hydrological network of the Great Lakes as a series of waterways that have expanded beyond their natural basin connecting the Atlantic to the Mississippi through the Midwest and Great Lake regions.

 

The different bodies of water are arranged by traveling distance on the Y-axis, while on the X-axis, they are stretched in proportion to the population of the urban centers along their coastlines. The result is a de-construction of The Great Lakes that entreats the viewer to question the conventional way of mapping and surveying. The hydrological networks are stretched and measured solely according to the human metrics of population and travel distance. The representation challenges highly recognizable geographies and provides a commentary on how these bodies of water have been mechanized and controlled since colonial times through canals, locks, and constant dredging, effectively turning them into navigable infrastructure.

 

Ultimately, the map represents two latent dichotomies of a landscape: the reality of nature, which is impossible to represent in a single drawing, and the tension between our tendency to wonder at the wild and our impulse to manage, control, and organize it according to human metrics.

 

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Mauricio Cohen Kalb, Julia Hedges and Melanie Louterbach

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Advisor: Mark Heller + Danielle Choi