This project is a Masterplan for the Helsinki metropolitan area assembly, done by Jamie Lilley, from the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL in 2015.

This work awarded Distinction for Design & Distinction for Thesis
and awarded The Bartlett Medal

Locating Helsinki: Using Cartographic Methods to Depict the Shifting Physical and Digital Loci of the Capital

Cartography provides identity, clarity and a grounding to the understanding of our cities and long been used as a tool in urban planning. The output of cartography, the map, allows us to place, plan and construct our cities, forming the framework from which we can understand, interpret and forecast its future. For centuries cartographers have charted territories which represent projections of political and social power, invisible borders and boundaries and utopic visions.

Images by Jamie Lilley, Locating Helsinki

We are often drawn to maps as they offer a tangible scaled presentation of territory. The map stands as the middle ground between fictional ideas, visions, and the reality of territory.

The urban planning of our built environment has never adopted a tool with greater influence than that of the zenithal, iconographic, planometric map. The ability for the map to interpret and project fictional visions prior to physically altering reality has been one of its greatest assets. The map allows us to transcend between scales understanding the hidden social systems creating a useful tool in the laboratory of urban and master planning.