CityLab – The Map Room

The Quarantine Atlas

Published on 19 April 202219 April 2022 by Jonathan Crowe

Book cover: The Quarantine Atlas Out today from Black Dog & Leventhal: The Quarantine Atlas, a book-length distillation of CityLab’s COVID-19 mapping project, in which they solicited readers’ hand-drawn maps of life under lockdown, the year 2020 in general, and how life has been changed by the pandemic. They received more than 400 submissions; 65 of those maps, plus essays by divers hands, are included in the book.

To mark The Quarantine Atlas’s release, editor Laura Bliss has a piece in Smithsonian adapted from the book’s introduction and generously illustrated with maps. Bloomberg, which absorbed CityLab a while back, features twelve quarantine maps from the various calls for submissions. Update: Plus an adaptation of David Dudley’s foreword.

The Quarantine Atlas
by Laura Bliss
Black Dog & Leventhal, 19 Apr 2022
Amazon (Canada, UK) | Apple Books | Bookshop

CityLab Continues Its COVID Mapping Project

Published on 3 January 2022 by Jonathan Crowe

Bloomberg CityLab is continuing its COVID-19 mapping project: they’ve issued another call for reader-submitted maps. “[T]he new year is a chance to take stock of where we stand now. Once again, Bloomberg CityLab invites you to make a map that reflects on how your world has shifted or been reframed during the pandemic.” Due date is 17 January.

Previously: CityLab Wants Your Hand-Drawn Quarantine Maps; Maps from Isolation; CityLab Wants Your Homemade Map of 2020.

Preorder The Quarantine Atlas: Mapping Life under COVID-19 at Amazon (Canada, UK).

Maps at Year’s End

Published on 30 December 2020 by Jonathan Crowe

Kenneth Field has posted his favourite maps from the past year—something he’s been doing since 2013. Quite a diverse set, from the Johns Hopkins coronavirus dashboard to a Lego model of Manhattan: you won’t have seen all of them.

CityLab has posted a selection of reader maps that explore how their lives were affected by 2020. Coronavirus, change and disruption are recurring themes. “We hope these maps offer readers a sense of solace and solidarity, a chance for reflection or provocation, and perhaps even a breath of creative inspiration.” (Previously: CityLab Wants Your Homemade Map of 2020.)

CityLab Wants Your Homemade Map of 2020

Published on 1 December 2020 by Jonathan Crowe

Earlier this year CityLab invited readers to submit maps of their life under lockdown. Now they’re soliciting reader maps again, with a slightly expanded focus: 2020 in general. (Which, in general, was a year: how do you represent that cartographically? That’s the idea.)

We’re inviting you, our readers, to create a homemade map of your life, community, workplace or broader surroundings as you experienced them in 2020. Show us how the extraordinary changes of this year have shown up in your life. Or, try to envision how this year will impact 2021. Perhaps you want to map the city you hope to see—changes in architecture, transportation or public space—or how you imagine, hope or fear humanity might be changed due to this collectively lived experience.

Deadline is Monday, 7 December.

Previously: CityLab Wants Your Hand-Drawn Quarantine Maps; Maps from Isolation.

Maps from Isolation

Published on 22 April 2020 by Jonathan Crowe

Dylan Moriarty explores how the coronavirus lockdown has reduced his world to four blocks.

Meanwhile, CityLab has posted a collection of reader-submitted quarantine maps.

Previously: CityLab Wants Your Hand-Drawn Quarantine Maps; Still More Coronavirus Maps; Fuller’s Quarantine Maps.

CityLab Wants Your Hand-Drawn Quarantine Maps

Published on 14 April 2020 by Jonathan Crowe

CityLab is asking readers to send them hand-made maps of their life under quarantine.

We’re inviting readers to draw a map of your life, community, or broader world as you experience it under coronavirus. Your map can be as straightforward or subjective as you wish. You might show key destinations, beloved neighbors, a new daily routine, the people or restaurants you miss, the future city you hope to see, or anything else that’s become important to you right now. It might even be a map of your indoor life. For an added challenge, try drawing from memory.

Deadline is 20 April, with a selection of submissions to be featured in a future article.

Prior art would include Fuller’s quarantine maps and Kera Till’s “Commuting in Corona Times” (previously).

Internet Access, Online Learning and COVID-19

Published on 10 April 2020 by Jonathan Crowe

Lack of Internet Access — Marie Patino/Bloomberg (CityLab)

CityLab maps the percentage of U.S. households with no internet access by school district—an increasingly important number as schools close to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, and explore online classes as an alternative delivery system in the meantime. That’s a problem for kids who don’t have internet at home—and an even bigger problem where more kids are in that situation.¹

The Maps That Make Us

Published on 15 August 2019 by Jonathan Crowe

CityLab has launched The Maps That Make Us, a series of personal essays about the power of maps in our lives. Laura Bliss explains the premise of the series here, and kicks things off with this essay comparing the Thomas Guides of her childhood with the ubiquity—and diversity—of navigation apps today.

Previously: The Rise and Fall of the Thomas Guide.