Dwelling-Scapes

There are only 3 things in the world cooler than modern architecture: Legos, Steak Frites and Google Earth. We try and work Legos in wherever we can and this isn’t a food blog so that leaves us with Google Earth for today’s entry. We’ve rounded up a series of images on Google Earth displaying patterns of human habitation from around the globe – or Dwelling-Scapes if you’ll allow us to fabricate an architecty term. “But are the images all at the same scale so that we can compare and contrast?” – you ask. You bet they are, we didn’t buy Photoshop just to dinker around with finished photos of hot modern homes. Collecting images from Google-Earth can be overwhelming so we gave ourselves a few stipulations:

1. The images focus on practical, utilitarian forms of habitation (beat-it St. Peter’s Piazza)
2. The forms of habitation are in use today (86 Pompeii).
3. Each image is taken at an elevation of 2,500 feet above the Earth’s surface.
4. Each image is cropped to show a ½ mile x ½ mile swatch or 2,640 feet square (a 6.46 inch square crop in photo shop for the mathematically inclined).

Here’s what we came up with:

Broendby, Copenhagen
Broendby, Copenhagen

Levittown, New York, U.S.A.
Levittown, New York, U.S.A.

Amsterdam, Netherlands
Amsterdam, Netherlands

Celebration, Florida, U.S.A.
Celebration, Florida, U.S.A.

Sea Ranch, California, U.S.A.
Sea Ranch, California, U.S.A.

Venice, Italy
Venice, Italy

New Delhi, India
New Delhi, India

Palm Springs, California, U.S.A.
Palm Springs, California, U.S.A.

Nairobi (Kibera slum), Kenya
Nairobi (Kibera slum), Kenya

Antigua, Guatemala
Antigua, Guatemala

Mexico City, Mexico
Mexico City, Mexico

Naples, Italy
Naples, Italy

Reykjavik, Iceland
Reykjavik, Iceland

Caracas, Venezuela
Caracas, Venezuela

Casablanca, Morocco
Casablanca, Morocco

Guatemala City, Guatemala
Guatemala City, Guatemala

Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.
Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.

Nuuk, Greenland
Nuuk, Greenland

New York City (West Village), New York, U.S.A.
New York City (West Village), New York, U.S.A.

Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S.A.
Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S.A.