Reading Belgium

The images below show the outlines of different kind of places in Belgium such as schools, places of worship or theaters. The places are sorted by size and are in proportion to each other. To create those pictures Hans Hack combined his long-lasting interest in artistic typologies and his skills as a web developer. He programmed a map based tool, that automatizes the search for buildings or spaces that have a special function in a selected area.



In fact it is not the achievement of a few specialists but the power of the crowd that collected the data being necessary for this project. The tool is based on OpenStreeMap, a collaborative project that creates much more than a map but an enormous data base. People working on it not only draw the outlines of buildings to be seen on the map but can also leave information about it.



Some of the places on Hans Hacks pictures are empty. There is just an outline without any structure inside. That means that the data provided had no buildings included – they still have to be drawn. Also some buildings may have not been recorded yet. But in the 21. century any one can help to shed light on them.