The City of Arcádia

[George Marques]

This is my work that I said in the help thread. I managed to get Adobe Illustrator (don't ask me how), as even though I like open source software, Inkscape is still not ready to do this kind work.

Here is the map of Arcádia, a contemporary city that grew unorganized under a quite oppressive government. There are poor and rich people living side by side (as is common in Brazilian biggest cities). The dashed lines are the limits of the neighborhoods or burghs and probably won't be shown in the final version.

Arcádia Vilas.jpg

I'll use the colors from Google Maps so it has a familiar look. I also want to use some GIS software to make it available as an online navigable map (probably using OpenStreetMap stack).

This will progress a little slowly as it's not my work alone. I'm in a group of writers that are building it so we can write stories about the city and its inhabitants. It'll be in Portuguese, as it's our native language. So now I'm pressing them to decide stuff as the green areas (it's said that there is a park much like Central Park in Manhattan, but I still don't know where to put it). Still, any help, tips and suggestions will be appreciated.

[randigpanzrall]

loosks good so far, unspectacular but realistic borders for a compact and large City. Looking forward for your progress

[George Marques]

Rodovias.png

I added the green areas (forest and park) and named the burghs. And started to make roads.

There's no direct exit from the city since it's supposed to have a tall hard mountain in the border, blocking the access to the peninsula.

Also, as this have an corrupt government and poor wealth distribution, some of the roads will be more "show off" projects made to laundry money and to improve the life of the richest.

Finally, I rendered this using a local installation of some software OSM uses (Mapnik and mod_tile). That's what I'll use from now on.

[Wingshaw]

Alright George, I've got a few questions for you that, if you can answer them, will help me--and, hopefully, you--to advise you on realistic layouts for this city.

First, and you mentioned this in another post, scale. At the moment, there are not quite enough features to make it clear what scale this city is meant to be. The easiest way to answer this might be to mention another city that it is comparable to: for example, do you imagine Arcádia to be similar in size to São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, New York, London, Beijing etc etc; do you imagine it like a historic (Stalin's Moscow), or fictional (Los Angeles in the film Blade Runner) city?

Second, how old is Arcádia? How and when was it founded? Also, where and why was it founded? Lastly, by whom was it founded? These decisions will help clarify the layout, and also the way the city grew. For example, if this was originally a trading city, it may have started in the Laguna Tupau, where ships are sheltered from the wind, but still accessible; alternatively, if it was founded as a fortress, the large island on the right hand side would make sense. There are many possibilities for how a city like this could start, and, even if it was long ago, the shape of the city will not change much over hundreds, or even thousands of years.

Third, what is the environment of Arcádia? Eg. is it situated among mountains? near deserts? forests? plains? is the nearby area densely populated with villages/farms, or is it largely empty (or something inbetween)? how does Arcádia fit into regional/global trade networks?

Before you put a lot of time into answering these questions, I should mention that there are different ways of approaching a fantasy city, and neither is more right than the other. There are many people here on the cartographers' guild who are great at creating maps without needing this amount of detail; perhaps you are like them. I, personally, always try to answer questions like these, for a few reasons: I think it makes my maps more realistic; it adds depth and interest to a world; it is, in my opinion, more enjoyable. Sometimes, however, it can distract you from your main/original purpose.

Hope that helps. Always ready to provide more feedback.

Right now, I would say that your layout looks perfectly fine, but the inclusion of a sense of scale is essential at this stage.

THW

[George Marques]

As I stated before, this is a collective work.

The first part is easy to answer: this city is a little bigger than Manhattan. For the scale I'm working on, Arcádia has 87km² of land. It is fictional, though it's meant to be similar to contemporary Brazilian urban cities like São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Florianópolis (a good example since it's also an island). However, those are all much larger than Arcádia.

For the rest, I still don't know for sure. I'll have to sit with the group and discuss it (already started, but it'll take a while).

Still, those are really the questions I needed to hear.

[Wingshaw]

Well, it is good that you are discussing these questions with your team.

In the meantime, perhaps including a scale bar on your map would be a good idea.

Another thing you could try (this has only just occurred to me, so I don't know how well it would work) is create an image that shows Arcádia alongside satellite (GoogleEarth) images of other cities (Manhattan, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Florianópolis), just to make it easier to compare. It might be a valuable exercise.

THW