Flight Relations

Distance becomes, less and less important when traveling these days. Not distance but time is the measurement of a long or a short journey. In the case of air connections even time is not so important any more but the existence of the link in the first place. You do not go to from Amsterdam to Barcelona instead of Chatrapur (city in India) because it is closer but because there is a link between the two embedded between them. This makes it most cases much more relevant and therefor much more efficient to travel between Amsterdam and Barcelona.
In the maps shown here, the direct flight relations between Tokyo, Paris and New York to the world are shown. The more airline companies flying on a certain connection the bigger the spot. In the end all four maps are placed on top of each other. This reveals the best connected spots in the world seen from, Tokyo, Paris and New York. Of course all the geographical close by relations of these three cities profit. But for instance Istanbul, Helsinki, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Seoul and Bangkok are lightened spots on this map. A map of something that can be called the Global City starts to pop out. Of course the rest of the world is reachable within 24 hours just like the spots on this map. But there is a predestined relation between certain places on the globe that is not there for others just because of the fact that there are airline connection between them.

Maps: "The UNseen World"

The former post is the first one in a series of four. A series in which I want to show some predestined links in the world not as visible as any other physical relation. The four are again structured in the themes:

1) Time (timezones)
2) Distance (flight connections)
3) Material (Multinationals)
4) Place

Afterwards I will analyze these 5 themes again on a smaller scale focusing on Europe and eventually on Amsterdam in search for the perfect location for the architectural project. When reaching the scale of Amsterdam some other themes will enter the arena.

Timezone Relations

although we are heading fast forward to a 24-hr economy, we still have to face the fact that at some part of the day we have to sleep. Preferably we do this at night so the 9-5 rhythm is always present. Looking at the 4 most important cities of the Global City as reported by the GaWC (Paris, London, Tokyo and New York) We can distinguish 3 different zones. The red zones represent the area that is always outside the 9-5 work schedule of the centered global city. Outside the red lines an area is entered where less than half of the workday is overlapping. Because of these predestined connections some relations will have more potential than others.

New Poll, Perfect workplace?

What are the essential ingredients of a workplace? Is it a peaceful and quiet atmosphere, your colleagues or is it a nice fresh cup of coffee?

Is it Me?

SUN 8 June 2010:
The beauty of my dreamworld this night made it still a very unpleasant surprise that the reality past the memories of my dreams. Tonight I was back in the house where I grew up. An old house along one of the small canals in Amsterdam. The heavy wooden door, with a small rectangular window on eye height (a few years later it turned out to be the mailbox). On the end of the hall their was a door opening which in my memories was a hole of light. It was the living room behind this door with it’s big windows on the garden side as well on the waterside that formed the light source. The living room I remembered covered with the curly shadows of tree branches and leaves and the twinkling of the diffuse reflection of the water in the canal, I felt at home.

Network a basic need of the DigiNomads life?

SAT 12 June 2010:
Today is like that kind of day that everything seamed to have slowed down. It was a late night yesterday, promised Jake to deliver him the printable pdf this morning so he has enough time to prepare the presentation scheduled for Monday. The film night of Wednesday started to feel less and less appropriate. Although the late hour of yesterday it was an early morning today. I woke up and fall a sleep on the same day and so I felt in all the parts of my body. I got out of my cabin and although I was standing straight up it felt like I was crawling out of bed towards the refreshing room. Some water splashing in my face helped to get my brain worked on acceptable speed. First thing to do was grab a strong coffee at the nearest coffee bar. While walking my legs got straitened out and I was feeling my feet again. Suddenly a slowed down because of the smell of fresh coffee. I entered a satelite GlobSpot named SWITCH, it struck my how crowded it already was. And everyone was al lot more awake than I was, running in and out with his cup of coffee. Time to check my e-mail. On my PDA I already saw there were some documents send to my but I prefer to read them on my laptop. The welcoming ‘pling’ of the WIFI received on my laptop made my somehow finally wake up. And when I checked the time for the first time this morning. I suddenly perfectly understood why it was so crowded already. I forgot to change the time of my old but definitely fashionable watch after my flight of yesterday. I had slept trough my alarm clock. The minutes on my watch made sense but the hours told a different story. The planned meeting would start in about 15 min. Only way to get there in time is to take a cab. The most expensive way to travel but therefore the fastest. My speed went up and I just made it in time. The rest of the day my travel speed only seamed to accelerate in contrary to my brainpower getting slower and slower. At 13:00 it really was powernap time. Speed on zero, brainpower of. Sleep one hour, and get ready for a diner meeting this evening. I woke up at 17:00........
A Spiderweb just next to me. While sitting on a bench in Central Park I saw him busy fixing his new home and source for food gaining. He was a Nomad too. His network of threads kept him alive. Just like me
And again I had to speed up but I still was in a slow mode. Luckily I got saved by a system. A system that ain’t that visible but is always there. I agreed to meet at the central Globspot on Times Square. I took one of the CNT’s (City Network Train) to Time Square. After a few stops I slowly started to fade away in a fluffy dreamland. A beep in my pocket woke me up. Times Square was the next stop my PDA told me. The amazing gadet registered that I fell a sleep and was thoughtful enough to wake me up just in time. Saved by the bell. I walked onto Times Square and suddenly my PDA beeped again. Oh my god Peter had just entered the GlobSpot. If he saw me and Jake together he definitely would get suspicious. And this project should stay out off his reach and Jake didn’t knew that jet and I intended to leave it that way. I send Jake a text massage and made up some stupid excuse, I think it worked, I hope........

How to move?

FRI 11 June 2010:
This morning I went by the headquarters, a huge building in the European Union (EU) quarter. I was again as always surprised by it’s monumentality. Only a few months ago I came in here every day, right now I passed by there like a real Nomad. Collecting new material (to provide myself with information) and leaving some material in exchange for a continuing salary. When I walked outdoors I bumped into a young Indian looking women carrying her suitcase in one hand and a fresh cup of coffee in her other. And of course this cup of coffee landed on her beautiful white blouse. ‘PODVERDOMME, waarom kijkt dat mens dan ook niet uit’ (Duch for: SHIT, why isn’t she paying attention). I immediately apologized in too many sentences. She responded surprisingly short and in perfect Ducth: ‘kan gebeuren’ (can happen). My brain made a anxious jump, never curse in front of a lady. How do you know I’m Dutch I immediately asked her. She answered: ‘for one people from Spain do not say ‘potverdomme’ and otherwise your tag says your name is Niels, not such a Spanish name either. Omad is still a mystery to my but maybe you can explain that to my after you directed my to a dry cleaner. I showed her the dry cleaner in the GlobSpot and took her for a lunch in a small very cosy cafe-restaurant only known by those people whom worked in Bruxelles for a longer period. We had a nice conversation when I suddenly realised that I had to catch my plane to New York this afternoon. I apologized again, again to many sentences. Before I left she asked my where the Berlaymont was. Well that was not such a difficult place to point out the route to. It’s the most iconic building of the EU quarter and visible from almost everywhere, situated along the largest axis (Rue de la Loi 200). I’m sure she found it, I fogot to ask her name............