Uploaded on 2017-03-11 by Maria Mercedes Machin

This picture was taken in the Retiro area, in the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina. 1-Visible information The Visible information that can be perceived in this picture is: - Traffic: we can see in this picture that in one way the amount of cars and buses is so dense that it generates traffic jams but to the other way there is practically no movement. - Building typology: the shapes, sizes, heights and styles buildings take in this area. How the built density changes from one block to the other. We can see in the left side how densely constructed is, but to right there are few buildings. - Public space: there are two parks that can be seen in this picture. 2- Invisible information - If we go deeper into the visible information we can perceive and detect invisible information. For instance, from the traffic jam that can be seen in this picture, we can extract information on how people travel, at what time, for what purpose, and form how far away. We can extract the amount of time people spend every day only in moving through the city at times when people are all going to the same place. Also, we can wonder about the space that is destined for parking, since all those cars need to be parked somewhere once they reach destination, and thus rises the question of land use (there are huge areas of land dedicated exclusively for cars to be parked for long periods of time). When we get deeper we realise it is not only a question of movement or flows, but also how those things end up affecting time, and space and thus the urban liveability of the city. - From building typologies we can infer that this is a central area, oriented to business. Offices from both the public sector and the private sector are located in this area, thus assigning a city function to the Retiro area. The energy that is used in those buildings,the types of systems used for heating and cooling the offices. 3-Knowledge to contribute to a more liveable urban space: I believe that one of the most significant problem for the liveability in Buenos Aires is the time it takes to move within it. It affects not only the traffic system, by having cars and buses in its network for longer periods of time, but also the citizens that have to spend valuable time going places rather than doing activities like working (which reduces people’s productivity) or leisure (which reduce people’s happiness and sense of well being). So I think that the invisible information presented can be used for generating solutions for this problem. With the knowledge of city function of the area, we know why people go there and at what precise time they go there. That knowledge can be then traduced into changes of the city to improve its liveability.