Berlin Backbone

All the images in this post are banners made out of a bigger map. Click on a banner to view the entire map with its legenda.

The Berlin Backbone is a network over Wireless internet techniques that functions as a local area network. It is free to access and it was built with cheap materials on a do it yourself basis. Wifi routers are connected to antenna's to reach people in the neighbourhood. For important longdistance connections aiming antenna's are used.
In this map you can see where the "Datacloud" over the city. In different colors i show how each nodes data can spread thorugh the city. The nodes that are placed higher (on the roof of a high building for example) show an almost circular datacloud, and the clouds of the lower nodes are interrupted by surrounding buildings as is shown on the next two maps, the upper showing the cloud at 100 meters, and the lower showing the cloud at street level.


This is a representation of the network in an actual manor. It shows how the network relates to the existing urban fabrik. However, it is also possible to show this in a way that shows the structure of the network. In this map, the centre of the map is not the centre of the city, but the main node (IP adress 104.0.0.0). It shows what node relates to what other node. In this map you might notice that some nofe appear more then once. This means that at one site several IP adresses are appearing. This means that each adress can relate to different nodes and can show different content.

This structure also gives the possibility to set restrictions within the network. certain areas might be restricted to users within a certain region, or with certain permissions. This way neighbourhood subnetworks can come into existence, further strengthening the local aspect of the network.

Each node in the network has its own characteristics. I have divided these in categories, and given validated each characteristic of each node. This gives an idea of which nodes in the network are interesting to connect to and in which way.

Studyplan

Recently posted to my website± my studyplan for the MSC 04 of Hyperbody. Check it here

Start

Allright, here we go: My first post on my Archiblog. This is a Blog dedicated to my graduation project. Here's a short explanation of the project. I started in february 2005 with a research into the Virtual and Actual sides of Berlin, in particular about something called the Berlin Backbone. This is a large network created (originally) by squatted artist houses (like Tacheles, or Bootlab), using Wireless internet techniques. My research was focussed on looking for the actual influence of this network on the city and vice versa. This was presented in an essay and in maps, which you can read here. Based on this research I started the design at a site in berlin, which is a peninsula called Lohmühleninsel. It is surrounded by the Spree river (near the Badeschiff) and two smaller canals, the Flutgraben (with the infamous Club der Visionare and the Kunstfabrik) and the LandwehrCanal. The building will have a mixed function. It's main program is based both on my research into the Backbone (an actual headquarter with artist studio's and a mediatheque) and on a social and urban site analysis (a "cultural playspace" which connects the neighborhoods of Treptow and Kreuzberg, in specific the Wrangelkiez).