Location, Location, Location

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#pacelayering In Stuart Brand’s theory, originally titled Shearing Layers and subsequently relabelled as Pace Layering, the slowest moving element of physical architecture was location, or what he (for the sake of alliteration) called Site.

An interesting example of the persistence of site has recently been published in the British Medical Journal. @DouglasNobleMD has found a remarkable similarity between two maps produced 120 years apart.

1. Here is a modern map showing the occurrence of diabetes in parts of East London.


Then and now: Charles Booth's Victorian map from 1889, right, highlights the most-poverty hit areas of East London, while the modern-day equivalent, left, shows that the exact same areas have the highest risk of diabetes 
2. And here is Booth’s 1889 analysis of poverty in exactly the same streets.
Then and now: Charles Booth's Victorian map from 1889, right, highlights the most-poverty hit areas of East London, while the modern-day equivalent, left, shows that the exact same areas have the highest risk of diabetes

Even though the symptoms and immediate causes are different (diabetes and junk food versus malnutrition), the root causes of poverty remain in exactly the same locations.

Douglas Noble et al, Feasibility study of geospatial mapping of chronic disease risk to inform public health commissioning. BMJ Open 2012;2:e000711 doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2011-000711

Via Daily Mail, 17 February 2012


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