This project is entirely speculative, and the information presented here is highly indicative. The diagram below presents a way of constructing an exploded axonometric view of a place through its historical public registers of investment, set against named priorities and targets.
What would happen if the flows of value and investment were made more legible in this way? The example below shows a city government's investment in tree canopy, and where misalignments between proposed and actual spending and infrastructure were evidenced.
Above all, the visualisation asks: what does it mean to reassemble public records in ways that make flows of value more intentionally explicit?
Study: urban forest under densificationIllustrative layout and figures, not real dataDrag the timeline below to move through the record
The record to date
1Misalignment
Value and flows. People asked for shade on the walk to school. In that part of the precinct the flows are development approvals, and the planting money went elsewhere. The ground shows it: sparse canopy where shade was asked for.
2Accountability
Flows and impact. An approval was granted on conditions about trees. The line drops from the permit and stops, because nothing in the public record says whether the conditions were met.
3Illegibility
Value and impact. People wrote letters to trees. That attachment is real and it matters, but there is no field anywhere to hold it, so the line never reaches the ground. The empty outline is drawn on purpose.
Where each layer comes from
Value
DesignatedUrban Forest Strategy, council plans, precinct masterplans, planning scheme overlays
Co-designedCo-design workshops, community vision statements, submissions and letters
Flows
MoneyCouncil budgets and annual reports, capital works programs, state grant registers
PermissionPlanning permit registers, development approvals and their conditions, environment effects statements