17 ms·

9,866,539 buildings in the Netherlands, shaded according to year of construction

429 points by pjvds 13y ago

DouweM 13y ago
This is incredibly cool; looks like my house and office were built in 1978 and 1850 respectively!
oscilloscope 13y ago
This is initially stunning yet rich, data-dense, detailed and simple. I would refer to this when travelling in the Netherlands and especially for looking at apartments and real estate.
- tripzilch 13y ago
  Maybe for tourist travel it's a cool way to spot old historic buildings you'd otherwise not find, but for real estate? I would expect that whatever real estate catalogue you browse will also list the build year. As another commenter said, that data is in public databases (called the "kadaster"), I would assume every real estate agent is aware and uses the kadaster-data :) Which doesn't detract from the fact that this is a beautiful visualisation. And also I doubt the general public can query those data in the bulk amounts required for this map :)
  - wildwood 13y ago
    The catalogue will list the build-year of the property you're looking at, but will it give much information on the build-years of the other nearby buildings?
  - Someone 13y ago
    I think are way too many errors in the data set for that. For example, you might end up at Hoog Catahrijne shopping mall, listed as being from 1893, built in 1976, and in the process of a huge overhaul.
    - tripzilch 13y ago
      True, the big academic hospital here is coloured as really old, but the shape of the building is definitely mostly modern additions, parts of which I've seen being built while I lived here :) But to properly display that is a real hard problem. First, you need way more data, a complete history of the changing shapes of buildings as they were being reconstructed/renewed/etc, over the ages. Second, how to visualize all of that? Layer all of it on top of eachother, with old at the bottom and newer shapes covering it, maybe? or ... stacked in 3D, like a geo/archeological excavation! Right now it seems a bit of a compromise, mashing up two datasets that don't always properly "fit" together. But on the whole, on average, and for many aesthetic purposes, it does a very good job.
  - jmulder 13y ago
    I'm one of the designers at funda (largest Dutch real estate listing site) -- though on the Personalisation team and not the Search or Presentation teams. This is definitely a beautiful and useful visualisation and something we've been thinking about for a while too. We've found that in an average real estate search people very much appreciate information about the neighbourhoods they come across when finding relevant properties. The thing I love about this is -- like some others pointed out already about Rotterdam -- is that it tells a genuine story about a neighbourhoods history in a way a real estate agent wouldn't be able too. In the US there's Trulia Hindsight built by Stamen Design which includes animation: http://hindsight.trulia.com http://hindsight.trulia.com
    - tripzilch 13y ago
      Interesting, I stand corrected, yeah I could see it work in that context.
davedx 13y ago
Our house was built in 1976. It took a while to find it though, could use some overlay options or a search bar. Really interesting and cool though! :)
PaulHoule 13y ago
sugoi!
icoder 13y ago
Awesome! You can read something from every zoom level. I couldn't find my house though, it seemed to be swallowed by my neighbours, but that may be the result of the max zoomlevel. Any reason that one can not zoom in further?
- joelhaasnoot 13y ago
  These systems generally use prerendered PNG tiles at several zoom levels - it's not vector based. When you click on a house, the click is converted to lat/lon and compared with the database to show which house you clicked.
bilalq 13y ago
This is really cool. I'd love to see something like this done for other parts of the world as well. I just wish it wouldn't push to history every time you drag around.
- joelhaasnoot 13y ago
  The reason this exists is that the Dutch Government is forcing municipalities to put every address/building into a central database, the "Basisregistratie Adressen en Gebouwen"(BAG, "Registration of addresses and building") It has uncovered some interesting issues with addresses - some student housing for instance has complicated numbering schemes that don't fit in the database (i.e 10 B 5). Municipalities that don't cooperate are cut national contributions.
nodata 13y ago
9M reads like a brand, I think the title should read "9 M".
- rjwebb 13y ago
  A successor to 3M? I suppose there's always the old "MM" notation, or it could be written "9m".
  - galaktor 13y ago
    "9 million" would work, too.
    - pjvds 13y ago
      I like the detailed number it now has
digitalengineer 13y ago
You can see the oldest inner cities and each 'ring' of newer buildings around it. Example: Amsterdam: http://dev.citysdk.waag.org/buildings/?utm_source=buffer&utm_campaign=Buffer&utm_content=buffer47b76&utm_medium=twitter#52.3582,4.9145,12 http://dev.citysdk.waag.org/buildings/?utm_source=buffer&utm... Very cool.
- Jagat 13y ago
  I see a lot of buildings in the old inner city were built in the year 1005 CE. Is there any historical significance to that year? http://dev.citysdk.waag.org/buildings/?utm_source=buffer&utm_campaign=Buffer&utm_content=buffer47b76&utm_medium=twitter#52.3732,4.9003,16 http://dev.citysdk.waag.org/buildings/?utm_source=buffer&utm...
  - Svip 13y ago
    I suspect it is because they don't actually know the date of those houses, but just know that they are old. 1005 is strange for Amsterdam, as Amsterdam first really became a city in the 1300s. Still, maybe it is just the tool's 'first date' or something.
  - DouweM 13y ago
    Yeah, none of those are probably accurate. My colleague owns a house in the area you linked to that was built in or around 1605, but it's listed as 1005 as well. Fortunately, the site links to this page where you can report incorrect data: http://www.kadaster.nl/web/Themas/themaartikel/BAGartikel/BAG-terugmelden.htm http://www.kadaster.nl/web/Themas/themaartikel/BAGartikel/BA...
primigenus 13y ago
Check out all the colours in Rotterdam: http://dev.citysdk.waag.org/buildings/#51.9159,4.4974,14 http://dev.citysdk.waag.org/buildings/#51.9159,4.4974,14 Kind of gives you an idea of how large parts of it were destroyed during the second World War and then has had multiple levels of reconstruction and changes taking place throughout the decades since.
jaap_w 13y ago
Wow. Even the garage of my parent's house is on it, which isn't finished yet!
- Cthulhu_ 13y ago
  Sounds logical; you have to request a building permit for it, along with the plans for the garage, which is sent to Kadaster for kicks.
Jagat 13y ago
Awesome. Here's a building that was built in 1300 https://www.google.com/maps/preview?authuser=0#!q=Keizer+Karelplein+6+6211TC+Maastricht&data=!1m8!1m3!1d3!2d5.686389!3d50.849285!2m2!1f130.49!2f86.68!4f75!2m5!1e1!2m3!1s0qyuSiw-Tqe-i4x8LdnziQ!2e0!7e5!4m10!1m9!4m8!1m3!1d2148!2d5.691413!3d50.848159!3m2!1i1366!2i655!4f13.1&fid=5 https://www.google.com/maps/preview?authuser=0#!q=Keizer+Kar...
ghc 13y ago
This is really cool, but why don't the color gradations go back further? Is it a matter of how records were kept? I would have loved to see how many buildings survive from each century from, say, 700AD on. Pre-1850 as a category seems like such a waste for a map of the old world.
- DouweM 13y ago
  Quoting Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amsterdam http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amsterdam: > Originating as a small fishing village in the late 12th century, Amsterdam became one of the most important ports in the world during the Dutch Golden Age, a result of its innovative developments in trade. So I doubt there are a lot of buildings from 700AD left. But I agree, they could've gone back to ~1500AD.
  - mverwijs 13y ago
    Funny thing is: the non-profit that created this map is De Waag Society, located in De Waag in Amsterdam - a building dating from the 1400s.
  - BlobbleBlab 13y ago
    The funny thing about the Netherlands, (or at least 90% of it) is that there is no natural stone to build with. No rocks, no pebbles, no stones, nothing. Just sand, clay and peat. In most places, the bedrock is hundreds of feet below the surface. Constructions were made of wood and mud, because everything else had to be imported.
  - mcv 13y ago
    Despite popular perception, there's more to Netherland than just Amsterdam. Some towns are quite a bit older. Some date back to Roman settlements. Still, building materials mean that buildings from before the 16th century are incredibly rare.
- joelhaasnoot 13y ago
  Also, record keeping from that era isn't perfect - Reddit found that many old churches from ~ 1300 are labeled as 1600 or 1950, that being the date of the last extension or modification.
jbverschoor 13y ago
It suffers from a Y2K bug: My house in Amsterdam (and a lot of others) are noted as constructed in: 1005 instead of 1905
- DouweM 13y ago
  And my colleague's house is from 1605 rather than 1005. It's not quite Y2K, but it's interesting that the last two digits seem to have survived whatever error occured.
  - VaucGiaps 13y ago
    http://www.dkriesel.com/en/blog/2013/0802_xerox-workcentres_are_switching_written_numbers_when_scanning http://www.dkriesel.com/en/blog/2013/0802_xerox-workcentres_...? ?
- yaddayadda 13y ago
  Maybe some other bugs too... There's a capital L shaped area that is marked as all 1995-2005 but when I click on it, it alternates between: - 1738 - Vijfharingenstraat 5 6211EC Maastricht - 2002 - Grote Staat 5 6211CT Maastricht http://dev.citysdk.waag.org/buildings/?utm_source=buffer&utm_campaign=Buffer&utm_content=buffer47b76&utm_medium=twitter#50.8492,5.6924,16 http://dev.citysdk.waag.org/buildings/?utm_source=buffer&utm...
ilamont 13y ago
Nederlanders: When was the BAG established, and how was the dataset created? That must have been an incredible collection/standardization/digitization project.
- tinco 13y ago
  The BAG itself is something a government organisation called the 'Kadaster' maintains. I would be surprised if the US doesn't have a similar organisation. Basically whenever a house is sold, (I never actually bought a house so someone more knowledgeable should correct me) information about the purchase and the state of the house is submitted to the Kadaster. As far as I know the kadaster is something that has its roots in the middle ages, but I could be mistaken. As for the digitization, that probably happened somewhere in the late 60's early 70's out of necessity along with many other governmental databases (like taxes). What is news is that one apparently can query the entire kadaster database, this is something done by http://dev.citysdk.waag.org/ http://dev.citysdk.waag.org/, a European project so maybe we'll get info like this from other countries as well.
  - ilamont 13y ago
    The BAG itself is something a government organisation called the 'Kadaster' maintains. I would be surprised if the US doesn't have a similar organisation. I know some municipalities maintain extensive GIS and financial datasets that include valuation, sale data, ownership, maps, etc. Here's an example from the Boston assessor's database: http://www.cityofboston.gov/assessing/search/?pid=0503500000 http://www.cityofboston.gov/assessing/search/?pid=0503500000 But I don't know if smaller/poorer towns have created or maintain digital archives, what standards are used, or whether data is shared at the county or state level. One question I have: Is this a state or local requirement that such records are created and posted online, and how does it differ from municipality to municipality and state to state? I would be surprised if a federal agency maintained a national database like the Netherlands, although these days it's not really clear what data our government is gathering/sharing, and for what sorts of purposes.
  - Angostura 13y ago
    It sounds as if the UK equivalent would be the Land Registry http://www.landregistry.gov.uk/media/all-releases/press-releases/2013/land-registry-goes-big-on-open-data http://www.landregistry.gov.uk/media/all-releases/press-rele...
kylelibra 13y ago
I would really like to see this for a city like NYC or SF.
- bdon 13y ago
  Here is one for Brooklyn: http://bklynr.com/block-by-block-brooklyns-past-and-present/ http://bklynr.com/block-by-block-brooklyns-past-and-present/ I published some instructions on how to generate such a map using the recently released PLUTO data: http://bdon.org/2013/06/29/working-with-pluto-and-pad/ http://bdon.org/2013/06/29/working-with-pluto-and-pad/ To the best of my knowledge, San Francisco doesn't have a public building age dataset. There is a building footprint dataset on https://data.sfgov.org/ https://data.sfgov.org/, but the quality of the shapes isn't very good.
namenotrequired 13y ago
I love finding things on HN that my mom can also appreciate. :)
RKoutnik 13y ago
My favorite part is here: http://dev.citysdk.waag.org/buildings/#51.9004,4.5486,16 http://dev.citysdk.waag.org/buildings/#51.9004,4.5486,16 There's a building older than my country sitting right next to one built while I was in college. The casual blend of old and new is one of the things I love about European culture. I'm sure it's found in many other places on our humble planet, but I've only been to Europe (so far!).
mtts 13y ago
Starting position is Maastricht? You sneaky bastard ;-) (For non-Dutch people: Maastricht is one of the oldest continuously urban centers in the Netherlands, which makes it nice to show off this kind of technology but it's also very far away from the rest of the country. Nice city though, definitely worth a visit).
- niekmaas 13y ago
  Very far for Dutch standards of course. Maastricht is only 2-2.5 hours away from cities like Utrecht, Amsterdam and Rotterdam. For other countries this would be considered close neighbors.
- mjhagen 13y ago
  I don't think he/she was going for that effect. The Amsterdam canals are all nice and red in this image. And not just the district famous for that color.
vonbladet 13y ago
Pretty much all my suburb of Groningen was built in the late 70s and early 80s. It is cool that many people live in cooler districts, but the Netherlands has a long history of <i>nieuwbouw</i>.
skore 13y ago
Wow, Brielle is bananas. http://dev.citysdk.waag.org/buildings/#51.899,4.1585,15 http://dev.citysdk.waag.org/buildings/#51.899,4.1585,15 https://maps.google.com/maps?q=brielle+netherlands&hl=en&ll=51.899032,4.162788&spn=0.02619,0.066047&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=67.208178,135.263672&hnear=Brielle,+Zuid-Holland,+The+Netherlands&t=h&z=15 https://maps.google.com/maps?q=brielle+netherlands&hl=en&ll=...
- ilamont 13y ago
  I was wondering about those giant, closely spaced industrial-looking buildings on the outskirts of town. Apparently greenhouses: http://goo.gl/maps/qIQxk http://goo.gl/maps/qIQxk
  - Someone 13y ago
    Yes, those are greenhouses. Move north-east for a bit, and you hit the Westland (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westland_(region),_Netherlands http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westland_(region),_Netherlands), an area of greenhouses with the occasional road or house in-between. At night, from the ground: http://straatkaart.nl/2286JK-Albert-Schweitzerlaan/media_fotos/lichtvervuiling-westland-vanaf-sterrenwacht-iSP/ http://straatkaart.nl/2286JK-Albert-Schweitzerlaan/media_fot... At night, from space: http://www.flickr.com/photos/astro_andre/6769497883/in/set-72157628937567511/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/astro_andre/6769497883/in/set-7... (the large bright spot are greenhouses with artificial lighting to speed up plant growth)
samstave 13y ago
Wow. >Building >Constructed: 1300 >Address: Keizer Karelplein 6 6211TC Maastricht >Area: 3,306 m² >Function: Public Here is the street view: http://goo.gl/maps/On8Dw http://goo.gl/maps/On8Dw
Jongseong 13y ago
I just have to say "Dank u" for choosing a colour scheme that is friendly to those with Colour Vision Deficiency of the red/green variety. A huge number of maps which use gradations of colour to represent data are useless to up to 1 in 10 men because they adopt the rainbow colour scheme with red and green representing opposite ends of the spectrum.
- Sprint 13y ago
  Cartographers have it easy thanks to the wonderful sets on http://colorbrewer2.org/js/ http://colorbrewer2.org/js/ . The scheme looks inspired by them. I wonder why this map was done with a divergent scheme though. The data has no midpoint, it makes no sense to diverge like that. And when you zoom out it, due to the diverging lightness ramp it highlights the lightest colors which are 1945 to 1975. It looks gorgeous but the color choice is not perfect for exploring the data.
  - Jongseong 13y ago
    You're right to point that out. I agree that a divergent scheme is not the best fit for the data. A simple gradient would have worked best, though it would have been less colourful.
    - Sprint 13y ago
      I would use differently colored sequential schemes per building type, that might look good. Time to grab the data and play around. :)
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
dubcanada 13y ago
Really cool, but every single move I made on my ipad added a new history. And trying to go back after spending 10 minutes playing around was the most annoying thing I've ever experienced. So annoying I had to close my browser and reopen HN.
Caged 13y ago
If anyone is interested, I did this for Portland, Oregon back in June. http://labratrevenge.com/pdx http://labratrevenge.com/pdx http://dealloc.me/2013/06/30/the-making-of-pdx.html http://dealloc.me/2013/06/30/the-making-of-pdx.html
rsgong 13y ago
It's beautiful.
gmapsmania 13y ago
Google Maps Mania posted about a few similar maps last week. As well as the Netherlands map there is the Portland map, a map of Ljubljana, Slovenia (similar to the Portland map) and the Brooklyn map. http://www.mapsmaniac.com/2013/08/view-age-of-10-million-global-buildings.html http://www.mapsmaniac.com/2013/08/view-age-of-10-million-glo...
frozenport 13y ago
The website is really messing up my back button. For example I can't press the back button and return to this page.
isaacb 13y ago
What a terrible use of the browser history. I was trying to get back to HN and had to trace through every movement I took on the map.
contingencies 13y ago
An excellent example of the techno-fetishism and efficiency/dataset worship surrounding a modern nanny state. To quote some prominent graffiti I walked past this morning in central Rotterdam, one mere hour ago: "Is this freedom?" Clearly, no. Holland's pretty totalitarian these days.
akgerber 13y ago
Many Americans claim that American cities are difficult to walk or bicycle in because they are all so much newer than European cities. But maps like these demonstrate that a huge proportion of European cities were built in the automobile era, including a great deal post-WWII; the difference in walkabality, mass transit, and bikeability of European cities is not the age of the city center but simply the decisions of what modes of transportation to prioritize in new developments.
smoorman1024 13y ago
You could easily make a similar looking map with the NYC Pluto data. http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/bytes/applbyte.shtml http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/bytes/applbyte.shtml

429 points by pjvds 13y ago

This is incredibly cool; looks like my house and office were built in 1978 and 1850 respectively!

This is initially stunning yet rich, data-dense, detailed and simple. I would refer to this when travelling in the Netherlands and especially for looking at apartments and real estate.

tripzilch 13y ago
Maybe for tourist travel it's a cool way to spot old historic buildings you'd otherwise not find, but for real estate? I would expect that whatever real estate catalogue you browse will also list the build year. As another commenter said, that data is in public databases (called the "kadaster"), I would assume every real estate agent is aware and uses the kadaster-data :) Which doesn't detract from the fact that this is a beautiful visualisation. And also I doubt the general public can query those data in the bulk amounts required for this map :)
- wildwood 13y ago
  The catalogue will list the build-year of the property you're looking at, but will it give much information on the build-years of the other nearby buildings?
- Someone 13y ago
  I think are way too many errors in the data set for that. For example, you might end up at Hoog Catahrijne shopping mall, listed as being from 1893, built in 1976, and in the process of a huge overhaul.
  - tripzilch 13y ago
    True, the big academic hospital here is coloured as really old, but the shape of the building is definitely mostly modern additions, parts of which I've seen being built while I lived here :) But to properly display that is a real hard problem. First, you need way more data, a complete history of the changing shapes of buildings as they were being reconstructed/renewed/etc, over the ages. Second, how to visualize all of that? Layer all of it on top of eachother, with old at the bottom and newer shapes covering it, maybe? or ... stacked in 3D, like a geo/archeological excavation! Right now it seems a bit of a compromise, mashing up two datasets that don't always properly "fit" together. But on the whole, on average, and for many aesthetic purposes, it does a very good job.
- jmulder 13y ago
  I'm one of the designers at funda (largest Dutch real estate listing site) -- though on the Personalisation team and not the Search or Presentation teams. This is definitely a beautiful and useful visualisation and something we've been thinking about for a while too. We've found that in an average real estate search people very much appreciate information about the neighbourhoods they come across when finding relevant properties. The thing I love about this is -- like some others pointed out already about Rotterdam -- is that it tells a genuine story about a neighbourhoods history in a way a real estate agent wouldn't be able too. In the US there's Trulia Hindsight built by Stamen Design which includes animation: http://hindsight.trulia.com http://hindsight.trulia.com
  - tripzilch 13y ago
    Interesting, I stand corrected, yeah I could see it work in that context.

davedx 13y ago

Our house was built in 1976. It took a while to find it though, could use some overlay options or a search bar. Really interesting and cool though! :)

PaulHoule 13y ago

sugoi!

icoder 13y ago

Awesome! You can read something from every zoom level. I couldn't find my house though, it seemed to be swallowed by my neighbours, but that may be the result of the max zoomlevel. Any reason that one can not zoom in further?

joelhaasnoot 13y ago
These systems generally use prerendered PNG tiles at several zoom levels - it's not vector based. When you click on a house, the click is converted to lat/lon and compared with the database to show which house you clicked.

bilalq 13y ago

This is really cool. I'd love to see something like this done for other parts of the world as well. I just wish it wouldn't push to history every time you drag around.

joelhaasnoot 13y ago
The reason this exists is that the Dutch Government is forcing municipalities to put every address/building into a central database, the "Basisregistratie Adressen en Gebouwen"(BAG, "Registration of addresses and building") It has uncovered some interesting issues with addresses - some student housing for instance has complicated numbering schemes that don't fit in the database (i.e 10 B 5). Municipalities that don't cooperate are cut national contributions.

nodata 13y ago

9M reads like a brand, I think the title should read "9 M".

rjwebb 13y ago
A successor to 3M? I suppose there's always the old "MM" notation, or it could be written "9m".
- galaktor 13y ago
  "9 million" would work, too.
  - pjvds 13y ago
    I like the detailed number it now has

digitalengineer 13y ago

You can see the oldest inner cities and each 'ring' of newer buildings around it. Example: Amsterdam: http://dev.citysdk.waag.org/buildings/?utm_source=buffer&utm_campaign=Buffer&utm_content=buffer47b76&utm_medium=twitter#52.3582,4.9145,12 http://dev.citysdk.waag.org/buildings/?utm_source=buffer&utm... Very cool.

Jagat 13y ago
I see a lot of buildings in the old inner city were built in the year 1005 CE. Is there any historical significance to that year? http://dev.citysdk.waag.org/buildings/?utm_source=buffer&utm_campaign=Buffer&utm_content=buffer47b76&utm_medium=twitter#52.3732,4.9003,16 http://dev.citysdk.waag.org/buildings/?utm_source=buffer&utm...
- Svip 13y ago
  I suspect it is because they don't actually know the date of those houses, but just know that they are old. 1005 is strange for Amsterdam, as Amsterdam first really became a city in the 1300s. Still, maybe it is just the tool's 'first date' or something.
- DouweM 13y ago
  Yeah, none of those are probably accurate. My colleague owns a house in the area you linked to that was built in or around 1605, but it's listed as 1005 as well. Fortunately, the site links to this page where you can report incorrect data: http://www.kadaster.nl/web/Themas/themaartikel/BAGartikel/BAG-terugmelden.htm http://www.kadaster.nl/web/Themas/themaartikel/BAGartikel/BA...

primigenus 13y ago

Check out all the colours in Rotterdam: http://dev.citysdk.waag.org/buildings/#51.9159,4.4974,14 http://dev.citysdk.waag.org/buildings/#51.9159,4.4974,14 Kind of gives you an idea of how large parts of it were destroyed during the second World War and then has had multiple levels of reconstruction and changes taking place throughout the decades since.

jaap_w 13y ago

Wow. Even the garage of my parent's house is on it, which isn't finished yet!

Cthulhu_ 13y ago
Sounds logical; you have to request a building permit for it, along with the plans for the garage, which is sent to Kadaster for kicks.

Jagat 13y ago

Awesome. Here's a building that was built in 1300 https://www.google.com/maps/preview?authuser=0#!q=Keizer+Karelplein+6+6211TC+Maastricht&data=!1m8!1m3!1d3!2d5.686389!3d50.849285!2m2!1f130.49!2f86.68!4f75!2m5!1e1!2m3!1s0qyuSiw-Tqe-i4x8LdnziQ!2e0!7e5!4m10!1m9!4m8!1m3!1d2148!2d5.691413!3d50.848159!3m2!1i1366!2i655!4f13.1&fid=5 https://www.google.com/maps/preview?authuser=0#!q=Keizer+Kar...

ghc 13y ago

This is really cool, but why don't the color gradations go back further? Is it a matter of how records were kept? I would have loved to see how many buildings survive from each century from, say, 700AD on. Pre-1850 as a category seems like such a waste for a map of the old world.

DouweM 13y ago
Quoting Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amsterdam http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amsterdam: > Originating as a small fishing village in the late 12th century, Amsterdam became one of the most important ports in the world during the Dutch Golden Age, a result of its innovative developments in trade. So I doubt there are a lot of buildings from 700AD left. But I agree, they could've gone back to ~1500AD.
- mverwijs 13y ago
  Funny thing is: the non-profit that created this map is De Waag Society, located in De Waag in Amsterdam - a building dating from the 1400s.
- BlobbleBlab 13y ago
  The funny thing about the Netherlands, (or at least 90% of it) is that there is no natural stone to build with. No rocks, no pebbles, no stones, nothing. Just sand, clay and peat. In most places, the bedrock is hundreds of feet below the surface. Constructions were made of wood and mud, because everything else had to be imported.
- mcv 13y ago
  Despite popular perception, there's more to Netherland than just Amsterdam. Some towns are quite a bit older. Some date back to Roman settlements. Still, building materials mean that buildings from before the 16th century are incredibly rare.
joelhaasnoot 13y ago
Also, record keeping from that era isn't perfect - Reddit found that many old churches from ~ 1300 are labeled as 1600 or 1950, that being the date of the last extension or modification.

jbverschoor 13y ago

It suffers from a Y2K bug: My house in Amsterdam (and a lot of others) are noted as constructed in: 1005 instead of 1905

DouweM 13y ago
And my colleague's house is from 1605 rather than 1005. It's not quite Y2K, but it's interesting that the last two digits seem to have survived whatever error occured.
- VaucGiaps 13y ago
  http://www.dkriesel.com/en/blog/2013/0802_xerox-workcentres_are_switching_written_numbers_when_scanning http://www.dkriesel.com/en/blog/2013/0802_xerox-workcentres_...? ?
yaddayadda 13y ago
Maybe some other bugs too... There's a capital L shaped area that is marked as all 1995-2005 but when I click on it, it alternates between: - 1738 - Vijfharingenstraat 5 6211EC Maastricht - 2002 - Grote Staat 5 6211CT Maastricht http://dev.citysdk.waag.org/buildings/?utm_source=buffer&utm_campaign=Buffer&utm_content=buffer47b76&utm_medium=twitter#50.8492,5.6924,16 http://dev.citysdk.waag.org/buildings/?utm_source=buffer&utm...

ilamont 13y ago

Nederlanders: When was the BAG established, and how was the dataset created? That must have been an incredible collection/standardization/digitization project.

tinco 13y ago
The BAG itself is something a government organisation called the 'Kadaster' maintains. I would be surprised if the US doesn't have a similar organisation. Basically whenever a house is sold, (I never actually bought a house so someone more knowledgeable should correct me) information about the purchase and the state of the house is submitted to the Kadaster. As far as I know the kadaster is something that has its roots in the middle ages, but I could be mistaken. As for the digitization, that probably happened somewhere in the late 60's early 70's out of necessity along with many other governmental databases (like taxes). What is news is that one apparently can query the entire kadaster database, this is something done by http://dev.citysdk.waag.org/ http://dev.citysdk.waag.org/, a European project so maybe we'll get info like this from other countries as well.
- ilamont 13y ago
  The BAG itself is something a government organisation called the 'Kadaster' maintains. I would be surprised if the US doesn't have a similar organisation. I know some municipalities maintain extensive GIS and financial datasets that include valuation, sale data, ownership, maps, etc. Here's an example from the Boston assessor's database: http://www.cityofboston.gov/assessing/search/?pid=0503500000 http://www.cityofboston.gov/assessing/search/?pid=0503500000 But I don't know if smaller/poorer towns have created or maintain digital archives, what standards are used, or whether data is shared at the county or state level. One question I have: Is this a state or local requirement that such records are created and posted online, and how does it differ from municipality to municipality and state to state? I would be surprised if a federal agency maintained a national database like the Netherlands, although these days it's not really clear what data our government is gathering/sharing, and for what sorts of purposes.
- Angostura 13y ago
  It sounds as if the UK equivalent would be the Land Registry http://www.landregistry.gov.uk/media/all-releases/press-releases/2013/land-registry-goes-big-on-open-data http://www.landregistry.gov.uk/media/all-releases/press-rele...

kylelibra 13y ago

I would really like to see this for a city like NYC or SF.

bdon 13y ago
Here is one for Brooklyn: http://bklynr.com/block-by-block-brooklyns-past-and-present/ http://bklynr.com/block-by-block-brooklyns-past-and-present/ I published some instructions on how to generate such a map using the recently released PLUTO data: http://bdon.org/2013/06/29/working-with-pluto-and-pad/ http://bdon.org/2013/06/29/working-with-pluto-and-pad/ To the best of my knowledge, San Francisco doesn't have a public building age dataset. There is a building footprint dataset on https://data.sfgov.org/ https://data.sfgov.org/, but the quality of the shapes isn't very good.

namenotrequired 13y ago

I love finding things on HN that my mom can also appreciate. :)

RKoutnik 13y ago

My favorite part is here: http://dev.citysdk.waag.org/buildings/#51.9004,4.5486,16 http://dev.citysdk.waag.org/buildings/#51.9004,4.5486,16 There's a building older than my country sitting right next to one built while I was in college. The casual blend of old and new is one of the things I love about European culture. I'm sure it's found in many other places on our humble planet, but I've only been to Europe (so far!).

mtts 13y ago

Starting position is Maastricht? You sneaky bastard ;-) (For non-Dutch people: Maastricht is one of the oldest continuously urban centers in the Netherlands, which makes it nice to show off this kind of technology but it's also very far away from the rest of the country. Nice city though, definitely worth a visit).

niekmaas 13y ago
Very far for Dutch standards of course. Maastricht is only 2-2.5 hours away from cities like Utrecht, Amsterdam and Rotterdam. For other countries this would be considered close neighbors.
mjhagen 13y ago
I don't think he/she was going for that effect. The Amsterdam canals are all nice and red in this image. And not just the district famous for that color.

vonbladet 13y ago

Pretty much all my suburb of Groningen was built in the late 70s and early 80s. It is cool that many people live in cooler districts, but the Netherlands has a long history of <i>nieuwbouw</i>.

skore 13y ago

Wow, Brielle is bananas. http://dev.citysdk.waag.org/buildings/#51.899,4.1585,15 http://dev.citysdk.waag.org/buildings/#51.899,4.1585,15 https://maps.google.com/maps?q=brielle+netherlands&hl=en&ll=51.899032,4.162788&spn=0.02619,0.066047&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=67.208178,135.263672&hnear=Brielle,+Zuid-Holland,+The+Netherlands&t=h&z=15 https://maps.google.com/maps?q=brielle+netherlands&hl=en&ll=...

ilamont 13y ago
I was wondering about those giant, closely spaced industrial-looking buildings on the outskirts of town. Apparently greenhouses: http://goo.gl/maps/qIQxk http://goo.gl/maps/qIQxk
- Someone 13y ago
  Yes, those are greenhouses. Move north-east for a bit, and you hit the Westland (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westland_(region),_Netherlands http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westland_(region),_Netherlands), an area of greenhouses with the occasional road or house in-between. At night, from the ground: http://straatkaart.nl/2286JK-Albert-Schweitzerlaan/media_fotos/lichtvervuiling-westland-vanaf-sterrenwacht-iSP/ http://straatkaart.nl/2286JK-Albert-Schweitzerlaan/media_fot... At night, from space: http://www.flickr.com/photos/astro_andre/6769497883/in/set-72157628937567511/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/astro_andre/6769497883/in/set-7... (the large bright spot are greenhouses with artificial lighting to speed up plant growth)

samstave 13y ago

Wow. >Building >Constructed: 1300 >Address: Keizer Karelplein 6 6211TC Maastricht >Area: 3,306 m² >Function: Public Here is the street view: http://goo.gl/maps/On8Dw http://goo.gl/maps/On8Dw

Jongseong 13y ago

I just have to say "Dank u" for choosing a colour scheme that is friendly to those with Colour Vision Deficiency of the red/green variety. A huge number of maps which use gradations of colour to represent data are useless to up to 1 in 10 men because they adopt the rainbow colour scheme with red and green representing opposite ends of the spectrum.

Sprint 13y ago
Cartographers have it easy thanks to the wonderful sets on http://colorbrewer2.org/js/ http://colorbrewer2.org/js/ . The scheme looks inspired by them. I wonder why this map was done with a divergent scheme though. The data has no midpoint, it makes no sense to diverge like that. And when you zoom out it, due to the diverging lightness ramp it highlights the lightest colors which are 1945 to 1975. It looks gorgeous but the color choice is not perfect for exploring the data.
- Jongseong 13y ago
  You're right to point that out. I agree that a divergent scheme is not the best fit for the data. A simple gradient would have worked best, though it would have been less colourful.
  - Sprint 13y ago
    I would use differently colored sequential schemes per building type, that might look good. Time to grab the data and play around. :)
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]

dubcanada 13y ago

Really cool, but every single move I made on my ipad added a new history. And trying to go back after spending 10 minutes playing around was the most annoying thing I've ever experienced. So annoying I had to close my browser and reopen HN.

Caged 13y ago

If anyone is interested, I did this for Portland, Oregon back in June. http://labratrevenge.com/pdx http://labratrevenge.com/pdx http://dealloc.me/2013/06/30/the-making-of-pdx.html http://dealloc.me/2013/06/30/the-making-of-pdx.html

rsgong 13y ago

It's beautiful.

gmapsmania 13y ago

Google Maps Mania posted about a few similar maps last week. As well as the Netherlands map there is the Portland map, a map of Ljubljana, Slovenia (similar to the Portland map) and the Brooklyn map. http://www.mapsmaniac.com/2013/08/view-age-of-10-million-global-buildings.html http://www.mapsmaniac.com/2013/08/view-age-of-10-million-glo...

frozenport 13y ago

The website is really messing up my back button. For example I can't press the back button and return to this page.

isaacb 13y ago

What a terrible use of the browser history. I was trying to get back to HN and had to trace through every movement I took on the map.

contingencies 13y ago

An excellent example of the techno-fetishism and efficiency/dataset worship surrounding a modern nanny state. To quote some prominent graffiti I walked past this morning in central Rotterdam, one mere hour ago: "Is this freedom?" Clearly, no. Holland's pretty totalitarian these days.

akgerber 13y ago

Many Americans claim that American cities are difficult to walk or bicycle in because they are all so much newer than European cities. But maps like these demonstrate that a huge proportion of European cities were built in the automobile era, including a great deal post-WWII; the difference in walkabality, mass transit, and bikeability of European cities is not the age of the city center but simply the decisions of what modes of transportation to prioritize in new developments.

smoorman1024 13y ago

You could easily make a similar looking map with the NYC Pluto data. http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/bytes/applbyte.shtml http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/bytes/applbyte.shtml