Cartographic licenses, scale games, imprecise frontiers. Street map publishing for an expanding city

Abstract

Urban expansion during the nineteenth century drastically increased production and circulation of street maps. In this new visual universe, various graphic alternatives came into play, most of them different from procedures sanctioned by State cartographic institutions. In this article, we explore some of these alternatives, based on Buenos Aires maps. Particularly, we aim to point out the wide array of graphic, visual and editorial solutions set in motion as aids to guide oneself in the city. Firstly, we inspect the diverse formats and production frameworks of these street maps, in relation with the print and visual culture of the time. Secondly, we observe the methods used to display the urban planimetric shape, in articulation with inherent tensions between administratively delimited space and urban occupation growth. Thirdly, we focus on some visual innovations and explorations that offer solutions for data concentration in limited spaces, as well as the figurative game spaces which were also a part of the urbanization process.