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 :)
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 :)
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
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.