Random suggestion: mapping a user metric such as dominant programming language to inform the building style. So maybe shell code would be more oldschool (Chinese/Japanese/Korean style wooden pagoda type look), perl would be hacky (like lashings of bamboo), enterprisey languages would be shiny skyscraper windows, and obscure stuff would be mud brick or straw bale or something!
The spatial proximity domain seems a little wasted with this mapping .. perhaps it could be improved by using direct links informed by real clones/contributions.
I hope Github gives you a data feed!