3D map recreates London's buildings through Twitter

London's buildings have been resized according to the amount of Twitter activity that goes on in the within and in the surrounding area. Credit: Stephan Hugel/Flora Roumpani

A 3D map of buildings in central London has been produced entirely from people's tweets.

Two students from UCL combined the 3D mapping technology with 'geo-tagged' tweets, revealing which buildings the tweets are sent from.

The end result, a view of London you've never seen before.

The taller and darker the buildings show where the most geo-tagged tweets were sent.

The data was monitored for nearly 16 hours with over 3,500 tweets analysed

London's tweeting hotspots include:

  • Marble Arch - 63 tweets

  • St Pauls - 58 tweets

  • Kings Cross - 33 tweets

  • British Museum - 28 tweets

  • Paddington - 26 Tweets

  • Waterloo - 24 tweets

  • Knightsbridge - 18 tweets

Stephan Hugel claims that any source of real-time data can be visualised through the shape, height and colour of objects on a 3D map.

The pair are looking to expand the type of information they use, and are currently investigating whether air-quality readings in cities can be represented through the technology.