Critical Cartography & Restoration Project

We are an interdisciplinary research collective specializing in cartography, remote sensing, geospatial science using evidence-based planning for the adaptation of the built environment in a changing climate. We believe mapping can be a collective and enabling process to go beyond official narratives and chart different possibilities of urban and territorial development.

We often work with civil society organizations, city agencies and academic institutions. We bring geospatial intelligence and knowledge of local ecosystems to help decarbonize our cities and altered landscapes.

We use data, design and mapping to uncover untold stories about cities and landscapes, a repository for counter-mapping. With publicly accessible satellite imagery, open data repositories and libraries, mapping is becoming a more collective and enabling process that can help us chart different courses of urban and territorial development. Through experimental ways of collecting and layering spatial information, maps can be a medium for synthesizing multitudes of knowledge. In turn, maps can challenge our ways of knowing and acting.

Será Tolgay Marshall is an urban designer, planner and cartographer based in New York City. She founded Critical Cartography Project as an interdisciplinary research collective following the implementation of muhit, an award-winning open data and crowdmapping tool aiming to make the planning process more inclusive and collaborative. Originally from Istanbul, she is a designer at Scape Studio and was previously at the New York City Department of City Planning. She received a dual master’s degrees in Master of City Planning and Master of Science in Architecture from MIT, and a B.A. from Yale University.

Core Practices:
+ Cartography & Geospatial Analysis
+ Climate Adaptation & Resilience Planning
+ Data Analysis & Visualization
+ Regional & Territorial Planning
+ Remote Sensing
+ Policy, Program Analysis & Design