The articles made me realize how gathering data and analyzing it can be an important step needed to making decisions. In the article about the cholera epidemic, it’s unclear whether the removal of the infected water pump (as a result of data analyzed) helped diminish the epidemic or if the cholera epidemic stopped as a result of people fleeing the area around the infected water-pump.
In any case, the data that was gathered, organized, and then analyzed led to a discovery that cholera is a water transmitted disease and not air-borne like speculated for a long time.
In my experience as an architect student, I’ve been required to provide a site analysis of the the area where I want to build a new project. At first I thought this was pointless. I thought the most important part was to come up with a design that worked as a building and as a living space. After gathering different data about the demographics of the area, what kind of district it was, and so on, I was able to determine if it was more fit to build a library, a restaurant, or a theater. This helped my project make more sense as a design and it would also become a good investment for the client.
