Aluminium innovation in the world of Maps

Nicholas Crane, the author of a biography on the famous 16th-century Flemish cartographer Gerard Mercator, once wrote: "maps codify the miracle of existence." In the new era, some of the most creative new maps being produced use aluminium as a key component in making miniature world.

Michal Porycki, an artist in Olsztyn, a north-eastern city along the Lyna River, Poland, utilizes advanced technology to design relief maps in wood and aluminium, structure them in a 3D printing process that layers the lakes into a visual model based on a fairly niche discipline: bathymetry, the science and study of underwater topography.


Once the process is complete, Porycki and his father finish the aluminium lake map in wood, to surround the lake with an equally precise image of the land and place it within high-quality framing.

Canadian artist Parvez Taj creates The Moon Shadow, a fine-art UV ink-print on brushed aluminium that renders the world in blues and greens on the metal surface.

Taj's work on the Mercator projection catches eye even after hundreds of years when Mercator first presented it, and traced on a palette made of aluminium.

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Colorado-based artist Gregory Block’s most unique work involves cutting and scorching aluminium cans and reassembling them into maps of the world.

Thanks to all of these aluminium options, map-making can be just as much of an art as it was in Mercator's time.