Maps

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Better than Mercator could do? And at a time when these problems are finally important?

The Mercator map is known to have major flaws, such as its distortion of the sizes of Antarctica and Greenland.

Tokyo-based architect and artist Hajime Narukawa wanted to fix the problem of distorted relative land mass sizes.

Narukawa has said that these longstanding problems may not have been very important in the past, when these regions were less traveled.

But now glaciers are melting and technology is making access to cold regions easier.

The Good Design award organization describes the map in the following terms:

“This original mapping method can transfer a spherical surface to a rectangular surface such as a map of the world while maintaining correctly proportions in areas*. AuthaGraph faithfully represents all oceans, continents including the neglected Antarctica. These fit within a rectangular frame with no interruptions. The map can be tessellated without visible seams. Thus the AuthaGraphic world map provides an advanced precise perspective of our planet. *The map need a further step to increase a number of subdivision for improving its accuracy to be officially called an area-equal map.”