Ticino

Eight districts on the sunny side of the Alps

Ticino is mountains with lakes at the bottom, and the district boundaries follow the valleys almost perfectly — which makes it an unusually satisfying puzzle, because each piece is one valley and each valley is one shape. The vertical relief runs from Lake Maggiore at 193 m to peaks over 3,000 m, so at this exaggeration the plate has real depth to it.

What a child works out

• A valley is a unit — of geography and of how people organise themselves.
• The lakes are all at the bottom, and everything drains towards them.
• Steep and flat are things you can feel with your eyes shut.

The plate

Pieces

8 pieces

Plate

176 × 250 mm

B5 — the size of a school exercise book.

Scale

1 mm ≈ 387 m

How much ground one millimetre of plate covers.

Vertical exaggeration

× 0.48

Height is compressed here — the terrain is dramatic enough at this scale that true height would not fit the plate.

Thickness

8.8 mm

Smallest piece

653 mm²

Nothing is cut smaller than a child can pick up.

Fit

0.35 mm clearance

Printed in place, so every piece seats first time without sanding.

Material

PLA, printed in Switzerland

Every named piece

• Bellinzona
• Blenio
• Leventina
• Locarno
• Lugano
• Mendrisio
• Riviera
• Vallemaggia