Japanese artist and architect Hajime Narukawa has come up with a solution to a century-old problem - the accuracy of world maps. He used an 'origami'-style technique that involves dividing the globe into 96 triangular "tiles".
The AuthaGraph looks kind of weird at first glance, but it is actually the most proportional among all the maps there is. The maps that we usually see is the standard world map - the Mercator projection - devised by Flemish geographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569. It uses lines instead of curves, and fit the countries on a dimensional piece of paper - which makes countries close to the pole look much bigger than they actually are.
Kai Krause, a German software and graphics designer said about the standard map, "Africa is so mind-numbingly immense, that it exceeds the common assumptions by just about anyone I ever met. It contains the entirety of the US, all of China, India, as well as Japan and pretty much all of Europe as well - all combined!"
Now, Narukawa's design divides the globe into 96 equal regions. While keeping the correct proportions, the tiles are transferred to a pyramid. The pyramid unfolds into a flat map, which can be unfolded into different directions.
According to the citation on the Good Design Award won by Narukawa, "AuthaGraph faithfully represents all oceans and 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."
This map is not perfect though, and it might not be best for navigation. However, the citation added, "the map [needs] a further step to increase a number of subdivisions for improving its accuracy to be officially called an area-equal map."
