About
Terraform is a small workshop in Galway. We turn open elevation data into relief maps you can put a hand on.
The short version
Which is a slightly misleading way to start, because what I mostly do now is heat plastic sheets and trim them by hand. But the geology is the reason any of this exists. Once you have spent a few years looking at terrain models, ordinary maps start to feel like they are hiding the interesting part.
Terraform started in 2014 with one map of the Lakes of Killarney and a vacuum former that was, being honest, not quite up to the job. There are fifteen landscapes in the collection now, and a good number of one-off commissions that never made it into the shop.
Everything is still made in Galway. Every map is formed, printed, trimmed, framed and boxed here.
The process
Public elevation models for the land, published bathymetry for the sea. We choose an area and a scale, and settle on how much to superelevate the vertical — usually around 1:3, so the terrain reads across a room without becoming a caricature.
The surface is turned into a physical tool on a 3D printer. This is the slow part and the part that decides whether a map is any good: every corrie and sea cliff that survives here will survive to the wall.
A sheet is heated until it is pliable and pulled down over the tool under vacuum. One pull, a few seconds, and the whole landscape transfers. Then it cools and holds that shape permanently.
The cartography is printed to register with the relief — place names, water, contours, geology where relevant — then hand-trimmed and either fitted to a solid frame or finished bare for your own framing.
age of Ireland’s oldest rock, off Donegal
marine territory versus land area
years since the ice left
Carrauntoohil, the highest point
Why it matters
The elevation data we use belongs to everybody. It was surveyed with public money and published for anyone to use, and there is something worth defending in taking that and making a physical object with it in the same country the survey covers.
The same thinking applies to how we sell. This website is built to a page-weight budget and hosted on renewable electricity. Maps are made to order rather than warehoused. Packaging is card, not foam.
Bookshops, visitor centres, galleries and outdoor retailers. Standard trade terms, minimum order six pieces, mixed titles welcome.
Trade enquiriesAny catchment, county, range or townland. Sixty-odd commissions since 2014 for trusts, parks, schools and families.
See bespoke work