Pedreiras — Pedreiras Map Poster & Print

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Pedreiras Map Poster & Print

Pedreiras grew up on the banks of the Mearim River, one of the main rivers of Maranhão. On a map the water is the first thing you see: a broad, meandering line that bends past the town and sets the direction of the streets closest to it. The built area spreads away from the river in a loose grid that gets thinner as it meets the surrounding farmland.

The town sits in the Mearim valley, a low, open landscape where the river is useful and a risk at once. In rainy seasons the Mearim has flooded the lower neighbourhoods more than once, and that relationship with the water shows in how the town is laid out. Pedreiras is also known as the birthplace of João do Vale, the composer whose songs carried the sound of the Maranhão backlands to national audiences.

A Pedreiras map poster keeps what matters in a place like this: the curve of the river, the blocks that lean toward it and the roads leaving for neighbouring towns. Stripped of colour, the river bend becomes the centre of the composition, with fine street lines around it. The result is quiet and clearly specific, a portrait of a riverside town and not a generic map.