QUAYSHIFT

Column C is the water.

The board arrives with its grid already in it: cell lines scribed 0.4 mm into the floor, the letters A to E sunk into one rim and the numbers 1 to 5 up the other. Four of those columns are town. The middle column has no letter on its rim, because the rim is not there. It is cut away at both ends, the C is sunk into the channel floor instead, and a ferry runs the gap.

10printed parts
11.2 ozon the plate
24.8 hon the printer
The empty printed board: a shallow teal tray with a five by five grid scribed into its floor, A B D and E moulded into the near rim, 1 to 5 up the left rim, and a channel cut clean through the rim where column C would be
The board before anything is placed on it. Where column C reaches the rim, the rim stops.

Everything is cut to the cell.

A cell is 32 mm square, and every piece is 0.4 mm smaller than the cells it fills, on every side. That is the difference between placing a piece and wedging one. Five blocks of town take ten of the 20 land cells; the other three pieces are bridges, and a bridge is 95.2 mm long because it has to put a whole cell on each bank with the canal in between.

Which is where the board gets tight. Columns B and D are the banks every bridge stands on, and the four-cell quarter alone takes two cells out of one of them, so the clear run left for bridges is never longer than 96 mm. Three bridges end to end need 93.6. However you lay the town out, the three crossings finish shoulder to shoulder and the rest of the canal runs clear. The plan beside this is one way to do it.

The finished town seen from above one corner: cream, clay and sage towers with rooftop terraces standing on the teal board, the three bridges crossing the canal in the middle
The same arrangement, built. The steps you can see on every block run down to the water.
Plan of the board The board seen from above, 184 mm square: a five by five grid of 32 mm cells lettered A to E and numbered 1 to 5, with column C left open as the canal, three bridges crossing it and five blocks of town on the banks. Each piece is labelled with its height in millimetres. 70 62 58 64 84 80 74 48 A B C D E 1 2 3 4 5
The solved plan. Each piece is labelled with its height in millimetres; the solid band inside each bridge is the 12 mm arched plate that actually carries the crossing.

The run

Scroll to build the town and take the ferry down the canal.

The grid comes with the board.

184 × 184 × 88 mm assembled, on a floor 4 mm thick inside a 12 mm rim. The cell lines are scribed, not printed on, so they survive being handled.

Eight pieces, 20 cells to put them in.

Five blocks of town on the banks and three bridges across the water. Nothing clips and nothing glues: each piece stands in its cells with 0.4 mm to spare on each side.

Into the north reach.

Above the bridges the canal is open for its full 32 mm, which leaves 3 mm either side of the ferry's beam. Steps come down to the water on both banks.

Under the first arch.

The north bridge stands 80 mm to its parapet and carries the crossing on an arched plate 12 mm wide. Under the crown there is 44 mm of clear water. The ferry is 20 mm tall.

Through the slot.

Three bridges shoulder to shoulder still leave 20 mm of open sky between their crossings. From above you watch the ferry go under one plate and come out beneath the next.

As far as it goes.

The last arch closes 16 mm above the water and the ferry stands 20. It is 4 mm too tall for the gate at the end of its own canal, and it stops there with its prow on the stonework.

Two of the three let it through.

All three bridges span the same 95.2 mm and open the same 32.4 mm where they meet the water. What differs is where the arch closes over it. Drawn to the same scale on the same water line, with the ferry, the reason it stops is not an argument. It is a measurement.

The north arch Cross-section of the bridge on the water line with the ferry drawn at the same scale, the same scale as the other two drawings. 44 mm
North arch, cells B3 to D3. 80 mm to the parapet over towers of 56 and 80 mm, 44 mm clear. The ferry goes under with 24 mm over its roof.
The middle arch Cross-section of the bridge on the water line with the ferry drawn at the same scale, the same scale as the other two drawings. 44 mm
Middle arch, cells B2 to D2. 74 mm to the parapet and the same 44 mm clear, with its tall tower on the west bank: 74 mm against 58 mm.
The low arch Cross-section of the bridge on the water line with the ferry drawn at the same scale, the same scale as the other two drawings. 16 mm
Low arch, cells B1 to D1. 48 mm to the parapet over towers of 30 and 48 mm, and 16 mm clear. The ferry is 4 mm too tall, and no amount of pushing changes that.
The low arch photographed square on: the ferry sits behind it in the channel with the top of its cabin hidden above the arch crown, which is where it stops
Square on to the low arch. The ferry is behind it, and the top of its cabin is already above the crown.

10 parts, 25 cells, nothing to glue.

10
printed parts
11.2 oz
on the plate
24.8 h
on the printer
Assembled
7.2 × 7.2 × 3.5 in
Weight
11.2 oz
Board
25 cells of 32 mm, scribed 0.4 mm deep, lettered A to E and 1 to 5
Pieces
8 pieces of town, 3 of them bridges, plus the ferry and the board
Fit
0.4 mm clearance a side in every cell
Canal
32 mm wide, cut through the rim at both ends, 3 mm clear of the ferry on each side
Headroom
44 mm under the two high arches, 16 mm under the low one
Arch
32.4 mm wide at the water, 31.9 mm between the jambs at the height of the ferry’s cabin
Ferry
20 mm tall, 26 mm in the beam, 24.5 mm long
Steps
22 down to the water, 4 mm a step
Roofs
terraces sunk 4 mm behind a 2.4 mm parapet
Print
24.8 h, 11.2 oz, no supports and no fasteners
The whole town seen square on from the south: the low arch in front, the ferry visible through the arches behind it, and the towers rising in cream, clay and sage
Square on from the south. The ferry is in there, two arches back.

The board is the biggest thing on the plate at 184 mm square, so it is the part that sets the bed you need; every other piece fits inside its footprint. Nothing is glued, clipped or fastened, so a town that came out wrong can be lifted off a cell at a time and tried again.