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A Playful Building Kit Incorporates Real-World Physics Concepts With Springs and Magnets

Mola Model is a modular tabletop building kit that includes springs, magnets, and cables to create a realistic experience for hobbyist engineers and aspiring architects. The Brazilian company’s kits help users learn about real-world structural concerns like buckling and sway frame structures by incorporating flexibility that demonstrates the impact of environmental influences. Each kit includes rigid and flexible connections, cables and bars of varying length and flexibility, as well as plates and mats to ground each structure.

The idea for the company came during Márcio Sequeira’s days as an architectural student: he was concerned about how well he was learning the real-world factors that he would need to take into account in his future career. Sequeira spent almost ten years working on developing Mola Model, and has funded all three of its editions on Kickstarter over the last five years. The latest edition has currently secured over 150% of its goal—find the Mola Structural Kit 3 on Kickstarter. (via FastCo)