Inventorics - Bicycle Builder (a construction toy)

Print yourself some 1:20 scale bike-frames and grab some toothpicks and let your imagination run wild! Creatively explore the geometric complexities of 3-dimensional space and gravity, and playfully learn some basic principles of inventory constrained design at 3 different difficulty levels:

BEGINNER: 
Head and seat-tubes are all parallel and the rear triangle is the same for all bicycles, that makes it easier to build larger modules, which then can be assembled into larger structures.

ADVANCED:
Head and seat-tubes are still parallel but the rear triangles vary. Now it gets more difficult to build regular patterns.

EXPERT:
Welcome to (the almost) real world. All bikes vary slightly in their dimensions between each other but only in a limited range, topologically they are still the same. The higher the similarity between frames, the more regular the final structure will be - or the opposite. You decide: do you enjoy order or rather embrace chaos?


Notes:

Toothpicks are usually 2mm in diameter…but being one of the cheapest things on this planet, the tolerances are not as minimal as e.g. in Prusament….this first set of files is modeled with 2.1mm openings and works with the toothpicks we have, but you might need to scale the frames or adjust the XY compensation settings to get a good fit…


This is a “byproduct” of an artistic research project on “Circular Design” and “inventory constrained construction” at the University of Applied Arts Vienna called Inventorics - Recombining Artifacts for Innovation, funded by the FWF Austria within the PEEK Programme, AR730-G. 
The project looks at industrial artifacts, that have been classified as “waste”, but still have structural value and could be used for architectural purposes instead of using huge amounts of energy to first recycle them back into shapeless raw-material before reforming them back into new standardized mass-produced forms….
One of the artifact types we are studying are bicycle frames. And while building physical models we thought they would make the perfect construction toy for kids (of all ages ;) to train the brain in assembling complex spacial structures in the midst of gravity. And we are quite curious what you will come up with!