Assembly Blocks: Abstract Cityscapes
Summary of my project
Abstract Cityscapes is a 3D puzzle game that functions as both an educational toy as well as a design-art object.
As an educational tool, it inspires creativity by promoting divergent thinking as well as the development of spatial thinking. Assembly Blocks is designed to encourage one to explore the relationship between negative and positive spaces with forms of various sizes, shapes and materials.
The process of taking pieces apart and then finding a way of putting them together allows one to get directly involved in the act of making, through inserting, stacking, fitting, arranging etc.
It encourages one to bridge the connection between what they can observe in reality in relation to what they are making with the geometries of Assembly Blocks.
Process
When I first started my passion project, the 3D pieces were conceived separately as individual sculpture-objects using Tinkercad and then fabricated through 3D printing and laser cutting technology.
And along the way, I also encountered numerous glitches in the 3D printing process.
Although it was disheartening at first, I found the errors and inconsistencies to be aesthetically pleasing and somewhat closer to my understanding of what the notion of Art and Creativity entails.
Errors disrupt the mechanical and serialized fabrication process of the machine to produce surprises and unexpectedly original forms.
This was how the aesthetic of errors became a part of the Assembly Blocks design and construction process.
Inspiration and Research
I was able to make a lot of meaningful connection between what I was doing and to some of the things I encountered during a trip to MoMA.
Bodys Isek Kingelez
Kingelez found immense potential within simple everyday materials, recycling and transforming the materials into high-tech skyscrapers and smart cities using simple tools such as scissors, glue and tapes as well as primitive hands-on methods of folding, cutting, building and stacking.
I was inspired by the sheer amount of divergent ideas he had, in terms of how he was able to manipulate the materials to do different things in order to bring his visions to life.
And that was what led me to decide to create a puzzle where people could learn about the different ways to merge the different materials of various shapes and sizes whether it it through stacking, inserting or bridging etc.
Boulding Blocks
I also encountered several designer toys currently trending on the market at the MoMA store. And one particular example that caught my attention was the Boulding Blocks, which was built upon a very simple idea but with immense potential.
Two pieces, countless possibilities, take it apart and put it together... which I believe to share a very similar line of thought to what I was trying to achieve.
This was how I arrived to this final stage of my project.
I envision Assembly Blocks to be a fun and playful educational tool that could be used inform people of all ages about art, design and creativity.













