mola

Mola is a Brazilian design company behind the Mola Structural System, a modular kit that simulates how real structures behave. Its elements connect through magnets and springs, so spans, columns, cables and diaphragms can be assembled by hand into bridges, frames and multi-storey buildings that deflect and fail much as full-scale structures do.

The idea began in 2004, when architecture student Marcio Sequeira built wooden models to make sense of the abstract structural theory he was studying; ten years later the first kit launched through crowdfunding. It has since been validated by a master’s thesis and over 40 tests at the Federal University of Ouro Preto, and is used by students, teachers and engineers as a hands-on complement to calculation and parametric design.