Designed for 

kids adults everyone to reimagine. 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦

Inspired by ad-hoc design, DIY culture, and Barthe's writings on open-ended toys, I believe in the people's creativity, ideas, and aspirations for the future. Thus, I aim to provide the tools to help people achieve and actualize their visions through reConstruction Toys. Compared to other toys on the market, which are prescribed and literal, reCT is more abstract and gives space for people to imagine what it could be. 

Materials

Repurposed material samples. ♻️ 

Premium wood, plastic, and textiles.

And more...

After a product line is discontinued or past-season, manufacturers have no more use for the material samples for that product. These samples are often made of high-quality materials, such as wood, plastic, textiles, and leathers. reConstruction Toys upcycle these samples to create a construction toy system made of a variety of different materials and textures, as opposed to most other toys made of just virgin plastics. The only virgin materials in this building system are the connectors, which are wooden dowels and elastics. 

Design

Infinite possibilities. 

Make anything. Literally. 🚀

The construction system uses a simple hole pattern that allows pieces to be connected using dowels. However, all connections have loose, rotational tolerancing, so builders are challenged with using elastics to find flexible solutions, literally. This extra dimension of rotation and tension open up endless building prompts and opportunities. In fact, aside from the horse and car, all the other models were community-made. 

Packaging

Yes, play with the box too. 📦

The building doesn't stop at the box. It has holes that are compatible with the hole pattern of the construction toy, so you can build with the box too. Children often play with boxes and packaging because of its open-ended nature, so this inspired the box to be designed to be a part of the construction toy itself. 

Community Engagement

"Challenging... and fun!" 🤩

By facilitating many playtesting sessions with children and adults alike, as well as talking with parents, I found a high level of engagement and interests. During testing, children engaged in focused, undistracted play for up to an hour and discovered creative new ways of manipulating construction pieces. Parents liked the open-endedness of the toy and how long it can be played with, as well as the variety of premium materials. Adults of all ages enjoyed building things as well, with one quoting: "it is human nature...to be building and experimenting with [our] hands". 

Thesis Book