Megamurmelbahn Workshop
Workshop | 2017
Murmelbahn is German for a marble run, and this is exactly what we built in this workshop. We gave the workshop together with my colleague Tristan Biere, who had been already building some giant marble runs. The workshop took place at the open day of our neighbouring Theater an der Parkaue, where Niklas and I have also made the Future Lab 1.0 project. As the open day was pretty busy, we made a big version of the marble run, which the visitors could modify freely, or just play with it.
Materials and workshop
It is possible to build DIY marble runs from just about any material. We used the frame of a greenhouse as our basis. The other parts included things like pipes of various sorts, some toilet paper rolls and cardboard, cord and soft plastic sheets. Several meters, if not a kilometre, of strong tape was used for holding the pieces together. People, kids and adults, could join freestyle, adding and improving tracks. Some paths were more chilled out and curvy, while others descended in steep angles, dramatically. There was even a little cable car to transport the marbles.
In addition to glass marbles we had steel and plastic balls of different weights and diameters. They could be used for dynamics investigations using various entry points, which sometimes ended up in major blockages in the pipes, requiring immediate action. In the end of their rides, all the little balls returned (nearly always) to the dedicated landing areas, such as LED-lit salad bowls. It was lots of fun to build this organically growing and changing, playful mega-structure and I would recommend it as a relaxing Sunday activity.
See also:
Thank you!
Special thanks to Tristan and Karola from the theatre for the nice collaboration and to Niklas for making the video. Many thanks also to my awesome neighbours, who helped to take down the Murmelbahn construction and to carry the pipes back home!