Multi-function, multi-purpose, recyclable, reusable, user friendly, simple and inexpensive. Replimat allows you to integrate many of your lifestyle systems together into highly interchangeable modules and structural components. Replimat parts, techniques, and projects enable everyone to build useful things. Standard parts eliminate waste and risk. Assembly and reuse are quick and fun!
Modular Cargo Cycles
Following more than two years of research and development, the Danish art collective N55 has presented its modular cargo cycles: the two-wheeled XYZ Cargo Bike (90 kg loading capacity) and the three-wheeled XYZ Cargo Trike (150 kg loading capacity). The assembled versions sell online for about half the price of similar cargo cycles on the…
How to Make Everything Ourselves: Open Modular Hardware
Reverting to traditional handicrafts is one way to sabotage the throwaway society. In this article, we discuss another possibility: the design of modular consumer products, whose parts and components could be re-used for the design of other products. Initiatives like OpenStructures, Grid Beam, and Contraptor combine the modularity of systems like LEGO, Meccano and Erector with the…
Grid Beam: A P2P Construction System for the Maker Movement
The Grid Beam building system is the contemporary incarnation of one of the earliest purposely-designed DIY building systems. One could argue that it is one of the founding roots of what has become the Maker movement. The system originated with the work of designer Ken Isaacs in the 1960s who, being among the early Post-Industrial…
Enter the Matrix: An Interview with Ken Isaacs
The highly individual practice of American architect and designer Ken Isaacs (born 1927, Peoria, Illinois) challenged conventional definitions of modernism through designs that sought radical solutions to the spatial and environmental challenges of modern life. Fueled by the optimism that defined the postwar period, Isaacs began working with the new forms and technologies offered by…
Living Structure as Bar
We have written before about using the Ken Isaacs designed Living Structures system in our home. The simple grid based system can be used as a starting point for necessary things from shelving to the construction of whole houses. Currently, a Living Structure inspired system is our bed/shelving, providing a more efficient use of space…
Fundamentals: Frames
Profile Replimat frames are constructed of individual frame sections with a square profile or cross-section. All frame sections share the same profile, which is 40mm across each side. Frames of larger or smaller profile sizes may be produced, and continue to work with all of the construction techniques found here. Hole Pattern Holes are centered…
Self-reproduction lowers cost and increases availability. Enabling Replimat to make more of itself helps everyone to understand, modify, and reproduce the things they need.
Sustainable
We divert some materials from the trash stream, clean and standardize them, and upcycle them into infinitely reusable multi-purpose building blocks.
Reusable
Replimat components are built for a lifetime of use. Cradle to cradle design allows every project to be assembled and disassembled with the same tool.
Empowering
Replimat enables on the spot adaptation to the circumstances at hand. Tooling, training, and planning are minimized or nearly eliminated.