What the institution receives
An agreed selection of Lux Blox kits and teaching modules, plus a defined amount of planning, orientation and support from Michael Acerra.
Higher education · Seeking pilot partners
Structure Smart University™
Explore how form, force, material and environment work together—and how a small amount of structure can create remarkable capability. Structure Smart University connects physical modeling with advanced study and invites colleges and universities to collaborate on pilot investigations.
Architecture · Materials science · Biology · Design
Our mission · Mathematics made tangible
Learn to see what a structure can do.
Structure Smart University explores the principles that let systems achieve more with limited material, energy, cost or effort. Our approach brings structures from human invention, engineering, mathematics and living systems into physical models that make relationships visible and testable.
The aim is to develop the judgment to recognize constraints, discover useful relationships and anticipate a structure before it exists.
Hold a pattern. Follow it across scales.
A fractal model gives self-similarity a physical form to explore. Find a repeating unit, compare the openings and ask how a local arrangement contributes to the larger structure.
Explore mathematics you can build →Featured story · Origins & discovery
How looking closely at nature became a new way to build—and learn.
In the Maine woods, Michael Acerra began asking how things are put together. Following that question led to Lux Blox—and continues today in chemical modeling research at Bradley University.
Discover how studying connections can change our understanding of the things themselves.
Read the origins story →
The central inquiry
Efficiency is a design question.
“Doing more with less” can mean less material for a given strength, more function from a repeated part, lower cost for greater capability, or a better outcome by working with the environment.
What can this system get from its shape, its connections, its materials and its environment?
- Shape
- Make geometry carry the work.
- Connection
- Direct forces through relationships.
- Material
- Use each part with purpose.
- Environment
- Design with conditions, not against them.
Structure in motion
See the connections. Follow the change.
Follow a joint, compare two configurations and ask what the connections permit. These digital studies give a question a visible starting point; physical models let us investigate it further.
Same pieces. A changing shape.
Local connections. A larger pattern.
Michael Acerra’s studio · Art & structure
Draw a relationship. Imagine what it could become.
Drawing, physical modeling and design offer different ways to pursue the same question: how do connections give rise to form? These works by Lux Blox co-founder Michael Acerra bring natural patterns and architectural imagination into that inquiry.
Patterns from living forms
Trace a branch, a joint or a repeating cell. What relationships can you carry into a model of your own?
Old Man River Stadium
East St. Louis, Illinois · An unbuilt concept, 1991–92
Michael Acerra’s account · Design & possibility
Going Nowhere
A thought experiment for East St. Louis
Developed in 1991–92, this stadium concept was commissioned by Illinois state Representative Wyvetter H. Younge and dancer and choreographer Katherine Dunham, according to Acerra’s account. It reimagined Buckminster Fuller’s Old Man River City proposal at the scale of a stadium complex.
Historical context: Representative Younge’s legislative record ↗ · Katherine Dunham’s biography ↗. Project history supplied by Michael Acerra.
Acerra’s design question was how to use tension to reduce reliance on heavy compression members. The proposal imagined decks, bleachers and a cellular pillow dome carried by cables above a concrete foundation, with gas-filled cells in the dome and solar-panel petals that would track the sun.
Read Michael Acerra’s recollection
In 1991, Representative Younge invited me to East St. Louis. We had met the previous summer at a Buckminster Fuller Institute conference at UCLA and talked about how engineering, first principles and technology might help the city. We were both dreamers.
She asked me to sketch a smaller version of Fuller’s Old Man River City as a stadium complex. My thought experiment was to optimize the design for materials in tension. In the proposal, only the foundation was concrete; cables carried the decks, bleachers and dome. Gas-filled bladders occupied the dome’s hexagonal and pentagonal openings, while flower-like solar panels would follow the sun.
I recall Representative Younge presenting the plan to Michael Eisner, then Disney’s CEO, as part of a future-themed park proposal for East St. Louis. Disney politely declined. For a twenty-six-year-old, it was an amazing opportunity—even if it went nowhere.
Michael Acerra · Personal account, edited for the website. The stadium was not built; the later visualization is not a photograph of a completed project.
Follow the cables in the drawing. Which elements would carry tension, and where would compression and anchoring still matter?
Syllabus · Proposed investigations
A study of structural ideas.
Our investigations connect architecture, engineering, physics, design, biology and materials science. We invite faculty to build on this syllabus with us, shaping focused pilots around their courses, students and institutional goals.
01
First principles & anticipatory design
Define a performance goal, identify constraints, and reason from forces and relationships toward a structure that does not yet exist.
Design method
Leonardo da Vinci · Self-supporting bridge study. Public domain. Source ↗ 02
Tripod: the power of three supports
Investigate stability, support and balance. How did a simple arrangement of members enlarge the range of human action?
Historical case study
Conceptual diagram · Not a measured load test. 03
Twine, rope & tensile networks
Explore how flexible connections carry tension, bind separate elements, span distance and create new structural possibilities.
Tension · connection
A loaded flexible span makes tension visible. Conceptual diagram, not a Lux Blox load test. 04
Folded materials & corrugation
Compare flat, folded and corrugated forms. Test how geometry changes stiffness and resistance to bending under different loads.
Form · material
A Lux Blox construction being reshaped by hand. Photo: Lux Blox. Source ↗ 05
Cantilevers & reaching outward
Study balance, leverage and load paths in structures that extend beyond their supports. Predict where failure begins.
Statics · load paths
Conceptual diagram · Not a measured load test. 06
Pearce & the min–max lens
Explore minimum inventory and maximum diversity: how a limited family of elements can create many forms and functions.
Optimization · systems
Repeated pieces, different configurations. Digital motion study; physical clearances are unverified. 07
Crystals, repetition & self-similarity
Look at how local rules and repeated patterns organize structures across scales. Ask what the repetition makes possible.
Geometry · materials
René Just Haüy · Crystal studies, 1812. Smithsonian Libraries. Public domain in the U.S. Source ↗ 08
Tension stabilizing compression
Build and test systems where tension helps stabilize elements under compression, including tensegrity and related structures.
Tension · compression
Ties in tension brace a compression member. A conceptual guyed support, not a tested Lux Blox assembly. 09
Biomimetic strategies & environment
Study what a living structure accomplishes, abstract its strategy, then test how a design can use its surroundings to reach a useful outcome.
Nature · design
Ernst Haeckel · Kunstformen der Natur, plate 71. Historical illustration. Public domain. Source ↗ 10
“Order for free” & autocatalytic systems
Examine Stuart Kauffman’s idea of collectively autocatalytic networks as a case in how interactions among parts can generate organization.
Emergence · systems
A feedback loop introduces the network question. Conceptual diagram, not a chemical reaction mechanism. 11
More capability, lower cost
Compare structural optimization with the history of Moore’s law: how engineering can increase capability while reducing cost per function.
Technology · economics
The connection in use. Two trigons joined by their matching edges. Photograph from Dean Campbell’s Lux Blox Dendrimers teaching material, Bradley University. This is a working model detail, not an early prototype. 12
Capstone: design ahead of the object
Choose a real constraint, identify what the system can leverage, propose a structural strategy, build a model and test the prediction.
Anticipatory design
A shared physical model supports observation and discussion. Photo: Lux Blox. Source ↗
How we investigate
Make the idea physical.
The university-level work pairs structural intuition with disciplined evidence. Models are used to reveal relationships; measurements and limitations make the claims precise.
- 01Frame
- 02Observe
- 03Predict
- 04Build
- 05Test
- 06Revise & transfer
Faculty · Researchers · Designers
Build on your institution’s mission.
Let us know if your college or university is interested in learning more about our offerings—and how Structure Smart can build on your school’s mission.
We are seeking pilot partners and interested collaborators. Faculty, departments, researchers and program leaders are invited to help shape investigations that connect physical modeling with the work already happening at their institutions.
Each pilot starts with a written proposal agreed with the participating institution.
An illustrative pilot: one course, approximately 30 students, one semester, with Lux Blox kits on loan and separately quoted planning and support. This example shows a possible scale; kit quantities, modules, loan and return arrangements, schedule and total cost are confirmed in the written proposal.
What the institution commits
A faculty lead, an agreed course or group, a schedule for using the materials, and a defined feedback process. Any formal research activity is scoped separately with the institution.
Schedule and cost
The proposal specifies duration, quantities, staff time, shipping and fees, including who pays each cost and whether materials are purchased or loaned. Both parties agree to these terms before work begins.
Prefer to contact us directly? 309-297-4430 · Email customerservice@luxblox.com.
Image notes: Lux Blox photographs show existing models and learning activities that inform our approach. Historical plates are credited beside each image. Michael Acerra’s artwork and architectural concepts are credited in the studio section. Teaching diagrams are conceptual. Motion studies show prescribed digital movement; they do not establish physical fit, load performance or a chemical reaction.