This project challenged us to apply digital fabrication skills toward a deceptively complex problem: designing working marble runs that could double as generative architectural models. Developed for exhibition spaces surrounding LAX's automated people mover, the work used the physics of the marble run as a diagram for human circulation, shaping paths that moved travelers efficiently and intriguingly from transit stops to airport terminals.

Each "trick" in the run required precise mechanical reasoning. Friction, momentum, and counterweight all had to be calibrated with exacting tolerances to keep the marble in continuous, engaging motion. Rather than treating this as a craft exercise, we used the resulting movement patterns, including pace, pauses, and redirection, as a generative logic: translating the marble's path directly into the architecture's circulation routes through the exhibition space.