This incredible transforming theater, built from salvaged pieces of a deserted home, is more than meets the eye. A community theater in disguise, its contents unfold from a conventional A-frame to reveal a dynamic on-demand public viewing space.

Dubbed Open House by creator Matthew Mazzotta, what was once a dilapidated home in downtown York, Alabama, has been turned into a secret room on a large scale. The pieces were taken apart and turned into convertible stage and seating for 100+ people, but are still recognizable as elements of the house from which they came – a tribute to history with new functionality.

The venue features performances, films, music and dances. Located between the town’s central grocery store and post office, it is ideally situated to be the area’s primary community space.

Mazzotta’s “work evolves from an interest in exploring the relationship between people and their environments, as well as between each other. My practice is conceptual and manifests as participatory public interventions that aim at bringing criticality and a sense of openness to the places we live …. The objects, situations, and spaces I create as community projects and participatory interventions.”

“Often times these projects include working with local laborers, academics, engineers, builders, community members, activists, artists, poets, and anyone else that is willing to be involved in something experiential and participatory … By piercing through the roles we play in public, we break up the narratives of specific public spaces. “

LEGOs, Lincoln Logs, Tinker Toys … what do they have in common? They each represent a universe of constructive possibilities, but each is incompatible with the next, like alien planets with their own unique atmospheres. Until now, that is.

With the advent of 3D printing technology, individuals can now print their own pieces and connect the dots (and logs and bricks) between ten disparate worlds of childhood fun: Lego®, Duplo®, Fischertechnik®, Gears! Gears! Gears!®, K’Nex®, Krinkles®, Bristle Blocks®, Lincoln Logs®, Tinkertoys®, Zome®, ZomeTool® and Zoob®.

Adapters can be downloaded from Thingiverse.com and other sharing sites as a set of 3D models in .STL format, suitable for reproduction by personal manufacturing devices like the Makerbot (an inexpensive, open-source 3D printer).

“The Free Universal Construction Kit is a collection of nearly 80 adapter bricks that enable complete interoperability between ten popular children’s construction toys. By allowing any piece to mate with any other, the Kit encourages totally new forms of intercourse between otherwise closed systems — enabling radically hybrid Constructivist play and the creation of heretofore impossible designs. (For example, one of the pieces adapts Legos® to Tinkertoys®.) As with other grassroots interoperability remedies, the Free Universal Construction Kit implements proprietary protocols in order to provide a public service unmet, or unmeetable, by corporate interests.”