The Remarkable Evolution of Engineering Design Behind Theo Jansen’s Strandbeests

Casper Mebius of Veritasium spoke with Theo Jansen, the brilliant inventor of the Strandbeest, to learn more about the remarkable evolution of the engineering that goes into these magnificent “beach animals”.

The surprising genius of Strandbeests.

Derek Muller also spoke with Adam Savage of Tested, who talked about his experience of building his own version of Jansen’s design.

I found the movement of his robots so compelling, because it felt like looking at a different kind of nature. There’s a tremendous amount of force on the axle, and that he builds all this stuff with, like, tape and glue and snot and screws and gets that force to transfer is really thrilling to me. To be honest, I built one at the Exploratorium in their parking lot, over three days, and for two days, I was getting it wrong.

Jansen had created his first Strandbeest in 1990 specifically for ecological reasons, as reports of rising levels of carbon dioxide would warm the planet and cause sea levels to rise, which was of great concern to a country that lies below sea level.

And about a third of Jansen’s home country, the Netherlands, lies below the current sea level, so rising sea levels pose a clear and present threat. So Jansen came up with a solution. He imagined this sort of walking skeleton on the beach. It would be powered by the wind and it would kick up sand as it walked.Then this sand would blow to the dunes, heightening them and hence protecting the Netherlands from the rising sea levels.

Since that time, Jansen has build an enormous variety of Strandbeests and is looking to improve the design further.

Pipe Dream

Pipe Dream is a film by Nikolay Nikolov and Zachary Alfred that documents Jansen’s journey firsthand. The film is available to rent on Apple TV and Vimeo.

A journey into Theo’s life and philosophy. PIPE DREAM explores the relationship between artist and art, creator and animal, master and slave.