A pop-up city book you print

Moonlit Atlas

Open the lid and a city stands up under the moon. Close it, and the whole city folds flat inside.

Closed, it looks like a book: 8.1 × 6.7 × 2.5 in. Scroll to wake it.

Press the brass button on the front edge. The latch lets go, two torsion springs lift the lid, and a gear damper keeps it slow.

A parallelogram linkage on each side lifts three rows of New York with the lid. They stand up together and are upright when the lid reaches 90°.

The lid turns into a night sky with a moon, a purple horizon and 60 stars. Then you turn the room lights out.

Every window and star glows. They are printed in glow-in-the-dark filament, so there are no batteries and no wires.

Five cities, one book

Where to tonight?

Each city is a set of three magnetic rows and a harbor plate. Pick a light on the map, or keep scrolling to fly east around the world, from New York to San Francisco.

New York

Drag to turn the book. Tap a number to hear its story.

Swap the city

Lift one off, drop the next on

Each row clicks onto its frame with two magnets and two V-keys. Lift it straight up and it comes free.

Once the three rows are off, lift the harbor plate out of the tray.

Drop in the next city's plate. Here it is Paris, with its boat on the Seine.

Set the rows on, back to front. The grooves slide over the keys and the magnets pull each row home. One book holds five cities, and the other four wait their turn.

In real life

Layer lines and all

These pictures start from renders of the real CAD, which an image model then turns into what the printed book looks like. A checker compares each one against its render, and any picture that adds or changes a part is thrown out. Your own print's layer lines and colors will vary.

The New York set at night, windows and stars glowing — Lights out: the glow-filament windows and stars shine on their own.

The closed book on a desk — Closed, it is a navy book with a cream page block and a brass button.

Close-up of the Statue of Liberty on the New York harbor plate — Liberty holds up her torch at the front-left corner of the harbor.

The Paris set standing in the open book — Paris: the lattice Eiffel Tower, Sacré-Cœur and the Arc de Triomphe.

The Tokyo set standing in the open book — Tokyo: Fuji, the Skytree, Tokyo Tower and the cherry blossom tunnel.

What you print

One book, five cities

The book

The tray, the lid with its sky, moon and 60 stars, three row frames, four links, the latch and the brass button. That is 20 printed parts, and you only print them once.

Closed: 8.1 × 6.7 × 2.5 in 206 × 170 × 63 mm
Open: 8.4 in tall, lid at 90° 212.8 mm
Building depth: up to 0.47 in, so the rows fold flat 12 mm

Five city sets

Each set is three building rows and a harbor plate, so the five sets add up to 20 printed parts. New York comes mounted.

New York Liberty, One World Trade Center, the Empire State, the Chrysler, the Brooklyn Bridge
London Tower Bridge, Big Ben, the Eye, St Paul's, the Tower and its ravens
Paris the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, Sacré-Cœur, Pont des Arts, the bouquinistes
Tokyo Fuji, the shinkansen, Skytree, Tokyo Tower, Kaminarimon, Shibuya
San Francisco the Golden Gate, Transamerica, Alcatraz and its lighthouse, Coit Tower, a cable car

Tallest towers: about 5 in 128 mm
Three rows of one city: 2.7 to 3.3 oz, estimated from the CAD 77 to 95 g

Bought hardware

36 disc magnets, 6 × 2 mm: six for the frames and six for each city
2 torsion springs that lift the lid
1 rotary gear damper that slows the lid down
2 steel hinge pins, 2 × 25 mm

No battery, no circuit, no clock. The glow comes from the filament.

For the printer

40 parts in PLA or PETG with a 0.4 mm nozzle, using multi-material for the color regions.
Windows, stars and lamps are glow-in-the-dark PLA inlays, 0.8 mm deep. They glow brightest for 30 to 60 minutes after a lamp has charged them.
Rows print on their backs with the fronts up, and harbor plates print flat. Every part fits a 256 × 256 mm bed. The largest row is 164 × 122.5 mm and a plate is 194.4 × 65.6 mm.
The smallest details (ravens, padlocks, people) are 1.2 mm wide, which is three lines at 0.4 mm.

Five cities in one book. Press the button tonight, then turn out the lights.