Kickstarter has seen a lot of wild projects before, but the inflato dumpster might just stand above the rest. This isn’t actually something that pertains to throwing away trash, instead it’s a way to reimagine what dumpsters can be used for. The site says, “We want to create an inflatable community learning space inside of a dumpster that is open to all.” The kickstarter is specifically for communities in New York City. The project is directly addressing the problem of a space that’s becoming more private and more about commercial products all the time. The more we look around these days, the more the entire local area seems to only be about private businesses making money.

The inflato dumpster is trying to change that by creating a mobile learning factory. It’s on the street level, and it can be easily moved around, and people from the local area can visit the space and learn. The inflato dumpster plan is designed to sort of self-perpetuate in that one of the things you learn while going down there is about how to create additional possibilities for more urban interventions. But basically, the whole point of this crazy contraption is to create a sort of neighborhood network node. It will be like a center of information for the neighborhood with sensors and screens inside that will constantly update with information about the local site. The site itself will then be used to create more satellite inflato dumpster type projects. The idea seems to be to sort of start a kind of positive urban virus that will spread across New York communities and beyond, trying to connect people together in a world that’s increasingly becoming isolated and set apart from the community. This is partly because of the Internet and the separating nature of corporate business. The idea is to make the project a fun place for people to learn and bond in their communities. They are actually trying to invoke a whole inflatable AntFarm and Spacebuster type feel. The project is also focused on giving a temporary mobile feel, so that it can be moved around. The designers want the project to be able to pop up temporarily in all of their favorite neighborhoods. The inflato dumpster will be made of super lightweight materials so that it can be easily inflated and then have people hang out inside in weather dry environment. The materials are usually gold and silver mylar, which suffice to keep out weather like rain and snow, but are light and cheap enough to not make the whole thing too insanely expensive to make. Mylar is also easy to inflate, it’s basically the perfect combination of lightweight inflatable and tough enough to not immediately fall apart in working conditions.

The dumpsters used will likely be 23 feet long and 8 feet wide, with 30 yards of space. The dome itself is going to go out to 28 feet, and the silver mylar material will have little holes in strategic places to let air come in. This project is by the same people who decided to try installing bookshelves in phone booths, so this is sort of in the same spirit. The stated mission is to redefine the public space, but it’s certainly going to have a lot of people asking what the point of it all is really.