Archinect - News

Ai Weiwei's first solo show in eight years features a 49-foot reproduction of Monet’s Water Lilies using LEGO bricks

2023-03-20T18:03:00-04:00

Ai Weiwei has unveiled a new large-scale reproduction of Claude Monet’s Water Lilies as part of an upcoming exhibition of the architect-provocateur’s work on view from April 7 at the Design Museum in London.

The 15-meter (49-foot) Water Lilles #1 is comprised of 650,000 bricks rendered in 22 different colors to reproduce the famous series of paintings, which Monet executed between 1897 and 1926 at his home studio in Giverny.

Image: Ela Bialkowska/OKNOstudio

Ai says: “It’s crucial for individuals to find a personalized language to express their experience of these challenging conditions. Personalized expression arises from identifying with history and memories while creating a new language and narrative. Without a personal narrative, artistic narration loses its quality. In Water Lilies #1 I integrate Monet's Impressionist painting, reminiscent of Zenism in the East, and concrete experiences of my father and me into a digitized and pixelated language. Toy bricks as the material, with...

LEGO Group's new campus officially opens at headquarters in Billund, Denmark

2022-04-12T14:33:00-04:00

Following five years of construction and planning, the LEGO Group is celebrating the official opening of the new corporate campus at its headquarters in Billund, Denmark. Designed by C.F. Møller Architects, LEGO Campus spans 54,000 square meters (581,000 square feet) and accommodates approximately 2,000 employees.

Offering a playful, inclusive, and collaborative environment, the campus was designed to reflect the company's values of “Imagination, Fun, Creativity, Caring, Learning, and Quality”. A core element of the campus concept is flexibility, which is embodied through “People House,” a concept developed in close collaboration with employees that calls for spaces that allow all employees to network and play during and after working hours.

The “People House” features facilities including a state-of-the-art fitness studio, creative workshop space, a LEGO homestay for visiting employees, a movie theater, an outside park and activity zone, a kitchen for communal cooking, and a heal...

Legoland replica of SoFi Stadium the largest Lego stadium in the world

2022-03-22T17:09:00-04:00

Inglewood’s futuristic SoFi Stadium is considered an architectural feat. Now, the structural marvel has been rendered in miniature form. A Lego model of the stadium — where the Rams recently captured their first Super Bowl title in the L.A. area — will be unveiled to the public Thursday at the Legoland theme park in Carlsbad. But don’t call it small.

The miniature SoFi Stadium is now the largest Lego stadium in the world. It will join Legoland California’s Miniland U.S.A. attraction, an area of the park that features models of U.S. cities, such as San Francisco and Washington D.C.

Video courtesy CBS Los Angeles

The HKS-designed stadium is made from around half a million Lego bricks and is 30 feet long, 15 feet wide, and 4 feet tall. Its assembly required more than 6,000 hours of work by 25 professional model builders. The structure arrived at the park in more than 60 pieces and was assembled on-site, which took place over the course of four days.

Image: Legoland California

The stadium’s distinctive roof reportedly required 3,500 pounds of Legos. Inside the model lies a recreation of the L.A. Rams’ starting roster for Super Bowl LVI, along with an audience of 3,000 Lego people.

100,000-piece gargantuan afrofuturist lego sculpture acquired by Aga Khan Museum

2021-02-25T12:19:00-05:00

The Aga Khan Museum in Toronto has acquired a colossal sculpture made from 100,000 pieces of Lego by the Ghanian-Canadian artist Ekow Nimako, who is known for his Afrofuturist reimaginings of Black histories built from Lego bricks.

According the The Art Newspaper, "the 30 sq-ft sculpture Kumbi Saleh 3020 CE (2019) conceptually envisions the ancient trading town in Mauritania one thousand years in the future, as a vast and complex metropolis once again." The piece was a part of the artist's 2019 solo exhibition Building Black: Civilisations that was held at the museum.

LEGO to release 9,035-piece set of the Colosseum in Rome

2020-11-11T13:50:00-05:00

LEGO® presents the brick reproduction of one of the most fascinating monuments in the world. This is the largest LEGO product ever made, with great attention to detail to make it faithful to the original and to enhance its timeless beauty.

According to The Brick Fan, the LEGO Colosseum (10276) would be LEGO's largest set, consisting of 9,035 pieces. LEGO Italy has suggested that the new set could be announced on November 13th.

Adidas Originals and LEGO team up with new launch

2020-09-16T12:09:00-04:00

Earlier this month, LEGO and Adidas Originals launched a teaser of their recent collaboration on the upcoming ZX 8000 sneaker. For all of those architects and designers out there with reminiscent (or recent) memories of playful fun with the beloved LEGO, this unveiling is sure to intrigue. Check out the teaser below:

IKEA and LEGO Group partner to launch BYGGLEK

2020-08-27T19:58:00-04:00

IKEA and LEGO Group have launched the result of the long-awaited outcome of their collaboration. The two brands have come together to create BYGGLEK, a playful storage solution that consists of a series of storage boxes fit with LEGO studs and a special LEGO brick set. The system aims to provide children with a means of creativity and playfulness whilst promoting organization and tidiness.

"At IKEA, we always believe in the power of play. Play lets us explore, experiment, dream and discover," said Andreas Fredriksson, designer at IKEA of Sweden in a statement, "Where adults often see mess, children see a stimulating creative environment, and BYGGLEK will help bridge the gap between these two views to ensure more creative play in homes around the world. Plus, the BYGGLEK collection match perfectly with other IKEA products, making it possible to have your children’s creativity becoming a nice and unique piece of decoration at home."

Moreover, Rasmus Buch Løgstrup, designer at the LEG...

'Lego Grandma' constructs wheelchair ramps out of Lego

2020-02-24T16:45:00-05:00

Ms. [Rita] Ebel, who has been in a wheelchair herself since a car accident 25 years ago, said the idea was born after a friend of hers, who is also in a wheelchair, said she could not get out of a shop with steps and had to enlist the help of four people to carry her chair down. Ms Ebel then saw a picture in a medical journal for paraplegics, of a woman in an electric wheelchair going over a Lego ramp.

Earning the nickname 'Lego Grandma,' Rita and her husband work together on the ramps, often spending two to three hours a day building them, reports RTE News. While wood or aluminum ramps would provide a proper solution, Rita says that the bright Lego "makes her message stand out and highlights the day-to-day problems faced by people with disabilities." These playful bricks have become a form of advocacy.

"For me it is just about trying to sensitive the world a little bit to barrier-free travel, I mean it could happen to anyone that they suddenly end up in a situation that puts them in a wheelchair, like it did [to] me," Rita expressed, according to RTE News.

New "Lego Masters" reality competition pits LEGO fanatics against one another

2020-02-07T15:03:00-05:00

The series, which debuted this past Wednesday on Fox, follows a group of two-person teams who must complete a number of Lego-building challenges. After each challenge the teams are judged by "Brickmaster" Amy Corbett, a senior design manager at the LEGO Group, and "Brickmaster" Jamie Berard, who oversees the LEGO Creator Expert and LEGO Architecture lines at LEGO.

via Fox

From week to week, viewers can follow the contestants as the best teams move forward and the lower performing teams leave the show. At the end, the top team will win $100,000 and earn the title of "LEGO Master." In the debut episode, contestants had 15 hours to construct a "dream theme park" that had to include a moving ride.

Previously, Archinect has reported on miniature lego sets and on the Bjarke Ingels-designed LEGO campus in Denmark.

First photos of the newly opened LEGO Campus in Billund, Denmark

2019-10-28T15:36:00-04:00

Nearly two years after opening its Bjarke Ingels-designed LEGO House to much media fanfare, the LEGO Group now inaugurated the first phase of a new corporate campus at its headquarters in Billund, Denmark.

While the buildings and the campus concept, planned by Danish firm C.F. Møller Architects, have also been inspired by the basic brick nature of the toy giant's core product, the references here are far more subtle compared to the public-oriented, bricks-in-your-face LEGO House. Think fun serious workplace.

Courtesy of LEGO Group

"In the same way you build with LEGO bricks, we took elements our people love and brought them all together to create something unique," explains the company's Senior Workplace Anthropologist, Anneke Beerkens, the search for the ideal LEGO workplace.

"For example, employees told us that they wanted the freedom to choose an environment that suited them best for whatever they were working on, but also liked to stay close to teammates. ...

Legos, architecture, and miniature worlds

2019-08-28T18:52:00-04:00

Back in 2008, Lego launched its series of architectural kits with structures such as the Empire State Building, Fallingwater, the Villa Savoye, and countless others. "Architects operate in grids and if you analyze these, in pen and paper over blueprints, then you can derive the best translation into Lego bricks," said Rok Zgalin Kobe, senior designer at Lego, in a CNN article.

Kobe talked about how the Lego version of a building is not meant to only represent that real structure, but it should also, "tell a story about how it came to be built." He illustrated an example of the Empire State Building model and talked about how the real one was built using large steel girders. From this picture, the Lego version also has its own "replica of the steel skeleton inside the building," CNN reports.

Legos have also attracted a wide range of "superfans" who go to great lengths to recreate works of architecture completely by themselves. CNN writes how Tom Alphin, the author of The Lego Archit...

The power of play, how childhood toys inspired architects and their designs

2019-04-08T20:14:00-04:00

Everyone can recall their favorite toy as a child. For some, these childhood toys inspired interests and passions that led to specific career pursuits as an adult. Thinking back on one's own experience with toys like LEGO and Lincoln Logs, these simple pieces of wood and plastic led to endless amounts of fun and creative possibility. As a child, I recall spending hours playing with Little Tykes Waffle Blocks and Playskool's colored wooden blocks.

1982 Vintage Playskool Colored Wood Blocks

Play-based learning, especially with blocks or other building-focused models, enhances a child's ability to problem solve and stimulate creative decision making. These simple, tactical objects allow for children to experience and understand the world around them, especially the built environment. Through stacking and connecting, these types of educational toys enable children to experience trial and error through forms of continuous self-assessment. The anticipation of stacking one more block on t...

LEGO reveals skyline sets of San Francisco and Paris to be released early 2019

2018-12-03T14:15:00-05:00

LEGO will soon be releasing San Francisco and Paris editions of its popular architecture line, which allows fans to replicate city skylines and world landmarks. Come early 2019, enthusiasts will be able to capture both the Fog City's diverse architecture and the City of Light's iconic works.

The San Francisco set brings together obvious city markers, such as the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz Island, and the Painted Ladies made famous by the '90s sitcom "Full House." But, the collection also features some surprising additions, namely the inclusion of the city's newest and tallest building, the Salesforce Tower.

The Paris collection similarly brings together a range of distinguishing architecture, featuring historic works such as the Arc de Triumph, the Champs-Elysées, the Louvre, and of course, the Eiffel Tower. Decorative elements, such as lawn and trees areas, further round off the detailed replica.

The company's popular sub-brand Lego Architecture has spent the past decade celebrat...

After a decade, LEGO will re-release their Vestas Wind Turbine in November

2018-09-27T17:01:00-04:00

On Wednesday during NYC Climate Week, Lego announced they’d be re-releasing the LEGO Creator Expert Vestas Wind Turbine, developed in collaboration with wind company Vestas...This set stands 3 feet tall and contains 826 pieces, including one piece—a spruce tree—that is the first of Lego’s sustainable plant-based plastic pieces. The set also features adjustable and motorized turbine blades and a movable nacelle with aircraft warning lights.

@brutsinlego features tiny brutalist structures built in LEGO by father, son and daughter

2018-04-12T15:04:00-04:00

Brutalism is having quite the moment right now. What was once seen as the architecture of the lower class, has today, become the proud badge of aesthetic quirkiness for the creative one. Embraced by a band of architects, architecture enthusiasts, and preservationists, these concrete structures have found new audiences to appreciate them and are making their way into magazines, coffee-table books, website design, blogs, and a sea of Instagram feeds.

One such account dedicated to the architectural style is @brutsinlego. The characteristically boxy forms of Brutalism has made it particularly suitable for LEGO construction, and the account features tiny brutes in grayscale, made from the building blocks. Run by the Dutch designer Toon Welling, he builds these structures with his son and daughter. Some are interpretations of real-world examples like the student residences at the University of East Anglia, while others are a bit more speculative.

Boring Company to start selling LEGO-like interlocking bricks made from tunneling rock

2018-03-27T12:18:00-04:00

Elon Musk announced that the Boring Company will sell LEGO-like interlocking bricks made from rock that his tunneling machines excavate from the earth. Musk stated these bricks will be sold in "kits" and will be rated to withstand California's earthquakes.

The date of availability or cost of this latest product is unknown. While his company has only started digging shorter tunnels there is not enough upturned rock to begin making these bricks yet.

Recycled plastic blocks are being used to create LEGO-like architecture

2018-01-10T13:37:00-05:00

A company in Colombia is tackling plastic waste issues and affordable housing with a single ingenious solution: interlocking LEGO-like bricks that can be used to build houses for a few thousand dollars per structure. Walls are formed using a slim slotted brick then framed using a thicker module used for beams and columns, locking the smaller units into place and providing rigid vertical and lateral support.

What to do with the heaps and mounds of plastic piling up all over our planet? Build LEGO's. Conceptos Plásticos' technological innovations make their plastic block homes cost only $5,000. The company is also using this new method to build emergency shelters, community and educational buildings.

These upcycled blocks are designed to be used by anyone regardless of construction experience. Conceptos Plásticos boasts building blocks that are fire and earthquake resistant, cost effective, and durable lasting about 500 years.

World's tallest (mostly) Lego tower built in memory of eight-year-old cancer victim

2018-01-02T18:50:00-05:00

Plastic building blocks are once again reaching for the sky. This time, it was the city of Tel Aviv that made an attempt to build the tallest Lego tower — or, officially, the tallest structure built with interlocking plastic bricks, not all of them made by the Danish toy giant. [...] a joint effort between Tel Aviv City Hall and Young Engineers, an organization that promotes learning with toy bricks. The tower is intended to honor a child who died from cancer.

"Omer Tower" was built in memory of Omer Sayag, himself an avid fan of the colorful plastic blocks, who lost his battle with cancer in 2014 at the age of 8.

Clocking in at a height of 35.85 meters (117 feet and 7 inches), the structure on Tel Aviv's Rabin Square beat previous world records including the most recent one in Milan in 2015.

Here's your chance to win a family-fun overnight stay at the LEGO House

2017-11-08T15:44:00-05:00

For the hardcore LEGO-loving families out there, this one's for you. Airbnb and LEGO are currently running a global contest asking one question: In a response of 50-500 characters, “If you and your family had an infinite supply of LEGO bricks, what would you build?”

The grand prize? The winner and their family (or up to three guests) will be flown out to the new LEGO House in Billund, Denmark for a free one-night stay from November 24-25, 2017.

Photo credit: LEGO House.

The winning guests will embark on an interactive journey through the LEGO House, which Bjarke Ingels designed. The host, LEGO Master Builder Jamie, will lead a tour of the building — including the Tree of Creativity, the Masterpiece Gallery, and the interactive Experience Zones where you can create your own LEGO films, robotic cars, and more.

Tree of Creativity. Photo: Iwan Baan.

Photo: Iwan Baan.

Red Zone, featuring the LEGO Brick Builder Water Fall. Photo: Iwan Baan.

The final stop is a bedroom “floating” in a pool ...

More photos of BIG's new LEGO House

2017-10-03T19:20:00-04:00

LEGO fans of all ages are flocking to the BIG-designed LEGO House since it opened last week in the heart of Billund, Denmark. The 130,000 square-foot building offers visitors plenty to explore: LEGO art galleries, color-coded experience zones, and the public LEGO Square — which includes restaurants, a cafe, a conference space, and of course, a LEGO Store. Want to see more of the new building? BIG shared the latest photos, taken by architectural photographer extraordinaire Iwan Baan.

Photo: Iwan Baan.

Take a look at BIG's newly opened LEGO House

2017-09-29T15:29:00-04:00

LEGO fans, you have a new Mecca, and it's in Billund, Denmark: the Bjarke Ingels-designed LEGO House finally celebrated its grand opening, four years after it was first announced.

LEGO House Grand Opening - Interiors from Archinect on Vimeo.

The building consists of 21 white 'bricks stacked' on top of each other and hosts three restaurants, a conference room, a LEGO Square, a store (wanna have your own miniature version at home?) as well as experience zones with play areas and a gallery of art work created with the company's iconic product on 130,000 square-feet. The outdoor area also sports several interconnected terraces for various functions and playgrounds. (Check out a drone video of the building under construction here.)

Final touch-ups before the grand opening

The experience zones are divided in four different color-coded sections which, according to LEGO's announcement, each represents a special aspect of play and learning: "Red is for creative skills, Blue is for cognitive ...

BIG's "Lego House" to be released as a real-life Lego set

2017-09-05T13:03:00-04:00

In the meta news category, Bjarke Ingels' full-scale "Lego House," inspired by the titular rectangular building blocks and slated to open later this month in Denmark, now apparently has a miniature version in the form of real Legos that will be available for sale only at the Lego House. According to The BrickFan, the official Lego Architecture site briefly posted these pictures of the set before taking them down:

Here's a picture of the actual Lego House for comparison:

Image: YouTube

LEGO releases drone footage of Bjarke Ingels-designed LEGO House

2017-08-28T15:40:00-04:00

The building made of 21 giant LEGO-style "bricks" and designed by Bjarke Ingels is opening to the public on September 28th. Officially called the LEGO House, the 130,000 square-foot building will offer "play zones," a gallery of LEGO masterpieces, stores, conference space, and three restaurants, one of which will feature robots serving up a menu made of LEGO bricks. In preparation for its grand opening, LEGO has released drone footage of the nearly completed building. Check out the official video below!

Up your LEGO-building game with the Nimuno Loops “LEGO-compatible tape”

2017-03-15T21:19:00-04:00

Nimuno Loops might be the missing piece to your LEGO-building needs. Created by industrial designers Anine Kirsten and Max Basler from Cape Town, Nimuno Loops are rolls of LEGO-compatible adhesive tape that turns almost any surface at any angle into a LEGO-building project site. The reusable, bendable tape can be cut with scissors to your desired length, and it works with other major toy-building block systems like Mega Bloks and Kreo.

Screenshots via YouTube.

Image via Indiegogo.

Team Nimuno spent over a year developing the Nimuno Loops, from concept to working prototype. Starting out with an $8,000 goal, Team Nimuno's Indiegogo campaign has amassed $758,399 from over 20,000 backers so far. The funds will help the designers pay for final prototyping and testing of the Loops using different materials and adhesive, the necessary industrial tools for casting the Loops, and shipping and logistics. Backers are expected to receive the tape starting this July.

Urban Land Institute hosts urban planning Lego workshop for students

2016-12-13T13:03:00-05:00

What better way to teach high school-age students how to tackle the problems of urban planning than with Legos? This was the thought of the Urban Land Institute, which according to this article in Metro News put on a workshop for an 11th grade class in Toronto to help them plan a city that, while fictional, took many of its challenges from Toronto's current urbanity. As the article notes:

The students were divided into teams and given the task of designing a new, mixed-use development while balancing competing demands like affordable housing, business interests and environmental standards.

For example, Yutiga’s team had to think on their feet when they realized they “couldn’t create underground parking due to soil conditions.”

And like Toronto, the fictional city their development was in also grapples with problems like food deserts, homelessness and, of course, parking.

For more in Lego-related news:

See downtown Los Angeles in Legos

2016-10-04T13:15:00-04:00

Take away the conceptual heft of Chris Burden's Metropolis II and substitute in a grade-school love for pre-fabricated plastic building blocks and you'd have something like Jorge Parra Jr.'s eight-years-in-the-making Lego model of Los Angeles, which portrays a detailed swath of the city's downtown. Here's a video tour, including scale-model billboards, a working Metro train, and a faithful representation of its latest skyscraper:

Build your own U.S. Capitol with LEGO Architecture Studio's latest kit

2016-08-18T15:45:00-04:00

LEGO Architecture Studio celebrated its big launch in retail stores everywhere back in 2013 with the monochromatic Architectural Toolbox and a collection of LEGO-brick model kits of the world's most famous buildings. Although LEGO Architecture retired some of the kits over time, they recently unveiled their latest icon: the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C.

The neoclassical Capitol has undergone several construction phases and restoration since George Washington laid its foundation on September 18, 1793. But with this LEGO kit, you get to call all the shots.

For $99 a set, the LEGO reinterpretation contains over 1,000 pieces, including all the essentials like the columned façade, the two-tiered dome, colonnades, the north and south wings, and steps and lawns. The dome can be removed to reveal a detailed interior of the National Statuary Hall, complete with columns, a tiled floor, and statues.

You can also brush up on the Capitol's architectural design and history in an accompanying bookl...

Tallest Lego model in the U.S. unveiled: One World Trade Center in all its pixely might

2016-07-05T12:55:00-04:00

Just in time for the Independence Day weekend, Legoland is showing off an extensive remodel of its New York miniland, dominated by a towering replica of Manhattan’s One World Trade Center. [...] Nearly a year in the making, the redesigned New York area includes a number of new buildings, a dozen more moving automobiles and a subway system with new cars and tracks that are illuminated and feature sound effects that mimic the real thing.

The Legoland announcement proudly boasts these details:

"The One World Trade Center LEGO model is built with more than 250,000 LEGO bricks, and took eight Master Model Builders more than 1200 hours to build. This dynamic structure weighs more than 1,000 pounds and towers at a record breaking 26 feet, making it the tallest LEGO model in the U.S. For the first time ever, guests can use a special LEGO tower viewer giving them a skyscraper view of Miniland U.S.A. The area also features LEGO model replicas of the 9/11 Memorial’s twin reflecting pools, the grove of memorial trees and the impressive World Trade Center Transportation Hub."

Move over, Lego: Kengo Kuma creates elegant, wooden Tsumiki blocks

2016-01-11T17:53:00-05:00

Unlike Lego bricks, which are plastic, Tsumiki pieces are made of Japanese cedar (and manufactured using wood certified by the Forest Stewardship). And unlike the brick-shaped Lego blocks, each Tsumiki block is shaped like an inverted “V.” Triangular notches in the legs let the Tsumiki blocks wedge together, making them versatile like Lego bricks, albeit not as sturdy; some of the assembly models shown in Kuma’s Tsumiki brochure look about as solid as a house of cards.

More related news:

Why companies are having employees unplug and find solutions with LEGOs

2015-09-22T12:54:00-04:00

As the fast pace of technology calls for innovative, out-of-the-box thinking, corporations are looking for more unusual approaches to meet the challenges they face, often with “hands-on” or “unplugged” approaches. If LEGO is about anything, it’s the use of one’s hands while the mind is in an unplugged state. LEGO Serious Play capitalizes on this by asking the hands to find a solution that the mind hasn’t been able to on its own.