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:

• The Brief and Wondrous Life of Modulex, Lego's Building System for Architects
• See Downtown Los Angeles in Legos
• Tallest Lego model in the U.S. unveiled: One World Trade Center in all its pixels might