
What Could You Imagine Using Lego's New Architecture Kit?
Here’s something architecture nerds can finally geek out on. Lego has established its own Architecture Studio kit, part of its popular Architecture series. Unlike other kits in the show, which allow users build replicas of constructions such as Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater, the new Studio kit has 1,210 all-white bits that let contractors produce their own architecture.
It is geared toward ages 16 and up, and the expectation is that young design fans or perhaps college students studying architecture or design can use it for producing design prototypes and models. “We don’t see it like a professional toolkit, but it might serve as an inspiration for budding architects or as a pleasure sketching chance for real-time design ideas,” says Michael McNally, manufacturer relations manager at Lego Group.
In addition to allowing you produce prototypes, the kit, which retails for $150 and can be available starting August 1, comes with a 272-page publication that offers case studies of six professional firms and their innovative approaches to original design, anchored by construction inspirations and theories for brick assembly that mirror their strategies.
By way of instance, users can build figurines of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill’s projects, such as the Willis Tower or the Burj Khalifa Dubai, then reevaluate building inspiration based on the essentials of modules and reproduction, which the firm employed in designing its own buildings.
“Replicating these real-life cases will unleash some builder’s potential to make their own architecture,” McNally says.
The all-white pieces not just look slick but serve a sensible aesthetic function also. McNally discovered that gray blocks may unintentionally indicate concrete, tan bricks could indicate stucco and red might infer conventional bricks.
“Construction in dark bricks is frequently hard, as there is minimal prospect for delineating information, whereas white generates natural lines and shadows that can more accurately reflect shapes and form,” he says. “We’ve also never offered a kit that is totally white, so there is that novelty factor at play for collectors, also.”
The bits are not any different than the conventional Lego pieces that you are utilized to, but the beauty here is that “we show you how you can use the parts to re-create just about any architectural style — from neoclassical to contemporary,” McNally says.
Now excuse me ; I want to finish building my hybrid Star Wars Death Star–Burj Khalifa Dubai construction, thank you very much.
Tell us : What toys do you utilize to help brainstorm design ideas?
More: An Architect’s Guide to Color