Stephanie G. Mathis Moshe Safdie, an Israeli-Canadian architect, set the architectural world ablaze with his Habitat 67 project for Expo 67 in Montreal. He used LEGO bricks as the basis of the first planning. It shows:
LEGO, founded in Denmark in 1934, has a long history of being associated with architecture. The original LEGO plastic set, Town Plan No. The first LEGO plastic set, Town Plan No. 1, was released in 1957 and allowed children to build a gas station, hotel, and other buildings.
The Sydney Opera House joins New York’s Empire State Building, Seattle’s Space Needle, and other iconic buildings in LEGO’s 2012 architecture range. AAP Image/James Morgan
The early LEGO sets were based on buildings. Whether it’s the firehouses, police stations, and other structures in the Town theme (and the city later) released in 1978 or the elaborate dungeons and keeps in the castle series.
LEGO released sets in the 1960s, but they were a failure. The company quickly refocused on children, particularly boys aged 5-12, with sets featuring cars, spaceships, and eventually Star Wars.
LEGOLAND: Trouble at the Park
In the early 2000s, a few strange things started to happen. LEGO began to lose a lot of money as its core demographic of boys switched to video games and other interactive diversions.
The once family-owned company had to hire an outside CEO to help it make up the difference.
It also noticed that many adults enjoyed building with LEGO. The “Adult LEGO Fans” (or “AFOLs”) became very important for the Danish brand, and they were able to identify one in particular.
He was Adam Reed Tucker, and he enjoyed building huge replicas of buildings in Chicago, his hometown.
LEGO was desperate enough to allow him to try his idea for a premium set series that featured iconic architectural figures. In 2008, the first set of the LEGO architecture line was released. It is a 69-brick reconstruction of the Sears Tower.
Doubts quashed
LEGO’s doubts about the product vanished when the first half of the run was sold out within ten days. A new way of thinking emerged in the company.
Instead of selling kits in toy shops to children and their parents, adults can pick up architectural replicas of the White House and the Brandenburg Gate at galleries and museums around the world.
In galleries and museums around the world, adults can now purchase architectural models of the White House and the Brandenburg Gate. Ronny Nussbaum
Tucker has designed around 20 sets of architecture. There are very few architect’s offices that don’t have a model of Fallingwater and Robie House by Frank Lloyd Wright. A thriving subculture of YouTube videos featuring stop-motions of the models in assembly has also developed.
Some of the most ambitious examples combine stop-motion animation with computer graphics.
Stop motion Fallingwater, now with water added!
The LEGO Architectural Studio is the latest product to be released by the company. It was released a few months ago in the US and contains more than 1,200 white or clear bricks.
This set does not copy any particular building, as LEGO has done in recent years.
The set also includes a 272-page book that explains some basic architectural principles, such as mass and density and negative space. The set also contains endorsements by prestigious architectural practices like MAD Architects and Sou Fujimoto Architects.
LEGO fans have the option to buy ancient models such as the Taj Mahal. Alderley
This set is reminiscent of the early days of LEGO when the founder, Ole Kirk Christiansen, dreamed about creating a system that would let children build freely and imagine their versions of the universe. LEGO is a contraction for the Danish phrase leg Godt or “play well.”
The monochromatic blocks of the Architecture Studio will not be a favorite among children. It’s going to be architects, students of architecture, and other AFOLs.
LEGO accepts that its sets are targeted at adults and will receive some snarkiness. Among AFOLs, the Architecture series has been criticized for being overpriced. A Studio set costs around US$150, which is about twice the price of children’s sets that contain the same amount of bricks.
LEGO paid homage to New York City’s Empire State Building by creating a model, as well as a King Kong Minifig. Pedro Vezini
The all-white LEGO bricks are popular among architects. And no, the LEGO designers didn’t want to imitate minimalists like Richard Meier and John Pawson. The only color not to evoke a popular building material is white.
Now, even we mere mortals are able to design and build architectural designs of our own. We can also mimic famous ones like the Empire State Building. LEGO launched a contest to allow us to vote on the iconic building that Adam Reed Tucker should immortalize in the next Architecture Series set.
Don’t expect much. Moshe Safdie won the 2012 competition with his Habitat 67, but the company chose not to produce a set that incorporated the design.
