LEGO: The Latest Architecture and News

LEGOs are universal world-building units and a popular gateway into architecture. Of course, you can build almost anything with them, cars, spaceships, you name it, but buildings of all kinds — from police-stations to castles — are some of the most popular subjects. What makes LEGOs so appealing to young, and not-so-young architects? What, specifically, makes them a good analogy for the design of buildings? In this episode, Stewart purchases a box of LEGOs and uses it as a springboard to talk about what he’s learned from the toy block system. From lessons on modularity and proportion, to grammar and resolution, to compositional categories of additive and subtractive, the video breaks down how these fundamental concepts apply to both LEGOs and to the history and design of architecture.  

Lego China has teamed up with CAA Architects to create a vision for a modular city in space. Designed by Liu Haowi, the city is made with a spacecraft below and a larger urban center above surrounded by an artificial gravitational field controlled by AI. Called "Crystal Space City", the project is constructed by modules and combines a city, oasis and an energy power system all together.

The Inspireli Awards have announced the winners of the student competition for the Czech Embassy in Addis Ababa. The fourth year of the competition offered students a unique opportunity to design in Ethiopia. This special competition category was announced by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic in cooperation with the Faculty of Civil Engineering CTU in Prague, Department of Architecture.

+ 3

Architects always find themselves searching for the most innovative ways of presenting their projects, going for elaborate models or Virtual Reality technologies driven by a passion for design, building, and creation. Perhaps this passion of architecture was triggered at an age earlier than expected, playing around with LEGO’s.

Now that LEGO has created an architecture-themed collection, the brand gave architecture lovers the opportunity to explore famous landmarks and recreate their structures with basic geometric blocks. Innovative architecture firm WAY Studio discovered the possibilities of model-making with LEGO’s and used its blocks as a design tool for a series of their projects.

+ 7

LEGO has revealed the newest addition to its Architecture set. The "Trafalgar Square" set will feature London landmarks such as the National Gallery, Nelson’s Column, and accessories such as micro-lion statues, fountains, and the city’s famous red double-decker buses.

Earlier this year, LEGO announced that they were beginning production on a new line of botanical-themed pieces made from sugarcane. This new line is just the start of the company's goal to only use sustainable materials in all major products and packaging by 2030. Here we will explore the process behind LEGO’s “going green” initiative, and the challenges they’ve faced in making more environmentally-friendly building blocks along the way.

Videos

The LEGO House by Bjarke Ingels Group now has its own Netflix documentary. Taking viewers on a journey through the conception, design, construction, and opening of the LEGO House, the documentary offers an insight into the challenges faced throughout the process, and the thoughts and reflections of the project’s key contributors, including Bjarke Ingels.

“LEGO House – Home of the Brick” offers the most thorough insight yet into the scheme’s creation, detailing major early construction issues, delays, and (spoiler alert!) the ultimate successful completion of one of the most iconic pieces of architecture created in recent years. The documentary dives into the history of the LEGO brand, the vision, and importance placed on the LEGO House by the company’s directors, and perhaps most interestingly, a series of interviews with Bjarke Ingels in which he reflects on the role of LEGO in the development of his own career.

Videos

Mecanoo has released images of their competition-winning social housing proposal for the city of Kaohsiung, Taiwan. The 234-unit-scheme embodies Mecanoo’s philosophy towards social housing, “defined by flexibility, the right balance of private and communal spaces, mixing housing types, connection with the environment and identity.” Comprised of two buildings linked by a green canopy, the scheme is designed for a variety of users, including students, young families, the elderly, or people with special needs.

+ 8

For all those Brickheads out there, interior designing has just reached another Lego-filled level. Created by an Italian team of designers, Stüda has made the dream of Lego compatible furniture a reality. Their modular furniture comes in an array of colors textured in studs that are capable of holding the infamous bricks and can be customized to your heart’s content.

+ 18

In its 2017 annual report, the LEGO Group has announced a decline in revenue for the first time in 13 years. But fret not brickheads – this news has already led to a reduction in prices, and may continue to do so moving forward until the company can unload its excess stock.

LEGO is going green. The Danish company has announced that they have begun production on a range of pieces made from a plant-based plastic sourced from sugarcane.

As a nod to their plant-based origins, the first sustainable pieces will take the form of LEGO botanical elements such as leaves, bushes and trees.

It’s hard to find an architecture enthusiast who wasn’t obsessed with LEGO as a kid. Many of us would spend hours carefully placing the small, colorful blocks to make our crazy, imaginary environments in our heads a reality—well, somewhat. Whether it was building a dream home for your dolls or simply trying to construct the tallest tower, LEGO was certainly responsible for the first flirtations with the profession. It is no question this tool unleashes our creativity, and this can be demonstrated in a variety of ways.

For this reason, we searched our archive for some architects which highlight the creative and innovative ways LEGO is being used in adult-life. From a few pieces of the LEGO® Architecture Series to the appropriation of some important offices such as Zaha Hadid Architects and MVRDV, urban interventions are being inspired by toys and even serving as a furniture mold.

Thousands of people in Tel Aviv put together over 500,000 plastic building blocks to create the tallest LEGO structure in the world. The project was created in memory of 8-year-old Omer Sayag, who loved the toy blocks before he was taken by cancer in 2014.

Thinking about resting for a few days during the holidays? We have selected a number of LEGO® sets that are sure to relax you and inspire you so that you too can enjoy these amazing, colorful, minimalist blocks by exploring the wonderful world of architecture, engineering, and construction.

With great inspirations from Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe in the Architecture Series, and some of the world's most iconic works such as the Eiffel Tower, the White House, the Empire State Building, the Big Ben or the Lincoln Memorial in Monumental Series, we invite you to test your skills and be inspired by the following LEGO® Architecture guide.

Check out below!

Videos

Airbnb has teamed up with LEGO to offer fanatics the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to spend the night in the newly-opened LEGO House in Billund, Denmark. Contest winners will be able to enjoy the BIG-designed building all for themselves for one night, where they will be treated to a special program of events before retiring to the bedroom located beneath a 6-metre-tall LEGO waterfall and surrounded by a pool of bricks.

Check out the details below.

+ 8

LEGO has announced the release of one of their largest-ever builds, a 5,923-piece Creator Export kit of the Taj Mahal.

The kit is an update of what was once the largest set ever produced by LEGO, launched in 2008 but discontinued in 2010. While preserving largely the same appearance, the re-release will contain one piece more than its predecessor.

+ 5