LEGO® SET AS a TOOL ENHANCING CREATIVITY in ARCHITECTURE, URBAN PLANNING and DESIGN Armando Garcia Teixeira, Ján Legény, Michal Brašeň
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
VÝSKUM NAVRHOVANIA LEGO® SET AS A TOOL ENHANCING CREATIVITY IN ARCHITECTURE, URBAN PLANNING AND DESIGN Armando Garcia Teixeira, Ján Legény, Michal Brašeň INTRODUCTION HISTORY OF LEGO® Architecture as a discipline has the inherent The Lego® Brick is a cultural phenomenon potential of overlapping with areas that do with its own history. It was designed in not appear related to its own scope of func- Denmark during the Cold War that followed tions at first sight. Along with town plan- WWII and has since swept the world off its ning, the discipline is closely linked with feet. First patented on 28 January 1958, the mass evaluation, mutual relations of build- use and popularity of the Lego® Group (here- ings’ volumes impacting on the users’ and inafter referred to as “the LEGO Group”) has inhabitants’ everyday life. Contemporary IT grown exponentially through the decades and technologies enable architecture to “material- most likely surpassed the expectations of Ole ise” in virtual space (to be performed in silico, Kirk Christiansen, a bold carpenter of hum- i.e. on computer or via computer simulation, ble beginnings, based in Billund (Denmark). transl. note) but the creative design process In 1932, Ole founded a factory that would calls for the direct connection between the later become the house of Lego and the LEGO hand and the mind – using a “thinking hand” Group, and be led by his grandsons in the whenever one is in need of inspiration, as years to come. Taking its name originally by Juhani Pallasmaa argues.1 The idea is that, by a derivation from the Danish phrase leg godt suspending one’s critical faculties and let- (meaning “play well”), Lego® mainly produced ting one’s hand simply roam free, one’s fin- wooden toys; remarkably, the 1950s famous gers might fashion something unexpected. duck may be the most emblematic toy in the Besides sketching or modelling there exist company’s early history. Following the trend other tools which can be applied in the de- of those years, the company’s expansion into sign process. The aim of this article is to ex- the plastic toys segment took place between plain the relation between the Lego® set and 1940 and 1949. It was not before mid-1950s architecture, urban planning and design, to that the company’s production consisted pre- identify its potential for creation, creativity, dominantly of plastic while wooden toys were and design innovation, and also to justify it as discontinued in the 1960s. The generations a teaching tool. raised in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s lived in 4 ALFA 4 / 2019 ALFA_4_2019.indd 4 01/06/2020 10:58 LEGO® SET AS A tool the creation process with the Mindstorms 2.0 and Mindstorms NXT.5 The very same could be said about the Ideas sets, where fans sub- mit a creation that is reviewed by the compa- ny after gaining ten thousand votes from the community around the globe. The latest addi- tions include the Treehouse, the Steamboat Willie, Dinosaur Fossils, the Pop-Up Book and the Ship in a Bottle. Over the course of writing this paper the authors encountered numerous astonishing original MOCs that could very well summarize the current state of brick-built inventions better than words (→ 1). The LEGO Group hysteria did not go un- noticed in the mainstream media when Bloomberg dedicated an article entitled The Hot New Asset Class Is Lego® Sets and Newsweek released two special editions (Newsweek 2018 and 2019) celebrating 60 years of the Lego® brick as we know it and 40 years of Lego® minifigures “minifigs”( with their fixed scale of 1:48) in the following year, respectively.6 By 2019, the LEGO Group an- nounced there are more minifigures than 1 Left to right actual human beings in the world. Another Pablo Sánchez Jiménez interesting fact is that as a widespread con- (creator of the approved Lego® Ideas’ Pirate Bay) rendered in the software Stud.io; the memorable time of classic space, castle struction toy in the world it reaches the error The recreation of Erwin Govaerts’ and pirate lines of sets, causing commotion rate in manufacturing of 5 pieces per 1 mil- Raf & Otje’s playground in Turnhout (Belgium) and nostalgia while prompting the reissuance lion bricks. with 50 thousand bricks; of many of the classics in later years. Nowadays, the Lego® Architecture’s and the cyberpunk favela by Sebastien Bachorzewski. Source: Courtesy of the creators who allowed Today, the LEGO Group has developed Edition is very popular mainly among archi- the reproduction of their work in this paper. a worldwide community of enthusiasts tects and architecture lovers. These minimal- from a diverse set of age groups and back- ist sets aim to “celebrate the past, present and grounds. AFOLs (Adult Fans of Lego®) and future of architecture through the Lego® Brick”.7 youngsters organize fairs where they display The brand includes a series of Lego® sets de- their Lego® MOCs (my own creation)2. Some signed by Adam Reed Tucker (CEO of the are accepted as ambassadors by the com- Brickstructures, Inc.), and each contains the pany and voluntarily promote the hobby via pieces and instructions to build a model of a social media and events such as the Brick famous architectural building in micro-scale. Universe Fan Convention and Brickfair Lego® The buildings are further categorised into Fan Expo (US), Festibriques (FR) or Lego® three smaller series: TheLandmark Series, the Fanwelt (DE). The brick experience is guar- Architect Series, and the Skyline Series. From anteed in several thematic parks around the the beginning of 2009 until 2019, 45 sets globe where exclusive sets are available for with 10 special editions were released, includ- purchase. The AFOL romance was well de- ing the Villa Savoye, Empire State Building, picted in the book Lego®: a Love Story.3 Jeff Sears Tower, Sydney Opera House, the Friesen narrates a tour of the U.S.A. overplay- Leaning Tower of Pisa, Guggenheim Museum ing the stereotypes of the visited locations in and many others. every state with brick built sceneries.4 The latest edition –Lego® Architecture After diversifying its portfolio in the late Studio – comprises white block sets, using 1990s and early 2000s, the LEGO Group dealt primarily the smaller “plate” pieces rather with a setback in profits. In response, the than the larger “brick” pieces. „This allows company involved and encouraged users in creating very compact, yet highly detailed ALFA 4 / 2019 5 ALFA_4_2019.indd 5 01/06/2020 10:58 VÝSKUM NAVRHOVANIA replicas of buildings designed to scale.“The limiting.10 The increase in the variability of main aim of this edition is to get young and shapes, angles and the number of pieces does old bricksmiths across the world over to allow for an expansion in the possibility of thinking about the core concepts of archi- creation with the parts included in a set. After tectural design. Using the white colour actu- all, even sets that follow strict guidelines on ally creates natural lines and shadows that how to build or play with them can be seen as can represent architectural shapes and forms boxes packed with interesting/useful pieces more accurately. This edition has another for one’s MOC (My Own Creation). advantage, too. “With every Lego® Architecture In 2014, Mark J.P. Wolf as an editor ana- Studio, Lego® has included a vividly designed lysed, with other authors, the media phenom- 268-page book that illustrates real-world case enon of the LEGO brand and its potential studies of six different professional forms (REX for media studies within the volume of his- Architecture, Sou Fujimoto, SOM, MAD toric studies of the bricks.11 In his study, Mr. Architects, Tham & Videgård, and Safdie Giddings highlights a gap in the actual play- Architects) trying to seriously explain the princi- ing with Lego®, where a distinction needs ples of the original architectural design by show- to be drawn between a world of narrative in ing how you can do it all in Lego®.”8 It includes unthemed sets, meaning the proto-architec- theories on architecture and construction, tural bricks, before the themed Lego® Space where authors get their inspirations from or was released in the 1970s, and the newer sets how their design process works. (→ 2) where the imaginative aspect may be hin- The Lego® Company also supports many dered by strict guidelines, and a prefabricated other projects and competitions, such as the phantasmagorical world such as in the Star Inspireli Awards, the world’s biggest global Wars, Harry Potter or Marvel themed sets.12 student contest in architecture, urban de- However, in the same book, there is a detailed 2 Top to bottom sign, landscape and interior design, involv- account of the LEGO Group’s timeless suc- Model of Villa Savoye. ing 136 countries around the world. This cess through different epochs from a national Author: Blipken; Available at: https://commons. wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lego®_Architecture_21014_Villa_ year was a very special one for the Faculty to a global product. From this perspective, Savoye.jpg of Architecture of the Slovak University of Koncazk describes this development as influ- Model of Guggenheim Museum. Technology (FA SUT), Bratislava, Slovakia, enced by the 19th century National Romantic Author: Blipken; Available at: https://commons. after two students won the special section – Movement and the Biedermeier culture – re- wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lego®_Architecture_21035_ Solomon_R._Guggenheim_Museum.jpg “Design a real project” in October 2019. Their spect for family, church values and close ties Model of Lincoln Memorial. design of the Czech Embassy in Addis Ababa to the local community – from national to ro- Author: Blipken; Available at: https:// was transformed into a unique Lego® model mantic and transmedial.13 commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lego®_ Architecture_21022_Lincoln_Memorial.jpg in a special Powered by Lego® Architecture Furthermore, it is important to highlight box.