LEGOISM: Sketching Utopia
Francisco Marrero
Chapter one: Play Well
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LEGOISM: Sketching Utopia
LEGOISM: Sketching Utopia
Francisco Marrero
Contents
Chapter One: Play Well
Defining Play
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History
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A Modernist Mentality
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Chapter Two: Sketching Utopia
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The Building Blocks of Architecture
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Inspiring The World Around Us
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Challening Our Perception
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Chapter Three: Blocks To Pixels
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Digital & Film
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The Minecraft Universe
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Printing Utopia
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Introduction
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his book explores Lego through deconstructing its core values and analysing the meaning being their motto; contextualizing its success with the Modernist thoughts and ideas that emerged from Europe around the second decade of the 1900’s that influenced Ole Kirk Kristiansen and his son who created the iconic plastic brick we are today so familiar with, which has stood the test of time and transcended to become a ‘design classic’. Play is at the heart of Lego, after all, it is a toy, the importance of play is often challenged and in our society and play is neglected as we grow up. Sketching Utopia explores Lego trhough architecture, applying basic architectural principles to creations made out of the plastic bricks. The journey follows into the digital era and how these very principles are being reinterpreted an adapting to a more digitally oriented generation.
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“ Pre-war, a lot of the most influential philosophers and early-years educators had come to the conclusion that children learn through play, they learn through their hands, the hand is an extension of the brain. The idea of play and development toys encourage a certain kind of ‘good play’ if you like, learning through play became very much the currency of the age” 1.A Mark Dudek, Specialist in Architectural Design for Children.
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Learning Through Play Play is a universal phenomenon with a pervasive and enduring presence in human history. It has fascinated philosophers, painters, and poets for generations. Article 31 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child recognizes the significance of play in the lives of children, acknowledging play as a specific right, in addition to and distinct from the child’s right to recreation and leisure. The extended period of childhood amongst modern humans is one attribute that sets us apart from hominids such as Homo erectus and early forms of Homo sapiens.
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Slow growth and extended childhood enable a longer learning period for modern humans than for previous hominids. Not only does this facilitate greater cognitive development than before, but also it provides the opportunity to establish wide social networks and alliances that may confer reproductive fitness. While this advantage seems particularly appropriate for hunter-gatherers, it is not irrelevant for urban dwellers.
1.1 Gemma Building with Lego.
Defining Play P
lay is a meaningful experience. It is also tremendously satisfying for children, a pursuit they seek out eagerly, and one they find endlessly absorbing. Anyone who has spent any time watching children play knows they engage deeply and they take their play very seriously.
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It is paradoxical, it is serious and non-serious, real and not real, apparently purposeless and yet as previously mentioned it is essential to our development. It is resilient, children continue to play in the most traumatic of situations, and yet fragile, there is increasing evidence that play deprivation has a damaging impact on an individual’s development.
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1.2 Railway Builder at Legoland.
Although play is a common experience, and a universal one, it is difficult to define precisely for the purposes of multidisciplinary scholarly research.
“ Intrinsically motivated Controlled by the players Concerned with process Non-literal Free of externally imposed rules Active engagement of players”
1.B Defining Play, Rubin, Fein, and Vandenburg draw existing psychological definitions, developing a consensus around a definition of play.
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It may look to outsiders as if the children are just having fun, but teachers and psychologists know that play is how children learn. Through play, they become mini-scientists, exploring the world around them. But they also learn social skills and teamwork, and discover what can happen when they let their imaginations run free. If it's so good for reception-age children, why do we stop encouraging play as they move up the school? According to a recent survey by Lego Education, teachers believe that greater use of creative approaches is needed in the classroom to help students acquire essential skills for the future, and that the current curriculum, with its emphasis on teaching to the test, doesn't do enough to help creativity flourish.
1.3 Gemma’s Lego creation. 1.4 Gemma Playing with Bricks.
Children are born into a world of signs, symbols and human-made artifacts, and before long, they appropriate these tools and start making their own original contributions. From speech to writing, from drawing to playing the flute, from taking a picture to building a sand castle, children learn to say it, to freeze it, and to refine and edit their expressions.
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THE IMPORTANCE OF PLAY IN CREATIVE LEARNING [1.C] A recent Guardian roundtable brought together experts from education, academia and industry, to discuss how we could encourage creativity and the greater use of play in the classroom. The event, sponsored by Lego Education, was conducted under the Chatham House rule, which states that comments are not attributed to speakers, to encourage open debate. So what is creative learning – and why is it important? One participant provided a definition early on in the debate: “Creativity comes as a result of trial and error, collaboration, curiosity, being fearless and experimenting”. To promote creativity, he argued, teachers needed to move away from a “broadcast” model of education and allow children a degree of freedom to make discoveries for themselves. The roundtable heard that schools’ current emphasis on rote learning was failing to equip students for the world of work. “What firms are actually looking for is aptitude, attitudes, capabilities and the willingness to engage with the world of work”, said one participant. He pointed out that what engineers often do at work is also “play”: they investigate a problem with a machine, for example, by “playing” with it. They start with a concrete problem, and then think in abstract terms about how to solve it (perhaps by building a model or writing an equation), and then apply the abstract solution to the concrete problem. An education based on learning facts or doing things by the book is no preparation for this, he argued.
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1.5 Daniel Building with Lego.
Not all participants agreed, however, that schools are enmeshed in an old-fashioned “chalk-and-talk” model of education, and some pointed out that many teachers do their best to encourage creative approaches. “There are teachers who are desperate to open up their classrooms to more innovative kinds of ideas, but that is quite hard when there is a political agenda around standards that you must pay attention to”, the roundtable heard. There was a view around the table that current methods of assessment were antithetical to creative learning. “The harsh reality is that every six weeks kids are tested and assessed to pass certain goals, which are not necessarily to do with being creative or innovative. Our kids today are terrified of taking risks, of getting something wrong”, said one participant.
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1.6 Scale, Lego Creation.
“ So many toys are about destruction, and Lego is about construction, so it seems to be about learning how to be a good person, by building, by creating a better world”
1.D Alain de Botton, Philosopher.
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1.7 Children’s Games, Pieter Bruegel the Elder 1560. Flemish renaissance oil on panel, showing people of all ages engaging in 80 different types of play.
Plato advised that future architects should play at building houses as children, and, indeed, most architects learned the laws of gravity, physics, engineering, and omnipotence playing with construction kits. Lego bricks and Erector and Meccano sets allow children and adults to create an infinite range of structures that explore form and test the limits of stability. Construction sets, which have a long history, were originally conceived in the eighteenth century as “philosophical toys”: they were intended not only to amuse but to serve an important educational purpose. In so doing, they played a crucial part in shaping the modern world.
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Frank Gehry, the Pritzker prize winning architect behind the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao; laments the loss of “creative play” in the architecture profession. Gehry defines “creative play” as “letting one’s intuition express itself, but in a knowledgeable, not haphazard way” and this playful spirit is an integral part of his working practice, which involves modeling with coloured wooden building blocks, not unlike outsized Lego bricks, that allow him to experiment with space, scale, and volume.
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1.8 Blueprints for Ole Kirk’s house, also containing a LEGO model of the house.
History T
he Lego Group is now the fourth largest toy manufacturer in the world. It’s a privately owned business that employs more than 5,000 people worldwide. About 150 designers of 18 nationalities design and plan the elements for all the different Lego sets. These sets are sold in more than 130 countries.
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The company started as a small family operation. It began in 1932, when Ole Kirk Christiansen started a business in Billund, Denmark. Christiansen made things from wood, including ladders and toys. Christiansen’s company continued to make wooden toys until 1960, when its wooden toy warehouse was destroyed in a fire.
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1.9 Ole Kirk Kristiansen 1921 By the 1920’s ole was Billbund’s carpenter of choice, crafter barns and furniture for the farming community. but he didn’t stop at wood, his lofty ambition included the brick.
1.10 Wooden Toy c.1930 The farmers no longer wanted barns or houses, so OKK decided to make smaller things that they could afford.
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“ He loved to play, you could walk out by outside the house and you would probably get a bucket of water in your head, but that was how he was, and they had a lot of water fights, he was a great man and he loved children”.
“ 1932 started to become a crisis and he had no income, he couldn’t even get the money the farmers owed him because they had none”.
In 1934 Ole Kirk Kristiansen named his new business Lego, an abbreviation of the Danish words ‘leg godt’, meaning ‘to play well’. He was convinced the business had a future, but his brothers thought otherwise.
“ They didn’t like it, they actually encouraged him to give up the toy business, because they didn’t think it was a serious business with a future, but they were wrong – you could say”.
1.E Jette Orduna, Director at Lego Idea House.
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During the Nazi occupation of Denmark, anxious parents bought Oleg’s wooden toys to cheer up their children, but wood was needed for fuel and Denmark was running out. In 1947 Lego started making plastic toys, it was the first company in Denmark to use plastic injection-molding. Oleg and his team spent the next decade researching, developing and experimenting with plastic toys, the brick they created chanted powerfully the new mood of the age. The Lego Group began adding additional elements to the basic bricks in the 1960s and 1970s. Lego figures, which originally had a yellow skin tone and were neither male nor female, arrived on the scene in 1974. The mechanical elements known as Lego Technic hit the market in 1977, and Mindstorms robots products made their debut in 1998. The Mindstorms line was the product of a collaboration between the Lego Group and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab.
1.11  Lego Brick Patent. This new stud and tube coupling would prove to be the most critical innovation in the history of the company. Godtfred, realizing the value of the new design and perhaps mindful of the Kiddicraft brick a decade earlier, immediately set out to protect the new design.
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Lego refined their designs between 1949 and 1958, since then, the basic bricks have remained unchanged. Chapter one: Play Well
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1.12 Lego Group’s Development Department, Billund Denmark. Architects Bosch & Fjord 2007, Photograph by Anders Sune Berg.
Lego Group Today
Although Lego has introduced several theme sets over the years, including House, Farm and Pirates, the company didn’t create any licensed products until 1999. That’s when Lego introduced Star Wars and Winnie-the-Pooh sets. The decision to make licensed products wasn’t an easy one for the company. Producing a set of elements that had a set purpose rather than being open-ended was completely contrary to their philosophy of imaginative building play. However, the Star Wars sets quickly became the best selling new product line in company history. The company’s philosophy now is that these sets add storytelling to building play.
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There are also numerous themed sets on the market as well as larger Quatro and Duplo bricks for infants and toddlers. But in spite of the popularity of all these product lines, the last few years haven’t been easy for the Lego Group. The Lego Group’s profits peaked in the mid-1990s. In 1998, the company reported a pre-tax loss. It had its first large-scale layoff in 1999, and in 2000 it lost about a billion Danish Kroner (about $120 million). Most analysts theorize that the new prevalence of electronic devices marketed to children, like MP3 players and video game systems, has caused part of the drop in sales. In addition, the Lego Group’s major patents have expired, so competitors like Mega Bloks have been able to produce less-expensive sets that are compatible with Lego bricks.
1.13 Plastic granules, ready to become lego bricks.
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Manufacturing, Testing & Packaging
MANUFACTURING All of the basic Lego elements start out as plastic granules composed primarily of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS). A highly automated injection molding process turns these granules into recognizable bricks. The making of a Lego brick requires very high temperatures and enormous pieces of equipment, so machines, rather than people, handle most of their creation. When the ABS granules arrive at Lego manufacturing facilities, they’re vacuumed into several storage silos. The average Lego plant has about 14 silos, and each can hold 33 tons of ABS granules. When production begins, the granules travel through tubes to the injection molding machines.
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The machines melt the granules at temperatures of up to 450 degrees F (232˚C), inject the melted ABS into molds and apply between 25 and 150 tons of pressure. After about seven seconds, the new Lego pieces cool and fall onto a conveyor. At the end of the conveyor, they fall into a bin. When the bin fills, the molding machine signals a robot to pick it up and carry it to an assembly hall. In the Billund factory, eight robots move 600 bins of elements per hour. In the assembly hall, machines stamp designs onto bricks and assemble components that require multiple pieces, like minifigures, also called minifigs. The machines assemble the components by applying precise amounts of pressure to specific parts.
TESTING & PACKAGING If you’ve bought a Lego set, whether it’s a box of assorted bricks or a set meant for building something specific, you’ve probably noticed that the box includes several bags of bricks rather than a large pile of loose elements. These bags are part of the automated packaging process, and they help make sure that the right pieces go into each box. During the packaging process, bins open and close automatically, dropping precise numbers of bricks into each polypropylene bag. A machine weighs these bags to make sure their contents are correct. If a specific bag’s weight is incorrect, an operator can replace that bag, rather than having to discard an entire set.
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1.14  Lego minifigure heads in the processing facility. Lego Factory Billund. In 2019 there will be more Minifigs in the world than there actually are people, It’s a bit like a Maternity Ward.
At the end of the process, packaging operators fold the boxes, add any necessary pieces and make sure that the machines haven’t made any mistakes. The sealed boxes are stored and shipped around the world, the process uses between 400,000 and 500,000 cardboard boxes per year. Quality assurance testers also perform numerous inspections and tests on Lego elements. Machines perform drop, torque, tension, compression, bite and impact tests to make sure the toys are sturdy and safe. Technicians use a measuring beaker to determine whether pieces could cause a choking hazard for small children. For every million Lego elements, about eighteen, or 0.00002 percent, fail to pass the tests.
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1.15  Processing facility in Billund Denmark, counting machines.
Lego factories produce 33,000 bricks every minute, for a total of 16 billion bricks every year. 32
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1.16 Representation of Bauhaus famous primary colours in Lego.
A Modernist Mentality I
t is no coincidence that Frank Lloyd wright, Le Corbusier, and Buckminster Fuller were all taught in Kindergarten the school system that introduced building blocks into educational play. These simple forms reveal the first traces of modernism, the start of a relationship between architecture and creative children’s games that continues to this day.
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In inventing Kindergarten (1997), the New York sculptor and architect Norman Brosterman argues that the pedagogical tools used in the second half of the nineteenth century might be interpreted as having laid the ground for geometric abstraction in art and architecture. Bosterman convincingly shows that the 20 ‘play gifts’ or architectural toys used by the German educator Friedrich Froebel to teach children an appreciation of abstract patterns were the building blocks of abstract patterns were the building blocks of modernism.
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1.17  Tableau with Red, Black, Blue and Yellow, Piet Mondrian 1921.
Defining Modernism
Modernism flourished during the years 1914 to 1939 and was the key point of reference for twentieth-century architecture, design and art, as classicism and realism had been in previous centuries. Rejecting history and applied ornament, and embracing abstraction, Modernists had a utopian desire to create a better world. This frequently combined with left-leaning political and social beliefs that design and art had the power to transform society. They extolled functionality and utility and an aesthetic hereby beauty was achieved though efficiency and perfection of form.
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Modernism largely revolved around the attempt to bring together art and the machine. Not only were the means of artistic production mechanized, for example, in film and photography, the machine became a powerful symbol of the Modernist aspiration to social improvement through technology. The period also saw the beginning of the healthy living revolution in which the virtues of the healthy body were celebrated in art as well as in life. New Industrial materials, open plan interiors and large windows to admit maximum natural light were features of virtually all their buildings.
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1.18  Red and Blue Chair by Gerrit Rietveld, 1918.
1.19  Competition design for a shopping street with housing above in den Haag, Cornelis van Eesteren 1924.
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Ole Kirk Kristiansen with a background in architecture would have been exposed to Modernist ideas that around the time would have been quite prominently flowing through Europe. Lego bricks are modular units that can be assembled in countless ways, but more importantly their interlocking system allows them to be taken back apart. Lego 1958’s ‘Automatic binding brick’ are still compatible with modern Lego, this is modular design at it’s best, a Modernist principle embodied to create a world of systematic and efficient countless possibilities which at it’s core embraces principles of scale, abstraction and structure.
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1.20 Mondrian by Andy Bauch, Lego on Wooden Frame, sold commercially from HippoBricks.
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1.21 Red and Blue Lego Chair by Mario Minale, 2010.
“ The smooth cardboard triangles and maple-wood blocks were most important. All are in my fingers to this day… I soon became susceptible to constructive pattern evolving in everything I saw. I learned to ‘see’ this way and when I did, I did not care to draw casual incidentals to Nature. I wanted to design” 1.F Frank Lloyd Wright in his autobiography acknowledged the profound influence this education had on him. He was taught not to copy nature but to appreciate the basic forms hidden behind appearances.
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There’s a log tradition of architects seeking out construction toys for children, in the 1870’s Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, Buckminster Fuller, and many other members of the architectural Avant-garde went to kindergarten schools and played with Froebel’s geometric toys. They sat at special gridded desks where they experimented with knitted balls, building blocks, coloured sticks, rings, mosaic tiles, and a rudimentary construction set made from toothpicks with dried peas for the joins. Froebel drew plans for educational tools that implicitly foreshadowed the actual buildings that Wright, Mies van der Rohe, Adolf Loos, and Le Corbusier would design when they grew up.
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1.22 Wooden Blocks and Lego, representation of Foebel’s gifts.
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1.23 Falling Acre, FAT. The pieces from the Fallingwater model have been used to construct a proposal for a new urban masterplan reminiscent of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Broadacre City concept. 1.24 Foster & Partners chose two iconic 20th-century buildings, Fallingwater and the Empire State Building, and brought them together to make a new mixed-use Lego development, somewhere to both live and work. 1.25 Meltingwater, ATMOS. “Bring out the nature of the materials,” Lloyd Wright said and, using the Lego model of Fallingwater, that’s what we did; a tiny tribute to his organicism. “Stone,” he wrote, “is the mass residue of intense heat,” and so was our riposte.
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It is no surprise that these structures, with their careful balance of interpenetrating forms, lend themselves to being reimagined as architectural toys: you can now buy a kit that enables you to build his famous Fallingwater in Lego pieces. The architectural magazine Icon asked several leading practices to take this set, or others from Lego’s architecture series, and rebuild them in their own fashion. Foster and Partners fused Fallingwater with the Empire State Building to create a sustainable tower with a series of hanging gardens; FAT laid the pieces from the Wright model out as a city grid; ATMOS melted it in the oven in response to Wright’s suggestion that architecture would “bring out the nature of materials”. They showed that the fun of Lego was that, deviating from the plan, you could make anything you liked.
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“ When you play with Lego, you take a spatial unit and you add it to another and there’s a bigger space being built. You’ll remember how you did it, and you’ll remember how that brick felt on your finger, you become a producer, not a consumer”
2.A Olafur Eliansson, Artist.
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The Building Blocks of Architecture L
ego might be an enormous brand, a ubiquitous toy but it also has a strong relationship with the buildings around us, it is after all a brick. Toys like Lego help us play at being architects, most of us loose that ability, but some people keep it, and they haven’t stopped building, and the toys they played with as children have helped inspired some of the most important buildings of our time.
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Lego is not just a kid’s toy; I think there’s a bit of a direct connection between Lego and the real worlds of buildings we create all around us. I think that Lego has changed the way we think about architecture.
“ Lego seems like the most obvious way to turn an idea into action, you don’t need tools or knives, not even glue, is a bit like grabbing a pencil and just drawing on paper. It is a three-dimensional sketching tool”
2.B Bjarke Ingels, Founder, BIG: Bjarke Ingels Group.
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Principles applied
Through lego we realise robots and Star Wars, spaceships and helicopters, but at the root of all these creations is a simple brick, and that is no accident, Lego’s beginings are steeped in building and architecture. The creative journey starts with understanding and exploration. One can start developing ideas by setting two bricks together. A very simple structure could become a house or an environment around it. The lego brick is the perfect tool for exploring the ideas of architecture. The use of well-established design principles increase the probability that a design will be successful and through Lego we can create models trhough which we can explore them and apply in our creations.
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2.1 Abstraction: this build draws from the uneveness of mountains and peaks for the side rendering of rounded clear modules.
ABSTRACTION: The dictionary defines abstraction as ‘freedom from representational qualities in art’. Abstraction is the method through which we use various sources as inspiration in the design process. It starts by choosing an image, object, site, topic or even a feeling as inspiration. To abstract means to ‘draw away’. Important features from your source of inspiration are expresseed in your design.
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2.2 Scale: Street plan, bricks represent lower buildings whilst atower of clear bricks represents a skyscrapper.
SCALE The default scale of a Lego brick is 1:1, whilst looking a pile of bricks, the question of scale is merely a question of relations between bricks. At the moment you start to relate the brick to it’s surroundings, even if it’s in your imagination, you define the scale of the objects. It is also directly linked to the level of detail you want to include in your design. One brick could be a city block, and the studs could be small buildings, or a combination of bricks could be a house. The scale of the brick is in the eye of the designer. Looking at Modernist Architects, Le Corbusier exploited the possibilities of vast open floors in Villa Savoye, which has a feeling of lightness almost like its very floors were floating. Frank Lloyd Wright in Fallingwater, later demonstrated how floors could be layered in an acrobatic mis-aligned way.
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2.3  Space.
SPACE Space is not a thing, but an experience. Many different kinds of spaces can be created by applying a variety of architectural methods like terracing, post-and-beam construction and the use of walls and arches. Building with many flat floors creates a homogenous space, which spreads horizontally – stretching to the horizon; terraces of cascading water levels create a floating, flowing space. The Guggenheim in New York is a space that flows in a spiral around the central core of the building. We can use a variety of techniques to create spatial effects. Architects seek to create memorable experiences in their structures; they have to imagine how the people who use them will feel. Space has a deep relationship with the human body, and architects consider body measurements and human perceptions when creating spaces.
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2.4  Light.
LIGHT Light is another important element that determines the perception of a space. Architectural spaces are the places where we live our lives; they are deeply connected to human experiences, and therefore the kind of light that fills these places is vital. When creating various spaces you have to consider not just the form of space, but also the light that will illuminate it and how it will be experienced. Modern and contemporary examples of architecture we’ve looked at so far make use of abundant light. The window is the simplest method of allowing in light, and the stained glass used in cathedrals is a magnificent invention for lighting, creating brilliantly colourful spaces. Making architecture is about creating places of brilliant light. Light also creates shadows, which can then create new light by reflecting internally on the walls, ceilings, and floors.
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2.5  Structure.
STRUCTURE When thinking about architecture, it is necessary to always consider structure. Failing to do so will mean that your constructions will collapse and will never be able to be built. It can intuitively be understood trhough Lego; build a simple structure with posts and beams, walls and roofs. If it collapses, then the basic structure was unsound. The history of architecture is determined by the structural limitations of each period. The Grecian use of stone pillars and beams, resulted in forms that were structurally determined by this method. Roman arches developed out of the desire to create larger spaces without posts. More recent innovations in steel and concrete have led to the birth of new structural shapes, and more architectural experimentation.
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2.6  Proportions.
PROPORTIONS The space of architecture depends heavily on the impression and the experience you have when walking into and around a space. An important thing to remember when creating such effects is proportion. The impression created by a narrow hallway is different from the impression of a cube-shaped room. Similarly, a space that is vast, but with low headspace, gives an entirely different impression from a space that is small but has a high ceiling. One’s experience changes according to its proportions. Historically speaking, beauty has a golden ratio. A quadrangle has a good balance when the length and width are at a ratio of about 1:1.618. However, the proportion you use should be suitable to the forms you want to create.
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2.7 Modularity: 1x1, 1x2, 1x3, 1x4, 2x4, 2x3, 2x2 Lego bricks.
MODULARITY A module is defined by Merriam-Webster’s dictionary as “the size of some one part taken as a unit of measure by which the proportions of an architectural composition are regulated”. Architects use modules to help define their spaces, create a workable structure, and allow builders to construct their designs efficiently. Building modules based on the structural material used in any particular project. A wood frame will generally require relatively small modules; concrete and steel framing allow larger ones. Lego embraces modularity as it’s core principle, imagine your Lego pieces as actual modules that would be prefabricated in a factory to then be taken to site and assembled.
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2.8 Hierarchy.
HIERARCHY A module alone is not enough to make an interesting architectural design. By the 1970’s, ubiquitous austere towers were proving unpopular, flat packed or system-built housing was a low cost vision of utopia. Charles Jencks argues that too many bad Post-Modern buildings were runup quickly, the movement suffered, because things were ‘copied to death, and prostituted, and watered down’. The idea of hierarchy helps give buildings designed on a modular system architectural interest and solves different programs and fuctionalities. The dictionary defines a hierarchy as “a graded or ranked series”. In the case of architecture hierarchy allows you to develop standardized modules which derive meaning from their relative size and different programmed uses to meet different needs.
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2.9 Symmetry.
SYMMETRY The Egyptian and Mayan pyramids are classic examples of symmetry. If you place a vertical plane through the center of a pyramid plan, parallel to one of its sides and compare the two halves, you will see that they are identical and could be mirrored over the center axis. If you look at the floor plan of the Kukulkan’s Pyramid in Chichen Itza, you will discover that a line drawn through the center of the square floor plan, parallel to one of its sides, will divide it into two symmetric halves. A line, drawn diagonally from a corner through the center to the opposite corner will divide the floor plan into two symmetric triangles. A symmetrical design embodies a sense of balance, or equilibrium. Symmetry is often used in classical architecture to impress: it conveys order and has a monumental appearance.
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“ Architecture is the masterly, correct, and magnificent play of masses brought together in light. Our eyes are made to see forms in light; light and shade reveal these forms; cubes, cones, spheres, cylinders, or pyramids are the great primary forms which light reveals to advantage; the image of these is distinct and tangible within us without ambiguity. It is for this reason that these are beautiful forms, the most beautiful forms” 2.C Le Corbusier.
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BJARKE INGELS [2.D] Bjarke is a Danish architect. He heads the architectural practice Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) which he founded in 2006. Known for his innovative and ambitious designs and projects, many of his buildings defy traditional architectural conventions and dimensions. He often incorporates sustainable development ideas and sociological concepts into his designs, but often tries to achieve a balance between the playful and practical approaches to architecture. Bjarke’s childhood vision has influenced his architecture today, where others see problems, Bjarke sees potential, he’s won prestigious commissions all over the world. He’s constructing a waste incinerator that powers a ski slope, designed an entirely carbon-neutral island in the Caspian sea. And he’ll soon be turning a pile of bricks into the Lego House, the corporation’s New museum and HQ in Billund, is his dream commission, and it might inspire generations of children to see Lego as more than a toy.
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“ I wouldn’t be able to imagine my childhood without Lego; cause is such an integral part of it. I used to build these James Bond’s Villan’s lairs. Always something with secret, revolving doors or sliding walls, I was very much into this idea that the architecture could somehow contain sort of unseen possibilities that things seemed to be a certain way but then they could actually do so much more.
Denmark’s towers of today provoke horror, but the towers of it’s past provoke wander, inspired by Copenhagen’s spires of old, Bjarke was determined to create a tower block every bit as fantastical that could he build it within the restrictions of Danish construction. Using cheap prefab building blocks that all look the same. For this, Bjarke turned to the bricks of his childhood to propose an idea for a modern high-rise that is as inventive as it is radical.
You want to minimize the time spent on site by arriving with a lot of pre-assembled elements and put them together really quickly, so in effect, over the last 50–60 years, Denmark has become a country ‘entirely built from Lego’ or at least pre-fabricated modules, but if people are all different, then why do suddenly all buildings look the same?
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2.10  Lego Towers Model, Bjarke Ingels. The site is laid out as a grid of 3,6 x 3,6 meter squares, creating one continuous pixelated surface. As a topographic map the surface is morphed to form a terraced landscape of towers, accommodating housing, hotel, offices and shops.
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These are almost conceived as individual Lego Blocks, you can pre-assemble everything at home, and then you just put the blocks together when you arrive at the site.
From a factory-made kit of identical modules, Bjarke has created not a rigid vertical sky-crapper, but a lush man-made landscape of mountains and valleys.
It made people look at architecture in a completely different way, in architecture whenever you have a chance to intervene, you should try to realize the city that you dream about living in, cause you know, it doesn’t have to be like it is, our cities are only the way they are cause that’s how far we’ve gotten and that’s what Lego enables anyone to do, to put together in a very simple way a lot of almost identical bricks to create what a city can be and what a city should be.
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2.11  Lego Towers Digital Render, Copenhagen, Denmark. Bjarke Ingels. The project becomes an accumulation of individual niches and outdoor spaces forming a collective organic architecture. A Scandinavian high rise typology incorporating the human scale, the rationality and flexibility of Danish building tradition. Chapter two: Sketching Utopia
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2.12  The Lego House, headquarters masterplan, Bjarke Ingels Group.
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“ Your own city might not be that great, but on the living room floor, you can actually re-arrange things and make the world ‘as it should be’, and I think the important thing behind Lego is that is a better world, is a chance to improve on the world as it is now, so it’s a chance to be idealistic” 2.E Bjarke Ingels, Founder, BIG: Bjarke Ingels Group.
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2.13 St Paul’s Cathedral, Legoland.
“ Developing one’s ideas usually means filling in the blanks, fleshing out the details, and adding more things until one’s thoughts are fully realized. As an architect, with the task of creating spaces, the opposite is perhaps true. Architecture these days has evolved: you work with many people who attend to details and as an architect you are more like a director, focused on the bigger picture. Your main concern is how the end user will experience and feel in a space”. 2.F MAD Architects.
Lego is not about the beautiful details but a tool in helping you to create something that explores how space is perceived. It helps you to understand, to invent a space. In Lego there are no rules except for the elements you have; you’re only limited by the size of the bricks and with them you can express anything. You can reuse elements to continue to experiment and build something new.
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Inspiring The World Around Us OLAFUR ELIANSSON Olafur Eliasson turns a public into protagonist of a collective work of art, at the weather Project at TATE’s turbine hall, onlookers became part of his giant installation, in 2005, he travelled to Albania, and used play to bring people together, as they built a new city from scratch, after 50 years of communism, the transition from dictatorship to democracy looked uncertain.
2.14 The Collectivity Project, 2005. Olafur Eliasson. White Lego bricks and wood. Installation at 3rd Tirana Biennial, Albania. Courtesy of the artist; neugerriemschneider, Berlin; and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York.
For the collectivity project, Eliasson took 3 Tons of white Lego and dumped them in the town square of Tirana, Albania’s capital city.
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“ I thought of this table experiment as a way of creating like a little parliament where people on the street would negotiate with each other. In Albania, the idea of open political debate was new, and so was Lego. The toy had not had a life in Albania, and for a lot of people, it was like: ‘Oh wow, isn’t this plastic interesting, what’s it called and what does it do?’ In Tirana I do certainly think it added elements to a discussion, which was already going on, and trying to develop a set of values, which would reflect where the country is going. The fact that you can look upon your old city in which you are a model. If you start looking at reality as a model it is more likely to be negotiable, and if it’s negotiable, it can change”.
2.G Olafur Eliansson, Artist.
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2.15, 16 & 17  The Collectivity Project, 2005. Olafur Eliasson. White Lego bricks and wood. Installation at 3rd Tirana Biennial, Albania. Courtesy of the artist; neugerriemschneider, Berlin; and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York.
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NATHAN SAWAYA Nathan Sawaya has created a life-sized replica of Han Solo frozen in carbonite. He’s also made an 8-foot-tall pencil, a Statue of Liberty holding a lightsaber, a Golden Gate bridge and a Tyrannosaurus Rex. And he’s done it all with Lego bricks.But What does it take to turn a pile of 10,000 bricks into Han Solo?
Lego bricks are tiny compared to sculpture-scale projects. “Large pieces usually involve sketching out ideas, but the true test is being able to picture the finished model in my mind. Since sculpting with Lego is a slow process,” Sawaya says, “I have to be able to recognize early on where pieces need to go to develop the shape of the piece as I build upwards. It takes a lot of pieces to get this right, and often I will tear down portions that I have built, so as to rebuild them differently.” Builders’ construction techniques vary, but most people start at the bottom and work up and out. “The process of sculpting with Lego is usually a bottom-up approach,” says Sawaya. “Meaning, I start at the bottom and build my way to the top of the piece. This generally means that balancing issues have already been dealt with by the time I finish a model.”
2.H Nathan Sawaya, Artist.
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2.18  Yellow, Nathan Sawaya. Yellow Lego bricks. Sawaya has recently reconstructed a version of Yellow commision and other pieces for Lady Gaga’s latest video G.U.Y. He argues one main reasons he uses Lego bricks is to make the art accessible.
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2.19 NASA Rocket taking off, Legoland.
Challenging Our Perception In 1982, Lego launches Technic I as an educational tool. For years our perception of Lego was modular bricks but the promise of the Technic range was to re-invent the spirit of Meccano in a plastic Lego way.
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Technical sets 1982
Technical sets renamed to Lego Technic 1990
Technic Control Centre Until now Lego had been an architectural toy but our perception was being challenged and a fresh approach to the brick showed the potential of its possibilities.
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Technic Control II 1997
Mindstorms Technic CyberMaster 1999
Mindstorms Robotics Invention System 1.5 2000
Mindstorms Robotics Invention System 2.0 2007
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2.20 Lloyd Building, Legoland.
As our necesities progressed, trends changed and new technologies became available, Lego changed with them, launching a Technical set that would rival with Meccano. By 1978, architecure was taking a turn, Construction for the Lloyd building started, Architects like Richard Roses and Mike Davies brought back to life an idea everyone else wanted gone, the prefab. It looks very different, but like the blocks of the 60’s, this building was made in a factory and brought to site in the back of a lorry. This is architecture made through science and engineering and rather than hiding it away, Richard Rogers celebrated it, putting the services on the outside. The result is a building that is in the high-pressure heart of the city but it doesn’t feel that way. By 1978, the year the Lloyd building was commissioned, Meccano was no longer the world’s most popular construction toy, Lego was simpler, safer and appealed to much younger children. Lego’s efforts developing the Technics range opened new oportunities for the company, it might seem a bit futuristic, moving Lego with infused with a distinctive Meccano feel but by 1997 it seemed that was the future of the business.
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Named after the book Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas by Seymour Papert, Lego Mindstorms is a series of kits that contain software and hardware to create customisable, programmable robots. They include an intelligent brick computer that controls the system, a set of modular sensors and motors, and Lego parts from the Technics line to create the mechanical systems. The original Mindstorms Robotics Invention System kit contained two motors, two touch sensors, and one light sensor. The NXT version has three servo motors and one light, sound, and distance as well as 1 touch sensor. The NXT 2.0 has 2 touch sensors as well as a light and distance sensor, and support for 4 without using a sensor multiplexer. Lego Mindstorms may be used to build a model of an embedded system with computer-controlled electromechanical parts. Many kinds of real-life embedded systems, from elevator controllers to industrial robots, may be modelled using Mindstorms. Mindstorms kits are also sold and used as an educational tool, originally through a partnership between Lego and the MIT Media Laboratory. The educational version of the products is called Lego Mindstorms for Schools, and comes with the Robolab, a GUI-based programming software, developed at Tufts University. In addition, the shipped software can be replaced with third party firmware and programming languages, including some of the most popular ones used by professionals in the embedded systems industry, like Java and C. The only difference between the educational series, known as the “Challenge Set”, and the consumer series, known as the “Inventor Set”, is that it includes another touch sensor and several more gearing options. Around 2004 Hard-core adult fans hacked the single bestselling Lego product, the robotic kit Mindstorms. It appeals to die-hard fans because they can literally make their creations come to life. Over half of Mindstorms users are adults, many companies would have taken the hackers to court, but Lego offered to top hackers toys in exchange for ideas.
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“ We realised that the coding they did was a lot better than the one we had done, so we invited them around and asked them why? And they told us because they loved the Lego experience and they just thought the product they had done wasn’t as good as it could be”.
2.I Jan Chirstensen, Lego Group Communication Manager.
2.21 Lego Mindstorms NXT 2.0.
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“ Our simple desire to build from only blocks and imagination hasn’t gone away, and it’s the digital world that’s picking off where plastic bricks left off, paving the way is video game Minecraft”
3.A Tom Dyckhoff, Writer & Broadcaster.
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3.1 Blue chair at the cinema, Lego representation of the big screen.
Digital & Film S
ince 1997, 52 video games based on the Lego construction system have been released. Originally, games were based completely on Lego properties. In 2001, Lego Creator: Harry Potter introduced games based on licensed, non-Lego intellectual properties. Since then, Lego has licensed several other intellectual properties for use in its video games, including Star Wars, Batman and Rock Band.
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CD-ROM with building instructions Lego Island (action/adventure) 1998
Lego Creator (construction) 1999
Legoland (simulation strategy) 2001
Lego Creator: Harry Potter 2005
Lego Star Wars: The Video Game 2010
Lego Universe (massive multiplayer online) 2014
The Lego Movie The Lego Movie Videogame
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3.2  Lego star Wars, Legoland.
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3.3 Still from The Lego Movie 2014.
“ I think that the Lego corporation is deeply divided as to what its trying to do, and it’s heavily compromised by its commercial ambitions in recent years it has become a corporation that its really ripping off the imagination of children by selling them ready-made nonsense from films”.
3.B Peter Molyneux OBE, Video Game Designer.
From video games to the big screen, Lego have adjusted to the digital world. The Lego Movie (2014) tackles the issue of directed vs. free creative play, settling on the idea that it takes all sorts to be a Lego enthusiast, and, once you’ve watched it, you can buy the Lego Movie Kit and recreate it at home.
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THE LEGO MOVIE REVIEW [3.C] The repositioning of luddite Lego bricks as a saleable staple of the digital gaming revolution is one of the greatest marketing coups of the 21st century. Parents who grew up assembling brightly coloured building blocks in the age of the Bakelite telephone were amazed to find their children playing Lego Harry Potter for DS or Lego Star Wars for Wii, the brand name meaning as much to their computer-literate offspring as it did to them. Terrific to report, then, that The Lego Movie does nothing to undermine the Danish dynamo's ongoing reputation as a purveyor of fine entertainment for kids of all ages. While younger viewers will delight at the whiz-bang animation action and hugely likable familiar figures, adults will laugh themselves silly at the smart consumer satire gags and goggle in wonder at the undulating Legoland vistas. Terrific to report, then, that The Lego Movie does nothing to undermine the Danish dynamo's ongoing reputation as a purveyor of fine entertainment for kids of all ages. While younger viewers will delight at the whiz-bang animation action and hugely likable familiar figures, adults will laugh themselves silly at the smart consumer satire gags and goggle in wonder at the undulating Legoland vistas.
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Tipping its head toward the self-aware set-up of Wreck-It Ralph (via the Tour Guide Barbie sequence from Toy Story 2), The Lego Movie casts (un)happy plastic construction worker Emmet (Chris Pratt) as an accidental hero when President Business (Will Ferrell) attempts to obliterate nonconformist creativity with the aid of an instruction manual and some glue. Teaming up with Batman, Wyldstyle and other assorted contrarians, Emmet waves the flag for free-form invention, which appears to be Lego's rallying cry. The denouement may be a super-soppy sales pitch, but the surreal slapstick sensibilities of Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs writers/directors Lord and Miller consistently undermine any corporate guff. You'll come out singing theme tune Everything is Awesome in only mildly ironic fashion.
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3.4  Emmet (Chris Pratt), The Lego Movie 2014.
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The Minecraft Universe M
inecraft is a virtual world where players build their own creations with 3D blocks, with more than 42 million users, is a huge global phenomenon.Through the Internet, huge groups of players can join forces and build things together; any number of people can join in.
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The scale of Minecraft is amazing, but its worlds aren’t limited to fantasy. Architects and Town planners are using this building block game to transform our cities into places we actually want to live in. Through Minecraft we’d all be able to make out cities safer, cleaner and nicer. Neighbourhoods are being transformed into 3D models in the game, through the model once can make virtual improvements, and local city councillors would be able to see them.
“ Minecraft is the digital equivalent of Lego, is not the reinvention of Lego, it’s the spirit of what their goal is. Lego is about building buildings; Minecraft is about building a work, building an environment, building an environment that my friends and me can go around. As soon as you go into the world and you put down one block, you realize ‘I’m getting it, I can put this blocks down, and that’s when it takes you on a journey of creativity” 3.D Peter Molyneux OBE, Video Game Designer.
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Watching Minecraft
Joseph Garrett spends his days playing Minecraft in his bedroom at his parents' house. He films himself doing this for a living. And it might just make him a fortune. The 23-year-old has millions of young fans, gets bombarded with their daily messages, and the videos he uploads to his YouTube channel currently get more hits than One Direction and Justin Bieber. But if he walked down the street, nobody would recognise him. Welcome to the new world of children's entertainment, where devoted gamers watch videos of other people playing so they can perfect their skills and become better players.
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STAMPY CAT BBC BREAKFAST INTERVIEW [3.E] Are you surprised at how popular you’ve become?
Of course, especially as it was never a business plan of mine. I did it as a hobby for years without any thought whatever of doing it as a job. it was only when it started to become popular that I saw an opportunity. What do you do that makes people want to watch you do it?
I guess i just everything a bit bigger and brighter than what it usually is, I come up with stories within the game, I give people lots of ideas for things that they can play with their friends, I just talk about the things that the children are interested in. So you are the voice of the game, people on youtube are not seeing you, they are watching you playing the game and hearing your voice?
They hear my commentary whilst they see the game, I’m not there, I’m ‘the cat’ essentially to them, they never see my face, they never see the real me, I am ‘Stampy Cat’ in the videos. Simon, why do the game players need Joseph?
Minecraft is a community game, when it first came out it was released early and there was no instructions – there’s still not many instruction, so it grew up around a community and the community did interesting things with it, what Joseph does it that it helps new players ground themselves in the world and see all the possebilities, we need a trusted guide, and Joseph provides that.
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How do you turn that into a job, and into money?
Is all through advertisement revenue, theres a short advert at the beginning of the video, people watch the video and you get a cut of that revenue, that’s simply all that’s needed, theres no business knowledge to it at all. all I do is make the videos and upload them to Youtube. How many people see it regularly at the moment?
It is about one hundred and sixty million a month at the moment. The revenue fluctuates but you can make a fulltime living of it. Simon, is this a trend — with other games perhaps?
I think so, in other popular media there’s not that many voices that the player can relate to, what youtube is providing is a channel where a community can watch, interact and get tips of other players. Children are absorbed, aren’t they? They seem really taken to your personality.
I think I’m unique for the things I do but I am not the only one doing this, there’s a huge community, possibly bigger than any other community in youtube playing Minecraft as well as any other games, I’m not a unique case nor the first one, I do think differently but in a sense I was inspired by other people doing this before me, I’ve just done my own twist on it.
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“ The game has become such a phenomenon, his videos can attract more than 30 million hits in a week” 3.E BBC Breakfast Interview with Stampy Cat & Joseph Garrett
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3.5 Gemma playing Minecraft.
Playing Minecraft
How Long have you been playing Minecraft for?
I’ve played it for about two months with my friend. I play split screen on Xbox with her. How does the game work? Is it about building or is there a competitive aspect to it?
My friend built a stage and I built a house, it took us about two hours. After you build the house you can play in it. The game has two modes, creative and survival, in creative you have everything you need to build and you dont have to eat. Do you play with Lego as well? What do you prefer, Lego or Minecraft?
I do, every now and again but I prefer playing Minecraft because it is on the computer and you can build thinks easier than you can with Lego. You have all the pieces and you don’t have to go through a big pile to get them.
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How does Survival work? Is it difficult to play?
3.F  Interview with Gemma, Minecrafter and Legoist.
You have to basically survive. There are creepers and zombies trying to get you, you need to find weapons and make a shelter. You have lives and you need to find food and eat. There are villages and people, you can’t control the time of day. Is minecraft popular at school?
Yes everyone plays it and I talk about it with my friends. What would you rather show off to your friends? A Lego or Minecraft build?
Lego, because is more impressive to have something that we can all play with at school.
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3.6  Blockholm, Swedish Centre for Architecture and Design. Blockholm is an exact replica of Stockholm reproduced in Minecraft. All districts, islands, streets, bridges, parks and squares are depicted as in real life with one big exception, they have deleted all the city buildings. Only plots are left. Launched on October 24th 2013, it has had over 10.000 participants and 30.000 visitors.
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3.7 Block by Block is an innovative partnership between the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), the UN agency promoting sustainable towns and cities, and Mojang, the makers of Minecraft. It involves young people in the planning of urban public spaces. Minecraft has turned out to be the perfect tool to facilitate this process. The four year partnership will support UN-Habitat’s Sustainable Urban Development Network to upgrade 300 public spaces by 2016. The first pilot project in Kibera, one of Nairobi’s informal settlements is already underway.
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3.8 Miniature Minecraft 3D print, made with Mineways and 3D printed in sandstone material with a X60 3D printer. Matteo G.P. Flora.
Printing Utopia T
he 3D printing boom is ever expanding, powered by communitites around it initiatives like Mineways are paving the way to a world where you can make your creation digitally in minecraft and create a 3D render than can output into a 3D printer, perhaps it seems like a tricky task for some but enthusiats have made it to 3D printing expos, online comunities and photography blogs like Flikr and even BBC’s Click program.
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Currently there are online instructions, downloadables, comunities and even businesses taking on and fueling the trend, and the final outcomes look like works of art, the fruits of hours of gameplay, some technical knowledge and patience as the printer would take its time printing layer by layer for a 3D tactile ‘real world’ item.
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3.9 Printing Minecraft models on a MakerBot Replicator 2. Post Apocalyptic research Instiute, exported trhough Mineways, 2mm per block resized to 60%. 3.10 Steam Castle, Eric Haines. Minecraft world brought to life thanks to Mineways and 3D printed by Dave Russel from Z-Corp.
3.11 & 12 Vampire Castle. This model was built in Minecraft, exported with Mineways, and printed on a ZPrinter 650 with a block size of 1mm^3.
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3.13  Fallingwater Minecraft Reconstruction, Gordon Robertson, alongside Fallingwater Lego Architecture Set.
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“ Minecraft just enables people to think about the eco-system of things, and that’s going to be fascinating how that evolves, I have no doubts that the architects of tomorrow would have been mine-crafters as children, absolutely no doubt” 3.G Tom Dyckhoff, Writer & Broadcaster
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References Chapter One
Chapter Two
1. A Dudek, Mark. In: Culture Show (2014), Series 18, Episode 23, The Building Blocks of Architecture [TV], BBC Two, 14 February
2.A Eliansson Olafur. In: Culture Show (2014), Series 18, Episode 23, The Building Blocks of Architecture [TV], BBC Two, 14 February
1.B Rubin, Fein and Vandenburg (1983) Defining Play. As cited in: Hwes P. J. (2006) Let the children play, nature’s answer to early learning [Online]. Available from: http:// www.ccl-cca.ca/pdfs/ECLKC/lessons/Originalversion_ LessonsinLearning.pdf [Accessed April 2014]
2.B Ingels Bjarke. In: Culture Show (2014), Series 18, Episode 23, The Building Blocks of Architecture [TV], BBC Two, 14 February
1.C Jenkin Matthew (2013) Play in education: the role and importance of creative learning. The guardian [Online]. 27 February. Available from: http://www. theguardian.com/teacher-network/teacher-blog/2013/ feb/27/play-education-creative-learning-teachersschools [Accessed April 2014]
2.D Ingels, Bjarke. In: Culture Show (2014), Series 18, Episode 23, The Building Blocks of Architecture [TV], BBC Two, 14 February
1.D Botton Alain. In: Culture Show (2014), Series 18, Episode 23, The Building Blocks of Architecture [TV], BBC Two, 14 February
2.E Ingels, Bjarke. In: Culture Show (2014), Series 18, Episode 23, The Building Blocks of Architecture [TV], BBC Two, 14 February
1.E Orduna Jette. In: Culture Show (2014), Series 18, Episode 23, The Building Blocks of Architecture [TV], BBC Two, 14 February
2.F MAD Architects. As Cited In: Turner Christopher (2013) Lego Architecture Studio.
1.F Wright L. Frank. As Cited In: Turner Christopher (2013) Lego Architecture Studio.
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2.C Le Corbusier. As Cited In: Turner Christopher (2013) Lego Architecture Studio.
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2.G Eliansson Olafur. In: Culture Show (2014), Series 18, Episode 23, The Building Blocks of Architecture [TV], BBC Two, 14 February
Chapter Three 2.H Sawaya Nathan. In: Nathan Sawaya [Online]. Available from: http://brickartist.com/ [Accessed April 2014] 2.I Chirstensen Jan. In Megafactories (2011), National Geographic Megafactories: Lego [TV], National Geographic 2011
3.A Dyckhoff Tom. In: Culture Show (2014), Series 18, Episode 23, The Building Blocks of Architecture [TV], BBC Two, 14 February
3.B Molyneux Peter OBE. In: Culture Show (2014), Series 18, Episode 23, The Building Blocks of Architecture [TV], BBC Two, 14 February
3.C Kermode, Mark (2014) The Lego Movie Review [Online]. 16 February. Available from: http://www. theguardian.com/film/2014/feb/16/lego-moviereview-mark-kermode [Accessed April 2014] 3.D Molyneux Peter OBE. In: Culture Show (2014), Series 18, Episode 23, The Building Blocks of Architecture [TV], BBC Two, 14 February
3.E BBC (2014) Stampy on why his Minecraft tutorials have YouTubers gripped - BBC Breakfast. Youtube [Video]. 7 March. Available from: http://www.youtube. com/watch?v=KAQidh25Lm0 [Accessed April 2014] 3.G Dyckhoff Tom. In: Culture Show (2014), Series 18, Episode 23, The Building Blocks of Architecture [TV], BBC Two, 14 February
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Image Sources Chapter One 1.7 Bruegel Pieter (1560), Children’s Games [Oil on panel]. In: Wikipaintings [Online]. Available from: http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/pieter-bruegel-theelder/children-s-games-1560 [Accessed April 2014] 1.8 Drdavewatford (2010), Blueprints for Ole Kirk Kristiansen House [Photograph]. In: Blogspot [Online]. Available from: http://gimmelego.blogspot. co.uk/2013/06/lego-inside-tour-2013.html [Accessed April 2014] 1.9 Culture Show (2014), Series 18, Episode 23, The Building Blocks of Architecture [TV], BBC Two, 14 February
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1.13 Roar Rude Trangbæk for Lego Group (2013), Lego plastic granules [Photograph] In: Lego [Online]. Available from: http://cache.lego.com/r/aboutus/-/ media/about%20us/media%20assets%20library/ production/hmv_06_highres.jpg?l.r=797946750 [Accessed April 2014] 1.14 Roar Rude Trangbæk for Lego Group (2013), Lego plastic granules [Photograph] In: Lego [Online]. Available from: http://aboutus.lego.com/en-us/newsroom/2013/march/lego-group-to-build-factory-in-china [Accessed April 2014]
1.10 Culture Show (2014), Series 18, Episode 23, The Building Blocks of Architecture [TV], BBC Two, 14 February
1.15 Roar Rude Trangbæk for Lego Group (2013), Lego plastic granules [Photograph] In: Lego [Online]. Available from:http://cache.lego.com/r/aboutus/-/ media/about%20us/media%20assets%20library/ production/hmv_01_highres.jpg?l.r=797946750 [Accessed April 2014]
1.11 Gotfred Kirk kristiansen (1958), Interlocking Brick Patent [Scanned record]. In: Brickfetish [Online]. Available from: http://brickfetish.com/timeline/1958. html [Accessed April 2014]
1.17 Mondrian, P (1921), Tableau with Red, Black, Blue and Yellow [Scanned Image] In: Wilk, Christopher (2006). Modernism, designing a new world. London, V&A Publishing.
1.12 Berg S. Anders (2007), Bosh & Fjord Lego Group’s Development Department [Photograph]. In: Arch Daily [Online]. Available from: http://www. archdaily.com/16055/lego-groups-developmentdepartment-bosch-fjord/ [Accessed April 2014]
1.18 Rietveld, Gerrit (1918), Red and Blue chair [Photograph] In: Rietveld.zxq.net [Online]. Available from: http://rietveld.zxq.net/rietveld_red_blue_chair/ [Accessed April 2014]
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1.19 Eesteren Cornelis (1924), Competition design for a shopping street with housing above [Scanned Image]. In: Wilk, Christopher (2006). Modernism, designing a new world. London, V&A Publishing. 1.20 Bauch Andy (2014), Mondrian [Photograph]. In: Hippo Bricks [Online]. Available from: http://www. hippobricks.com/collections/frontpage/products/ mondrian [Accessed April 2014] 1.21 Minale mario (2010), Red and Blue Lego Chair [Photograph]. In: Minale-Maeda.com [Online]. Available from: http://www.minale-maeda.com/syntheticrealism/ syntheticrealism.html [Accessed April 2014] 1.23 FAT (2011), Falling Acre [Scanned Image]. In: Guenzel, Peter (2011) Icon Magazine 098, August 2011: Lego models remade in Icon 98
1.24 Foster & Partners (2011), [Scanned Image]. In: Guenzel, Peter (2011) Icon Magazine 098, August 2011: Lego models remade in Icon 98
1.25 Atmos Studio (2011), Meltingwater [Scanned Image]. In: Guenzel, Peter (2011) Icon Magazine 098, August 2011: Lego models remade in Icon 98
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Chapter Two 2.10 Ingels Bjarke (2006), Lego Towers [Photograph]. In: Whata [Online]. Available from: http://whata. org/blog-en/whata-interviewes-bjarke-ingels-from-big [Accessed April 2014]
2.16 Eliasson Olafur (2005), The Collectivity Project [Photograph]. In: Olafur Eliasson [Online]. Available from: http://www.olafureliasson.net/works/the_ collectivity_project.html [Accessed on April 2014]
2.11 Ingels Bjarke (2006), Lego Towers [Digital Render]. In: BIG [Online]. Available from: http:// www.big.dk/#projects-lego [Accessed April 2014]
2.18 Sawaya Nathan (2006), Yellow [Photograph]. In: Nathan Sawaya [Online]. Available from: http:// brickartist.com/ [Accessed on April 2014]
2.12 Ingels Bjarke (2013), Lego House [Digital Render]. In: Lego [Online]. Available from: http:// aboutus.lego.com/en-us/news-room/2013/june/theright-look-for-a-lego-house [Accessed April 2014]
2.21 Lego Mindstorms NXT 2.0 [Photograph]. In: Lego Store [Online]. Available from: http://shop.lego.com/ en-US/LEGO-MINDSTORMS-NXT-2-0-8547 [Accessed April 2014]
2.13 Eliasson Olafur (2005), The Collectivity Project [Photograph]. In: Olafur Eliasson [Online]. Available from: http://www.olafureliasson.net/works/the_ collectivity_project.html [Accessed on April 2014] 2.14 Eliasson Olafur (2005), The Collectivity Project [Photograph]. In: Olafur Eliasson [Online]. Available from: http://www.olafureliasson.net/works/the_ collectivity_project.html [Accessed on April 2014] 2.15 Eliasson Olafur (2005), The Collectivity Project [Photograph]. In: Olafur Eliasson [Online]. Available from: http://www.olafureliasson.net/works/the_ collectivity_project.html [Accessed on April 2014]
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Chapter Three 3.3 Lego Movie [Still]. In: Lego Games [Online]. Available from: http://www.lego.com/en-gb/games [Accessed April 2014]
3.10 Haines Eric (2013) Steam Castle. In: Making Society [Online]. Available from: http://makingsociety. com/2014/04/3d-printing-minecraft-interview-erichaines-mineways/ [Accessed April 2014]
3.6 Blockholm (2013). In: Swedish Centre for Architecture & Design [Online]. Available from: http:// www.blockholm.com/ [Accessed April 2014]
3.11 Vampire Castle (2013). In: Flickr [Online]. Available from: https://www.flickr.com/ photos/postapocalyptic/12834271375/in/ photolist-ky7ZJX-ky82xr-kxGVSp-kxGyWZdD56vy-d9Qosj-d9QonR-kxJJm5-kxJKoq-ky81u4kxJQuN-kxGEFp-ky81XP-bfi7EB-bfi8bi-bfi7AK-bfi7S4bfi7sn-bficzd6oC-czd7pu-czd7Cb-e2Dog5-czd7Tmczd7b1-czd6BG-fr1LgJ-drRtRG-d9QoA7-d9QoAD [Accessed April 2014]
3.7 Block by Block. In: UN Habitat [Online]. Available from: http://blockbyblock.org/about [Accessed April 2014]
3.8 Flora Matteo (2013) Miniature Minecraft 3D Print. In: Making Society [Online]. Available from: http:// makingsociety.com/2014/04/3d-printing-minecraftinterview-eric-haines-mineways/ [Accessed April 2014]
3.9 PARI (2013). In: Flickr [Online]. Available from: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ postapocalyptic/9472275650/in/photolist-fr2Txqfr2UhA-dfU9CM-b7uswF-b7usRH-dfSpa7-bfXe569EjdLA-c8wk1A-b7usGT-j9n8NL-b9xtgF-bjDttQ-b4LA4zb4LAdz-b9n2-e7R51A-dfUbeS-b9xt4T-c8E3gb-i1Hafbb71dfH-b43YZe-9XdivL-ibMvBT-ibM6Qh-ibMvmxibLTFg-ibMfBy-ibLTjK-ibM7bh-ibMfJs-c53wwE-c53nEd [Accessed April 2014]
Image Sources
3.12 Vampire Castle (2013). In: Flickr [Online]. Available from: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ postapocalyptic/12834271375/in/photolist-ky7ZJXky82xr-kxGVSp-kxGyWZ-dD56vy-d9Qosj-d9QonRkxJJm5-kxJKoq-XDk-biMXkx-biW4Ex-biW4X4-d9QoChbiXHJH-bqxG4v-bA41Qe-bn99ZJ-dkxKEL-czd6oC-czd7pu-czd7Cb-e2Dog5-czd7Tm-czd7b1-czd6BGfr1LgJ-drRtRG-d9QoA7-d9QoAD [Accessed April 2014] 3.13 Robertson Gordon (2014) Fallingwater Minecraft Reconstruction. In: Flickr [Online]. Available from: https://www.flickr.com/photos/68387974@ N02/9507314196/in/photolist-9diUgE-9diUjA9diUeA-9diUcL-9diU6h-9dfNiX-9dfN7a-9dfMWD9diUqh-9diU3L-aKZGwt-jm38D-9jm3h6-9GJn1s9dfMY8-9dfN5R-fu8thh-9GFuTr-9diTPE-9GEMP8 [Accessed April 2014]
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Typeset Body, captions & sub-chapter sections: Bitstream Futura. Subchapter, Headers & display: Monotype Egyptian Slate Pro. Paper Page 1—48 & 59—112: GF Smith Fine Uncoated Naturalis Absolute White Smooth 160 g/m2. Page 49—58: Arboreta Uncoated Signaset Grey 110 g/m2. Page 22B (Insert 1.11): Arboreta Uncoated Tracing Paper 110 g/m2.
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