Building Blocks

Photo by Holger Zscheyge

Let's talk about toys. Why? Because that's where we all start. We grow up playing; some with dolls, GI Joe's, sand in the sandbox, even our food. We grow and learn by interacting with everything around us, probably even a few things out parents would not want us touching. Me personally, I grew up with building blocks. Then it was LEGO's and K'Nex and to honest I probably would still enjoy those today (ok I may still have a few left for a rainy day) but the fact is I grew up putting things together, and continue to enjoy doing so.

But as I've grown I've become fascinated with the concept of these mass produced goods. With a set amount of differentiated pieces and colors these toys allow for infinite possibilities; James May even used LEGO's to create a full sized house, granted the furniture does not look incredibly comfortable, but still (on a side note: if you haven't watched the show Top Gear check out these 10 clips, yes it's about cars but trust me it's not about the cars). Anyways, mass production is used to create most of the products we buy but these products that when used in mass to create unique structures/objects is something that I find fascinating and is one of the main reasons I find the design/architecture profession calling to me.

So let's look at a few of these grown up versions of these childhood toys. First up CMU:

This project above was created by a nursery and patioscaping company called Potted. I wish I could find the original blog entry from 4 years ago but here is more from apartmenttherapy on the project. This was created using just 12" concrete block (a little different then your standard 8" construction CMU but mass produced building product none the less). I've been looking into CMU for a future project of mine and may look at this for ideas. I can see something like this becoming a full scale living wall eventually but for now it's nice backyard planter project.

Next up brick:

Photo by NADAA

This project I show above is the Tongxian Gatehouse, a project from Office dA now NADAA and was the first thing I thought of when creating this post. Besides the brickwork the project is amazing as well.

Brick is one of those amazing products that I look forward to working with more. We normally see it as a pretty standard straight forward building material but when it goes out of this realm into a dynamic part of a building it is something special. Here are a few more examples for your viewing pleasure.

Image courtesy ming3d.com

An amazing student project using a robot arm. Check out the blog post here. There is also a cool video with what looks like they take the robot arm on the road to build a similar structure. There will be future posts on robots and architecture but for now let's just look at this beautiful wall.

Image courtesy dezeen

Finally another theoretical student project called Brick Tectonics by Ricardo Ploeman popped up on dezeen in 2010. I'm hoping this project is eventually brought to life but for now we can just look at some of the fun dezeen Ploeman created.

Finally let's look at wood:

Photo courtesy simonov

I think wood many people have a natural appreciation for unlike brick and CMU because it is a more naturally beautiful material. The grains differentiate from piece to piece making each piece of lumber unique, but today we still mass produce this material into 2x4's, 2x6's, flooring slats and 4'x8' sheets of plywood. The standardization of their sizes have allowed us to quickly and cheaply build our homes, businesses and products. Now I'm sure many of you have seen wood used in pretty standard ways, cabinetry, flooring, tables, ect. but here are a few products/structures/designs that use the multiplication of standard sizes in unique and exciting ways:

Photo courtesy picornot.com

This is a project by Maya Lynn called Systematic Landscapes (yes the one that did the Vietnam Memorial) that she did at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. It uses just 2x4's but as you can see she creates this mountainous landscape from repeating the pieces cut at various lengths. There is also an interesting photo album of it's construction you can see here.

Photo courtesy Everitt & Schilling Tile

This wall was created by tiling many pieces of wood together. The Everitt & Schilling Tile Company has a variety of wood products that grasp this repeated wood pattern and have created a number of different wood tiles. What I like about these products is that they capture the beauty of a repeated mass produced item and have created a product that any handyman/homeowner can install without having to cut down thousands of pieces of wood to fit on their wall. Check out their website for other products and great photos.

In conclusion, this idea of using mass produced products to create fun and unique designs is something fascinates me and continue to look for inspiration for my own designs. The idea that you can use limited styles of LEGO bricks to create a house or a bunch of 4x4's to create a unique wall design is something that I think goes under-appreciated outside of design and bringing this kind of thinking to the masses is something that I hope to instill.