A Lego Set for Budding Architects, With No Instructions

The new Lego Architecture Studio set doesn't come with instructions for any one building. Image: Lego

Instead, in the box is a guidebook outlining some basic architectural concepts with exercises for exploring them in Lego. Image: Lego

The idea is to give budding architects a more sophisticated platform to explore. Image: Lego

Here, a sample page from the guide book, on surface. Image: Lego

Real-world examples help bridge the gap between the plastic world and our own. Image: Lego

A sample building. Image: Lego

Seventy-three different kinds of bricks are included in the set. But bricks are easy to find. Its the guidebook thats truly new. Its pages offer accessible overviews of basic architectural concepts, along with illustrated exercises for exploring them in Lego form. Pages on negative space and interior sections, for example, encourage budding builders to think not only about how their miniature creations look from the outside but also in terms of what sorts of spaces they contain within them.

That, admittedly, is a bit headier than snapping together a castle for a smiling minifig army. And the set does come with a recommendation of ages 16 and up. But if Lego products have proven anything over the years, its that with simple tools, young kids can prove to be surprisingly proficient designers. For a 10 or 12 or 13-year-old whos just starting to get curious about some of the concepts involved in their structures, this could be an excellent stepping stone.

The guidebook features contributions from a number of acclaimed firms, including REX, Safdie, Skidmore, MAD, and Sou Fujimoto, among others. Their real-world projects are used to bridge the gap between the clean plastic world of Lego and the one we live in. A hundred and fifty bucks for a bunch of white bricks might seem steep, but its hard to get mad at a product aimed squarely at encouraging kids to nurture their innate creativity in imagination.

And if youre looking for slightly more profound way of putting that, this passage from the guide book does a fine job: It is no coincidence that Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, and Buckminster Fuller were all taught kindergarten in the school system that introduced building blocks into educational play. These simple forms reveal the first traces of modernismthe start of a relationship between architecture and creative childrens games that continues to this day.

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A Lego Set for Budding Architects, With No Instructions