Architect and Design Trend

• 31 December 2015
• Local News
• 1227 Views

LEGO INSPIRES THE FUTURE OF CONSTRUCTION DESIGN

Though it is best known around the world for products which develop children’s creativity through playing and learning, LEGO continues to inspire the future of construction design for adults.

LEGO recently launched its Architecture Studio set which allows ideas to be made into models based on the LEGO brick. Developed in collaboration with leading architects, the set comes with over 1,200 monochromatic building pieces and an inspirational 250 page design guidebook full of tips, techniques, instructions and building exercises.

The Architecture Studio can be used to create scale models of any type of building. It is endorsed by leading architectural firms including REX architecture, Sou Fujimoto Architects, SOM, MAD Architects, Tham & Videgård Arkitekter, and Safdie Architects.

Reflecting the revolutionary ideas behind the LEGO brand which was established in Denmark in 1932, a new company plans to take the concept to an industrial scale. Kite Bricks has developed the Smart Brick; a LEGO-like brick which could make vertical construction faster, stronger, and cheaper.

Featuring interlocking knobs for easy stacking, Smart Bricks are held together with a strong adhesive and can also be reinforced with steel bars inserted into dedicated channels. Designed to be a modular system, Smart Bricks kits would be ordered and delivered to site.

Kite Bricks claims Smart Bricks can cut construction costs in half and a five-story building made with the bricks can cut energy costs by 30 percent when compared to the traditional brick structure.

The Smart Bricks are patent pending and the company currently needs another $3 million in funding to bring them to market.

A video of how assembly of the bricks (complete with robotic builder) work is available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Yf0KEcXIYA

NEW BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE BOOK FOCUSES ON SOUTHEAST ASIA

September will see the publication of new book entitled Architecture of the Buddhist World: The Golden Lands; Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao, Thailand & Vietnam.

It is the first ever art historical book focusing only on the Buddhist architecture of Southeast Asia. The Golden Lands aims to highlight the finesse and cultural importance of Buddhist architecture. The author Vikram Lall is a practicing architect and his book is the first in a series of six. Lall is the principal architect and partner of Lall & Associates, a leading architecture firm in Delhi, India.

The extensive new photography and groundbreaking survey work contributes to architectural diagrams about the ancient Buddhist architecture, including the Stupa, the temple, and the monastry. Readers will be taken around the architectural forms of Cambodia and the regions of Southeast Asia through perfect colour photography and 3D renderings. For each country, Lall provides a historical overview and case studies of noteworthy structures.

The 3D architectural renderings in the book make even the most complex structures easily understandable. It strives to bring all the architectural types in Asia within a single landscape of history, religion, and creative originality.