Patching ancient walls with legos


As part of Bocchignano, Italy's group project "20 Eventi," Jan Vormann went around town and filled in all the cracks in the walls with painstakingly clicked-together patches made from legos. Link (via Cribcandy)

47 Comments Add a comment

BastardNamban #1 11:58 PM Friday, Jun 6, 2008 Reply

Let me be the first to say how awesome I find this.

I imagined the legos as a sort of paralell world effect, melting into our world through cracks in the space time continum, or something. To see such fragmented color next to centuries old stone is a great effect!

Another thought was that buildings were actually made by legos, and plastered over with stone and brick facades to look respectable, now crumbling away. Either way, it's quite beautiful.

But just how did he/she fill the cracks? Did they use glue of some kind to hold them there? It didn't say.

Linds #2 12:04 AM Saturday, Jun 7, 2008 Reply

This kind of stuff is why I visit BB. You make me giggle. Keep up the silly work

Bazilisk #3 2:14 AM Saturday, Jun 7, 2008 Reply

Coincidences are freaky. I just wrote a short story with a scene that is a lot like this. Woah.

Also, what a great idea. I want to copy it.

padster123 #4 4:13 AM Saturday, Jun 7, 2008 Reply

beautiful.

Zergonapal #5 4:55 AM Saturday, Jun 7, 2008 Reply

This is wonderfully annoying.

cherry shiva #6 6:52 AM Saturday, Jun 7, 2008 Reply

this is annoyingly wonderful !

Spankr #7 9:21 AM Saturday, Jun 7, 2008 Reply

It's "Lego", damn it!

;0)

dunxd #8 9:43 AM Saturday, Jun 7, 2008 Reply

Yeah - Lego is definitely the plural. The singular would be "a Lego brick".

These cracks filled in with Lego remind me of a migraine. The kind brought on by hearing people say legos.

dculberson #9 10:05 AM Saturday, Jun 7, 2008 Reply

Dunxd, you remind me of the "bimmer" versus "beemer" people. (Car versus motorcycle, if you're curious.) It's made up by the manufacturer, and isn't actually some grammatical rule that applies in reality. Nobody outside of a certain subset is bothered by it, and that subset should just kind of relax. Especially for Legos, which are meant to be fun.

Legos legos legos! Stempunk legos, if we're lucky!

cha0tic #10 12:06 PM Saturday, Jun 7, 2008 Reply

Lego. Bloody Americans.

Takuan #11 12:10 PM Saturday, Jun 7, 2008 Reply

Lego – combination of the Danish "leg godt", which means to "play well".[31] Lego also means "I put together" in Latin, but LEGO Group claims this is only a coincidence and the etymology of the word is entirely Danish. Years before the little plastic brick was invented, LEGO manufactured wooden toys.

Caroline #12 1:08 PM Saturday, Jun 7, 2008 Reply

LEGOS. Crazy Europeans.

You'll know they're plural when they're all over the floor and you step on them.

It's like you can have a brick wall, but five bricks. Or a stone wall, but five stones. It's a Lego wall, built of Legos.

Hmph.

For my next trick, I will loudly argue that it's a basket, not a trolley.

(Hint: I do not really take this seriously.)

Maurik #13 1:10 PM Saturday, Jun 7, 2008 Reply

Wow its like Math and Maths. It's called regional dialects. There's no right or wrong.

Takuan #14 1:11 PM Saturday, Jun 7, 2008 Reply

you mean s shopping buggy?

Antinous / Moderator #15 2:30 PM Saturday, Jun 7, 2008 Reply

Lego art. Grammar lecture. Not much of a trade.

eustace #16 2:40 PM Saturday, Jun 7, 2008 Reply

Lego is both a toy and a mental discipline, like a martial art. The enlightened Lego master can disassemble and reassemble domains of reality into new configurations. And even among these masters, some use the word Legos. Go figure.

PPixie #17 4:38 PM Saturday, Jun 7, 2008 Reply

I just have to toss out that LEGO is a company name. The thingies are LEGO bricks (there are other shapes, too, but bricks are the most familiar.)

But it's really neither here nor there since we should simply be admiring someone's craft, not correcting word pluralization!

And what a lovely craft it is!

Takuan #18 4:43 PM Saturday, Jun 7, 2008 Reply

mid way between Reprap and grey goo lies the Lego Replicator.

eustace #19 4:46 PM Saturday, Jun 7, 2008 Reply

Takuan - have you considered the custom Lego possibilities of the Reprap?

RJ #20 4:49 PM Saturday, Jun 7, 2008 Reply

If you're American and you grew up in the 80's and maybe early 90's, they are - and always will be - "Legos."

It doesn't matter what the brand name actually is. It's printed on the box, and that's good enough. Telling me I'm wrong simply means you don't get it.

I played with Legos as a kid, and they were fun. Legos, man. Frickin' LEGOS. But I never thought to patch walls with them. It looks a little crazy, frankly. I think I'd rather just see the old brickwork by itself.

El Fajio #21 4:54 PM Saturday, Jun 7, 2008 Reply

Legi.

Takuan #22 4:55 PM Saturday, Jun 7, 2008 Reply

@19, oh yeah..... the only problem is that Lego magic is in the interference fit of the pieces. Can Reprap be that tight? If so, the pornographic possibilities boggle the perverted mind. (mine)

Takuan #23 4:57 PM Saturday, Jun 7, 2008 Reply

Yes," I said, "let us be gone."

"For the love of God, Montresor!"

"Yes," I said, "for the love of God!"

But to these words I hearkened in vain for a reply. I grew impatient. I called aloud --

"Fortunato!"

No answer. I called again --

"Fortunato!"

No answer still. I thrust a torch through the remaining aperture and let it fall within. There came forth in return only a jingling of the bells. My heart grew sick; it was the dampness of the catacombs that made it so. I hastened to make an end of my labour. I forced the last Lego into its position; I snapped it in. Against the new Lego wall I re-erected the old rampart of bones. For the half of a century no mortal has disturbed them. In pace requiescat!

RJ #24 5:09 PM Saturday, Jun 7, 2008 Reply

@23

Ah, an excerpt from "The Cask of Red Kool-Aid." I love that story.

eustace #25 5:20 PM Saturday, Jun 7, 2008 Reply

My favorite will always be "The Sound of the Tell-Tale DC Electric Motor." (wipes tear from eye)

Takuan #26 5:26 PM Saturday, Jun 7, 2008 Reply

yes, Poe for the kiddies... I run a VERY special day care... right next to the Lovecraft Preschool.

Takuan #27 5:30 PM Saturday, Jun 7, 2008 Reply

one of our guest speakers for the little ones
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YD91NEcJ714

eustace #28 5:57 PM Saturday, Jun 7, 2008 Reply

Alas, Takuan, your link is to an incomplete version. Allow me to proffer the following:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4J23sE_b5yg&feature=related

clockworkjoe #29 6:33 PM Saturday, Jun 7, 2008 Reply

Great idea. Lego should make a LEGO strong enough to serve as load bearing weights, so we can build entire pillars out of them.

Purly #30 7:56 PM Saturday, Jun 7, 2008 Reply

Legos are sooo expensive these days. It's probably cheaper to use something else. I guess I lose on understanding why this is a good idea. Won't people just steal them?

nadhira #31 8:10 PM Saturday, Jun 7, 2008 Reply

This is awesome. And beautiful. Yet it must have been pretty painstaking to produce

Jamie Sue #32 8:13 PM Saturday, Jun 7, 2008 Reply

Beautiful

buddy66 #33 8:33 PM Saturday, Jun 7, 2008 Reply

Amazing. Pop Art still swinging after fifty years!

echolocate chocolate #34 9:01 PM Saturday, Jun 7, 2008 Reply

It is not so much filling gaps as uncovering the underlying Lego nature of things.

Teresa Nielsen Hayden #35 10:06 PM Saturday, Jun 7, 2008 Reply

Spankr, Dunxd, Cha0tic:

You're trying to make a bunch of English-speakers refrain from grammatically modifying words they kidnap from other languages? Hoo boy.

They're incorrigible, you know. If you teach them to speak other languages, they play fast and loose with its vocabulary just as they do in English.

Agent 86 #36 4:16 AM Sunday, Jun 8, 2008 Reply

iz be in uR engrish, maken teh legos legitz

Biscuit4 #37 6:21 AM Sunday, Jun 8, 2008 Reply

this looks awsome and is a great idea but it's fake. I'm putting the Golden Gate bridge up 4 auction. Opening bid is one hot wheels. Do I hear two?

Two Ton Tilly #38 2:12 PM Sunday, Jun 8, 2008 Reply

i like the merging of the old world and the new world. It shows that the two CAN be made to work together. Just like LEGO and Legos, or is it Legoes?

Two Ton Tilly #39 2:20 PM Sunday, Jun 8, 2008 Reply

i like the merging of the old world and the new world. It shows that the two CAN be made to work together. Just like LEGO and Legos, or is it Legoes?

crenelle #40 4:49 PM Sunday, Jun 8, 2008 Reply

I go by what the toy company says it is, that Lego is singular and plural. To me, Legos is in the same dictionary as nukular.

cha0tic #41 6:14 PM Sunday, Jun 8, 2008 Reply

Well Teresa, for what it's worth it's Grey, Cheque and colour (amongst others) Now if you'd all just apologise for wasting that tea at Boston, we'll welcome you back into the commonwealth and get rid of that moron you call president :)

Hmmm. Then you have to put up with the Dolt we've got as Prime Minister. Sorry, probably not the most persuasive of arguments.

Takuan #42 6:28 PM Sunday, Jun 8, 2008 Reply

better the Dolt today than the Baboon yesterday

eustace #43 9:55 PM Sunday, Jun 8, 2008 Reply

Grey - it's the new blaque.

historyman68 #44 4:00 AM Monday, Jun 9, 2008 Reply

@40: "nukular" has been used to an extent that it is considered acceptable by most major dictionaries. It's been used by at least 3 presidents besides Bush.

http://www.slate.com/id/2071155/

BubbaFett #45 7:38 AM Monday, Jun 9, 2008 Reply

If you have a problem with the way people pluralize brand names and want to incorporate the rules of grammar intended by the manufacturer, you might be right, but you really need to find something else to worry about.

Sort of like getting upset if someone asks if you have a box of Kleenexes instead of a box of Kleenex.

"But Mr. Kleenex says Kleenex is both singular and plural!"

Get a life.

Itsumishi #46 9:27 PM Monday, Jun 9, 2008 Reply

This is magical.
Lego was pretty much my entire life from the age of 3 through to 14. Well that and Nintendo products. Visiting Lego Land in Windsor was amazing. God I'd love to go back to that place.

But yeah. This work. It's amazing. So simple, elegant and just a wonderful mesh of painstaking labour and kids dreams (often coupled with the same kids painstaking labour).

I remember when I was about 4 mum was working on a skyscraper being built in Melbourne (the Daimaru tower for any Melbournians it's the one next to Melbourne Central that looks like Batman with it’s antennas). Every day we passed the site I'd tell her "just tell me when you want me to put the roof on". I'm not 100% sure on how I was planning on building the roof, but I'm sure it was going to be out of Lego.

Thinking back on it, they should have let me do it.

Keith #47 7:47 AM Tuesday, Jun 10, 2008 Reply

A gaggle of Lego?

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