Is LEGO a toy?

You can find LEGO in any toy shop or supermarket. Does that mean LEGO is a toy? Not necessarily. As a product being sold, LEGO is intended to be a toy. There are sets that contain cars and other vehicles, buildings and spaceships. But until they become toys, we have to assemble them.

From all the possible combinations of the bricks given for each set, usually only one leads to an official model. You have to build your toy. Or you can build another toy. Do not build that kind of a car that is on the box, you can also build another car. Or a building. Wherever your curiosity takes you. However, it is still the finished model that is the toy.

LEGO bricks itself, before they take a form, are building components. Each individual brick is a component, that can create various different things. Mostly, people play with them. One can also make sculptures, study models or learning tools. Possibilities are endless.

In that way, LEGO bricks are not different from their cousins made of clay, or other building materials, steel, wood, glass. They are just that. Material. And it is our task to create something from that.

Mostly, we create toys. But LEGO bricks themselves are just a medium. Same as a crayon or 3D modelling software. A tool in our hands that can be used. Used for many different things.

And when I focus only on architecture, LEGO can be used as a medium to simulate many things. Architecture is a science about the relationship. The relationship between people and spaces. Materials and people. People and other people. And LEGO can visualize many of these relationships.

Many years ago, there were Froebel blocks. They started as a toy for children. But they were actually very interesting for architects, because of the ease of testing different configurations of the mass of the building. It is even said that it inspired F.L. Wright. And if he was using them, that is basically proof of importance.

And LEGO is just Froebel block 2.0. Similar principle. And it is our task to give this material the purpose by using it. It can serve to test massing. We can create light study models with it. We can visualise proportions. We can train our perception. Play to get new ideas. Test how to assemble materials together. Try colour scheme. And more.

LEGO gives us an opportunity to visualize our thoughts. To refine and remember. To ease the load on our brain, so it can work more efficiently. And that is pretty awesome for a piece of plastic.

Cheers