LEGO® + AALTO: Waving movement

Students from the fields of both architecture and arts have created an installation that is made from LEGO bricks. The installation is being shown at Helsinki Design Week. This year the central theme of the project has been motion combined the feeling of underwater world.

What makes this year different; it is the participants of the project. Now the project has involved people from the Department of Art, and consequently the working methods have been more artistic. Master student of Architecture Johanna Marttila sees that the collaboration has been successful.

– Art students have broadened our perspective, which has been really structural centric, says Marttila.

Sneak peek before the opening

– Now students have put more thought to what kinds of reactions the work could evoke among the audience. Before the working was more straightforward, describes the lecturer of digital architecture, Kai Salmi, in an interview with Helsinki Design Week.

Moreover students have been able to carry out their ideas without restrictions. As a partner in cooperation, LEGO has been really flexible and open to their ideas. However, as a building material LEGO bricks are challenging compared to traditional building materials. Master student of Visual Culture and Contemporary Art (ViCCA) Marloes Van Son says that LEGO bricks are funny as a material but they bring certain limitations. – You have to work with those bricks that come along with the package.

Besides LEGO bricks, students have took advantage of mirror surfaces, lightning and different rhythms. Creating waving movement has been the goal.

– Moving coral underwater, describes Salmi one of the pieces of the installation.

The project is presented in the L3 Design Dock 9.-13.9.