LEGO launches its botanical collection to merge building blocks with gardening

LEGO’s Botanical Collection marks the toy company’s latest effort in merging the joyful pastime of building blocks with the meditative work of gardening.

Two of the more popular pastimes to have gained traction during the pandemic have been gardening and building with LEGOs. It seems everyone is filling their homes with flower bouquets and greenery. While there’s no replacement for growing our own gardens, LEGO recently launched a collection of blocks that allow people to build their own bouquets and greenery with LEGO blocks. Dubbed the Botanical Collection, users will be able to replicate flowers like Birds of Paradise and orchids with corresponding LEGO blocks.

Designer: LEGO

Designed to provide users with a means for rest and relaxation, the Botanical Collection is like a sort of three-dimensional puzzle that merges the childhood joy of LEGO building blocks with the patient game of jigsaw puzzles. While children and adults enjoy collecting LEGO blocks and building microscopic cityscapes from that collection, the Botanical Collection marks a clear effort from the toy block’s company to ‘adultify’ their collection of LEGOs.

The Bird of Paradise collection features over 1,000 building blocks so users can take their time constructing artful three-dimensional replicas of bouquets and plant life. In addition to the Bird of Paradise option, the Botanical Collection includes pieces to build orchids, succulents, full bouquets, bonsai trees, and whatever else your imagination concocts.

On rainy days, when gardening isn’t an option, LEGO’s new Botanical Collection offers a moment of indoor respite for those of us with green-thumbed tendencies. Of the succulent collection, the designers at LEGO encourage adults to, “Discover the deeper virtues of our resilient friends. Venture into the plant kingdom and let your green fingers do what they do best, with this creative and relaxing build.”

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This biodegradable children’s building block game is made entirely from recycled rice husks

Rice Husk Village is a modular toy game made entirely from discarded rice husk waste.

On a yearly basis, around 120 million tons of rice husks are discarded worldwide. The husk is the plant material that covers rice grains, which is ultimately discarded because humans do not digest it. highly resistant to natural degradation, rice husk has a large dry volume due to their low-bulk density and rough surfaces.

Designer: Subin Cho

Looking at this issue from an environmentalist’s perspective, designer, Subin Cho conceptualized a children’s toy called Rice Husk Village made entirely from rice husk to turn agricultural waste into meaningful products that can ultimately be composted back into the ground.

Cho notes, “Rice husk has large dry volume due to its low bulk density and possesses rough and abrasive surfaces that are highly resistant to natural degradation.” From an environmental perspective, this reveals why rice husks can be difficult to dispose of, but from a designer’s perspective, this plant material is ideal for creating products like the Rice Husk Village.

Constructed and molded from rice husks, the Rice Husk Village is comprised of shaped modules that stack together to form villages. Three different building types allow users to create different city fabrics, from skyscraper-filled skylines to small villages. A four-legged bridge, tree modules, and stairs also come with Rice Husk Village so users can really create their own unique toy village.

Cho’s design also features a balance tray that users can build their villages atop as an interactive game. The game’s initiative is to create a well-balanced, and bustling village fabric from the toys blocks made from rice husks.

If the village topples over to one side on the balance tray, then whoever touched the last block loses, in a similar fashion to the game Jenga. Considering the rice husk modules, the toy blocks are biodegradable and safe for the human body to consume on the off chance your toddler is getting a little chewy.

Children can even add a touch of greenery to their miniature village replicas. 

Once play time is over, the building blocks can be put back into the earth to be composted. 

Similar to the game of Jenga, Rice Husk Village is a stacking game. 

Children will have an array of different modular toy blocks to choose from when constructing their village.

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LEGO master builder Mitsuru Nikaido creates detailed animal sculptures that will shock and awe you

Mitsuru Nikaido, a Kurashiki-based artist, makes sculptures of different animal species from LEGO building blocks.

Mitsuru Nikaido has been creating intricate sculptures out of LEGO building blocks for years. Backed with a wide-ranging and diverse portfolio, Nikaido feels most inspired to build his sculptures in the shapes of different animal species.

Designer: Mitsuru Nikaido

When constructing his sculptures, the Japanese LEGO enthusiast tends towards a cyberpunk aesthetic and gray-scale color palette to highlight his signature style. His varied collection includes LEGO sculptures of walruses, Huntsman spiders, crayfish, cicadas, triceratops, beetles, shoebills, and even microscopic water bears.

Based in Kurashiki, Nikaido mostly utilizes the gray-toned LEGO bricks, only relying on brightly-colored bricked to accentuate an animal’s defining feature, like a pair of electric eyes or a lustrous beak. While any one of Nikaido’s sculptures can impress without any movement, some of his works feature spring-loaded limbs, like flexible joints and a wagging tail, that shine a spotlight on the potential of LEGO building blocks.

Nikaido mostly exhibits his sculptures on his social media channels, and a select few of his pieces of artwork are for sale on his website. Alternatively, interested viewers can see his sculptures on display at the LEGO House in Denmark.

Nikaido’s Mecha Cicada creation.

Nikaido’s Mecha Beetle creation.

Nikaido’s Mecha Water Bear sculpture.

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The sustainable alternative to LEGO are these building blocks entirely carved from timber

Classic toys like LEGO building blocks never go out of style. A quick Google search even proves that there’s a whole web of online stores devoted to selling and buying rare, collectible pieces. There’s one standard 2×4 LEGO brick on the market, entirely made from gold, with a firm asking price of just under $15,000 – to each their own. Then, there’s Mokulock, an alternative type of building block. Carved entirely from sustainably sourced timber and not compatible with plastic building blocks, Mokulock works in the same way as LEGO bricks but is a couple of steps ahead on the road towards sustainable toy production.

Coming from a love for trees and the natural world, the designer behind Mokulock recognized the waste that manifests with forest thinning and decided to make use of the smaller trees that are too thin for architectural purposes or furniture-making. Prioritizing simplicity and organic structure over shiny paint jobs, the Mokulock building blocks maintain their original tree’s finish, without additional finishing oil, chemical paint, or glue. While the different timber species used to create the building blocks of Mokulock vary, a sanded finish that promises a soft feel and splinter-free play is guaranteed. Currently, Mokulock uses timber from Japanese Cherry, Japanese Zelkova, Japanese Bigleaf Magnolia, Birch, Hornbeam, and Maple trees to produce their building blocks, which provide different textures and shades of wood for either smooth gradient or color block building projects.

Mokulock was initially created as a means for preservation and sustainability, but the timber used in producing these building blocks offers some mental benefits for the user as well. In addition to supporting an endeavor that provides a sustainable alternative to a worldwide beloved toy, Mokulock utilizes the soft feel of wood to help enhance creativity, stabilize the autonomic nerves by lowering the blood pressure, regulate an otherwise abnormal pulse, and generally calm the nerves. Then again, we don’t need research to remind us of the comfort that comes when we immerse ourselves in nature and notice the solidity of its surrounding trees, the soothing scent of freshly cut timber, and the warm feel of tree bark.

Designer: Mokulock

Due to the tree’s natural coloring, Mokulock offers a wide array of shades for its building blocks.

A natural camouflage color scheme is achieved through the varying natural gradient of Mokulock’s building blocks.

Just like LEGO building blocks, Mokulock bricks can be used to create large-scale 3D scenes or smaller designs like automobiles or miniature pyramids.

Mokulock stays away from using any finishing oil, chemical paint, or glue in the making of their building blocks to maintain an organic finish.

Some of Mokulock’s building blocks come engraved with quirky scenes and characters for children to integrate into their buildings.

 

Building Blocks of Power

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What if the very materials used to construct a building could be used to power that same building? That’s the idea behind Solar Squared – it’s solar power creation and building in one… and it looks damn good!

Almost indistinguishable from the common architectural element, they allow light indoors while simultaneously reducing heat and collecting solar energy. As far as sustainability goes, Solar Squared’s lifetime costs are actually less than an glass block wall of the same size due to the free electricy generation and improved thermal insulation. The cubes can also be tinted to prevent rooms overheating and are available in a variety of colors depending on the client’s aesthetic taste.

Designer: Build Solar

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