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Blego
Lego for building model shanty towns | |
Blego is a deliberately badly made
construction kit with building
components
that must be
pounded together to make them fit. The
various parts are all
carefully mis-made,
so that none of them are evenly sided, or
join together very well. Strings and wires
are therefore
required additions
to hold things unto
each other, and many of the parts have
holes drilled in them to facilitate this
type of improvised joint.
Also included with Blego are multiple
sheets of fake rusty, corrugated iron
sheets and
segments of dismantled vehicles.
These enable the intrepid builder to
construct a range of authentic broken
down shacks that are generally the type
of
dwelling which one would expect to find
in
a shanty town or favela.
Made with Blego
http://farm1.static...1870_b06f983156.jpg
[xenzag, Sep 25 2007]
(?) Blego-land
http://www.transpor...t/images/favela.jpg
[xenzag, Sep 25 2007]
(?) Outskirts of Cairo
http://bbsnews.net/...0705103_G.sized.jpg
(notes to self) rem to include TV satellite dishes [xenzag, Sep 25 2007]
[link]
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There are several cheap Lego clones (they'll have something like "Compatible with the leading brick system!" on the package) which go someway down this road, in that they're not made to the same very high tolerances Lego is made to and so don't fit together that well. |
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I like the idea for producing authentic favellas, but I think this would work better if the bricks only *appeared* to be broken and crumbling, when in fact the interiors are normal. I personally don't fancy pounding the pieces to make them fit, it would hurt. |
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what hippo said, I remember my lads using something called betabilda that was a pig to try to fit together. I wrote and complained and told them that they should have bilt them beta. |
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Not sure why the boxes the Lego comes in can't simply be repurposed for this use. |
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I understand what you are saying [jtp] et
all, but if everything fitted together
well, it would remove the element of
improvisation and problem solving. |
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The frustration of badly made
construction kits arises from the
expectation of things, which should fit
perfectly, not doing so. With Blego there
is no such expectation. |
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If you want to build perfect structures
use Lego, but if you want to build
gammy, lean-to shacks, held together
with bits of wire, and encrusted with
scrap components - use Blego. |
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I like this. I imagine pieces that are engineered just as carefully as the lego ones (and *do* fit together well, if only you found the right ones - which you never do), but have irregular angles to them that cause them to not quite fit, plus methods of improvisation (like the string/hole system xenxag describes) to make up for that. |
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A friend of mine worked with Habitat For Humanity - a volunteer scheme where people can sign up and provide assistance in building projects around the world. In some instances, they use scaled-up lego-style blocks in order to build walls that might otherwise require more advanced bricklaying skills than might be available - quite ingenious. |
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I know a lot about that type of building system because I worked on a basement for two days that was made out of those blocks, and my parents were supposedly going to have a new house built with them... It hasn't happened yet and I don't think it ever will. |
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Anyway, this whole idea is kind of like torture to me... if the name "Lego" wasn't used, then I might be ok with it. |
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