Olafur Eliasson invites architects to join with the public to build a Lego skyline on New York's Highline

Installation artist, sculptor, filmmaker and photographer Olafur Eliasson has long put a new spin on space, volume and perception in a variety of mediums internationally. Who can forget his 2007 Serpentine, when together with Norwegian architect Kjetil Thorsen, he turned out a spinning top-like building drenched in light or his 2008 cascading ‘New York City Waterfalls’?
But rather than water, light and air, this time around Eliasson took on a decidedly novel material - Lego bricks, the ubiquitous Danish plastic building blocks for his ‘The collectify project’ on Chelsea’s Highline overlooking the Hudson River. Made up of a staggering one million white Lego bricks weighing two tons, Eliasson has created an imaginary cityscape as well as a commentary on urban development.
And that project is hardly mere child’s play as he called on architects Annabelle Selldorf, Renzo Piano’s Building Workshop, Robert A. M. Stern and other firms as part of the team for his visionary project. In their hands, they constructed miniature buildings on vast tables.
Selldorf, who fine tuned the Fifth Avenue Neue Galerie and has designed a slew of art galleries from Hauser & Wirth to David Zwirner, says, 'I thought of introducing the idea of the labyrinth which represents an archetypal space. It took on a life of its own with everyone contributing different aspects and looked very beautiful to me.'
Right opposite Selldorf’s labyrinth, Stern’s office created a miniature forty-story skyscraper while Renzo Piano replicated a just destroyed temple in Katmandu.
Of this idiosyncratic work, Eliasson notes, 'The collectivity project is an invitation to co-produce space.'
And now, the public have been invited to build on top of this miniature skyline, transforming it into something entirely new. 'When you stand around the table with Lego bricks, you might build on top of what someone else has built, or you might build a new structure together with someone you have never met before,' says Eliasson of that participatory aspect. 'It gradually turns into a hybrid of play and city planning.'
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
Called 'The collectivity project', Eliasson called on architects Annabelle Selldorf, Renzo Piano’s Building Workshop and Robert A. M. Stern to construct miniature buildings on vast tables using the white building blocks
Stern’s office created a miniature forty-story skyscraper...
...while Renzo Piano replicated a just destroyed temple in Katmandu
And now, the public have been invited to build on top of this miniature skyline, adding their own creations and transforming it into something new over the next four months
'When you stand around the table with Lego bricks, you might build on top of what someone else has built, or you might build a new structure together with someone you have never met before,' says Eliasson of that participatory aspect
Other iterations of the concept have previously been installed in public squares in Tirana, Albania (2005), Oslo, Norway (2006), and Copenhagen, Denmark (2008)
ADDRESS
The High Line
West 30th Street
New York
-
Multi-functional furniture, integrated planting and a felt landscape shape this new office
Zeller & Moye’s new HQ space for a German IT company has been designed to accommodate every kind of office working situation, from introverted cubicles through to flexible open-plan spaces
-
Step inside a Hollywood Hills home where European design meets Californian ease
LA studio Broad Project takes us inside its cinematic renovation of a 1960s Spanish Revival home in the Hollywood Hills
-
Wallpaper* checks in at Jnane Rumi: clarity, reflection and connection
In the quiet tranquillity of Marrakech’s Palmeraie, Jnane Rumi evokes a rich and colourful tapestry of Moroccan art, craftsmanship and design
-
A Rancho Mirage home is in tune with its location and its architect-owners' passions
Architect Steven Harris and his collaborator and husband, designer Lucien Rees Roberts have built a home in Rancho Mirage, surrounded by some of America’s most iconic mid-century modern works; they invited us on a tour
-
Inside Frank Lloyd Wright’s Laurent House – a project built with accessibility at its heart
The dwelling, which you can visit in Illinois, is a classic example of Wright’s Usonian architecture, and was also built for a client with a disability long before accessibility was widely considered
-
Tour this fire-resilient minimalist weekend retreat in California
A minimalist weekend retreat was designed as a counterpoint to a San Francisco pied-à-terre; Edmonds + Lee Architects’ Amnesia House in Napa Valley is a place for making memories
-
A New Zealand house on a rugged beach exemplifies architect Tom Kundig's approach in rich, yet understated luxury
This coastal home, featured in 'Tom Kundig: Complete Houses', a new book launch in the autumn by Monacelli Press, is a perfect example of its author's approach to understated luxury. We spoke to Tom Kundig, the architect behind it
-
Tour architect Paul Schweikher’s house, a Chicago midcentury masterpiece
Now hidden in the Chicago suburbs, architect Paul Schweikher's former home and studio is an understated midcentury masterpiece; we explore it, revisiting a story from the Wallpaper* archives, first published in April 2009
-
Lego and Serpentine celebrate World Play Day with a new pavilion
Lego and Serpentine have just unveiled their Play Pavilion; a colourful new structure in Kensington Gardens in London and a gesture that celebrates World Play Day (11 June)
-
The world of Bart Prince, where architecture is born from the inside out
For the Albuquerque architect Bart Prince, function trumps form, and all building starts from the inside out; we revisit a profile from the Wallpaper* archive, first published in April 2009
-
Is embracing nature the key to a more fire-resilient Los Angeles? These landscape architects think so
For some, an executive order issued by California governor Gavin Newsom does little to address the complexities of living within an urban-wildland interface