Using a staggering volume of LEGO bricks, a series of ten famous architecture firms has constructed a series of miniature built environments, deploying them on the High Line in New York City and encouraging the public to play with and reconfigure their work.
Organized by installation artist Olafur Eliasson (images by Timothy Schenck), The Collectivity Project features contributions from an all-star cast of local and international designers from: James Corner Field Operations, BIG, David M Schwarz Architects, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, OMA New York, Renzo Piano Building Workshop, Robert A.M. Stern Architects, Selldorf Architects, SHoP and Steven Holl Architects.
The results range from pointy towers and crooked skyscrapers to giant trees and complex landscapes, all created from versatile white bricks that can be added, removed and used interchangeably.
These are also not meant to be finished or stand-alone works – visitors and passers by are encouraged to remake this scaled-down urban landscape according to their own whims, transforming the architecture piece by piece over the coming months.
Already, people have begun the conversion process, creating additions to bridges between the disparate LEGO buildings.
Sitting the shadow of Hudson Yards, a floating megablock toward one terminus of the elevated park, those interacting with the work are encouraged to draw inspiration from their under-construction surroundings as well the historical hybrid of raised rail and modern pathway that is the High Line itself.
