« Design: Seriously Cool Design with Repurposed Legos »

If you're like me and you have teenage kids at home, chances are you have a gazillion Lego bricks in your basement that they have outgrown. Rather than putting them in storage for the grandkids some day... or donating them to a day care center... or (heaven forbid) throwing them in the trash... perhaps it's time to repurpose those legos into a lasting objet d'art. My inspiration for this Lego salvation project is a FastCompany.com article by Ariel Schwartz (3/31/2010) titled Lego Table Could Transform Boring Board Room Meetings. In that article Schwartz tells of a massive 9-foot table crafted by Dublin's ABGC Architecture & Design for Dublin ad agency Boys and Girls. According to Schwartz:

...the table was made with 22,742 Lego bricks snapped together the old-fashioned way--no glue necessary. The whole thing was placed atop a stainless steel base and covered with a four foot by nine foot slab of glass, presumably to prevent angry employees from smashing the table.

Now, I look at that table and I think "nice, that looks really useful and nice." Then it gets me to thinking what I could create with the massive number of Legos in multiple storage containers in our basement (not 22,000 ... but A LOT). I'm thinking end tables and plant stands. I'm also thinking that there is a significant marketing/PR opportunity for Lego in this concept. I know for a fact that there are many, many, many parents of teens sitting on a truckload of now dormant Legos. Why not challenge parents to repurpose those beloved bricks into useful, permanent objects? Prize money and fleeting fame could be awarded to the winners. I also see the possibility of a traveling exhibit of the winning entries and, of course, a coffee table book. Lego, are you listening? That's one contest I'd like to enter.