What is it?
One in a series of scale models by plastic brick toy maker, LEGO, as part of their LEGO Architecture line. Farnsworth House, by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1951), accompanies eleven other scale models including Fallingwater by Frank Lloyd Wright (1935) and the Sydney Opera House by Jørn Utzon (1973).
Better understood as artistic interpretations rather than true scale models, the LEGO Architecture series utilises standard LEGO components, albeit in hues more subdued than the primary colours of the standard line.
My beautifully thoughtful wife purchased the Farnsworth House model for me as a Christmas present last year. A few weekends ago, I decided it was time to finally relive my childhood and build it.
What did I think?
LEGO designs each of its models to embody their core philosophy: “the joy of building”. I can attest to the success of this, both from countless hours as a child constructing, demolishing and reconstructing model after model, and from my more recent experience. Following the immaculately rendered instructions, I came to the kitchen joinery within the Farnsworth House and spent a few glorious minutes puzzled by the structure that was emerging. Only at the end, as I clicked on the final smooth pieces of cladding, was the form revealed to me.
The joy of building.
In honour of the 126th anniversary of Mies van der Rohe‘s birth.
Image sources:
- Farnsworth House LEGO model, author’s own image
- Farnsworth House, Wikimedia Commons. Photography by Carol M. Highsmith; United States Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division; reproduction number LC-DIG-highsm-04118