James May's Lego House

[PapaZita]

I found that sideways bricks dont 'stick' as well due to bending moment along the length of the brick causing the studs to pull out. The usual way to seperate bricks is to bend along the joint to 'snap' them.

With what I have in mind, I think most of the significant forces will be trying to shear the studs off the bricks. I think my parents still have my Lego in the loft. I will attempt to liberate it when I visit in a few days time. No doubt the flaw in my plan will become apparent as soon as I try to built it.

PZ.

 

[darkstar]

Great episode, i agree that woman was a bad choice. I'm sure she's great in her normal work environment but had no idea when it came to this!
Great location though, would love to live there.

 

[Globalti]

Loved the loo with the Lego turd!

 

[Mr Pig]

If they were going to build a house why on earth didn't they get a builder? Idiots. The producers are probably just too far up their own backsides and like giving jobs to their arty-farty mates.

 

[jonny jeez]

One fault (sad git alert here) I found with it was that he was aiming to build a lego house not like a normal house but to the strengths (and weaknesses of Lego)

.

Sad gits unite!!!...I was sitting there asking myself (rather, I was screaming at the screen) Why dont they just use arches.

Arches would also have looked fantastic, sculpted in multi faceted lego and would not have looked like an imitation of anything.

Arches would also have got over the beam issue and created a unique interior look, like some lego cavern

really clever designers....not

I can only assume the brief was to make the house look like a brick of lego with very austere lines and elevations....and not an organic structure with interesting curves and sweeps.

I would love to see something done in a more organic styel...anyone got a few million spare lego bits and we could have a go ourselves!!

 

[Globalti]

An arch wouldn't work in Lego; the walls wouldn't be able to resist the massive outward forces without support from some kind of exterior brace or flying buttress. May was trying to utilise Lego's high compression strength, as he demonstrated at the beginning.

 

[LeeW]

I think he wanted his house to look like a house and not like a cathedral although building it like a cathedral by using pointed arches, vaulting and buttresses would have made better use of the strengths of lego as stone, like lego is good in compression but not tension.

 

[Globalti]

It would have ended up looking something like a medieval cathedral, with all kinds of exterior ribs and buttresses for support. This is Salisbury, one of our best examples of medieval lightweight stone building techniques and quite definitely the most inspiring building I have ever seen.

 

[jonny jeez]

Funny, that's almost exactley how I imagined it would look...but you say it wont work...I reckon it would, even with tons of support it will still look unique and very interesting.