When you flirt with the Dark Side, bad things can happen; lava burns you, offspring return to kill you, and giant space cephalopods attack your ships. In a massive tentacled disturbance in the Force, Iain Heath constructed a giant LEGO kraken to entwine a model of Darth Vader’s Super Star Destroyer. The stellar squid began as a suggestion from his boss, and it now has a permanent home at the Seattle offices of Tableau Software.

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Post tags: chris stolte, dark side, darth vader, emerald city comicon, force, fremont, iain heath, kr-kn, kraken, lego, rebel alliance, Seattle, squid, star wars, super star destroyer, tableau software

We’ve seen 3D printers fabricate vehicles ready to for the open road – and now California-based Signal Snowboards has shown that printers can produce quality boards for the slopes! Working with GROWit 3D, Signal was able to use a carbon-based powder to compose a board in composite pieces using a selective-laser-sintering (SLS) machine. The board has an unusual shoveled nose and wide tail, and the team tested it in its raw form in the powder of a Colorado bowl. While not the most gorgeous or speedy deck on the mountain, the board was still strong and flexible enough to handle some good carving.

Read the rest of Signal Creates the World’s First 3D Printed Snowboard

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Post tags: 3d printer, California, carbon powder, colorado, growit 3d, iPad, ishred, lego, selective laser sintering, Signal Snowboards, slopes, sls, snow

A new batch of Nathan Sawaya’s delightful LEGO sculptures recently popped up at New York City’s Openhouse Gallery and we stopped by to take a gander. Unlike some of Sawaya’s previous works, many of which have a bit of an outrageous quality to them, “IN PIECES” glorifies quieter, more mundane objects – a bucket, a cloud or a pair of flip flops – that we often take for granted. Sawaya’s LEGO creations take on an unexpected new flavor when paired with photographer Dean West’s haunting and slightly “off” photos featuring the sculptures. Take a look here.

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Post tags: dean west, eco design, green design, lego, lego art, lego design, lego dog, lego sculptures, lego umbrella, LEGOs, Nathan Sawaya, new york lego art, Openhouse Gallery

Shipping containers have emerged as a popular material for building everything from backyard retreats to temporary shelters and coffee shops. Now DARPA has harnessed the giant metal boxes for use in defense and disaster relief. The Tactically Expandable Maritime Platform (TEMP) links the 20-40 ft containers together like giant LEGO bricks to form floating platforms and bridges.

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Post tags: adjustable, caat, captive air amphibious transporters, cargo, darpa, distaster, gps, grasp lab, hook-and-tether, lego, military, modular, relief, shipping container, supplies, tactically expandable maritime platform, temp, University of Pennsylvania

LEGO building blocks may arguably be the best toy ever – and they’ll soon be getting the “best museum ever”! Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), the Danish starchitecture firm, and Ralph Appelbaum Associates recently won an international competition to design the LEGO House — a public museum and experience center coming to Billund, Denmark, home of the toy that’s beloved all over the world.

Read the rest of LEGO Soon to Get the “Best Museum EVER” by BIG and RAA

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Post tags: bjarke ingels, Bjarke Ingels Group, Eco Architecture, green design, lego, ralph appelbaum, ralph appelbaum associates

If you love pancakes but hate making them, then the LEGO PancakeBot is your dream come true. Designed by Miguel Valenzuela, the LEGO robot pushes the boundaries of brunch technology by using an X and Y axis to make a row of perfectly round silver dollar pancakes. The Lego PancakeBot just launched an Indiegogo campaign to help bring it to the Bay Area Maker Fair – support it here!

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Post tags: automatic pancake maker, eco design, green design, lego, LEGO Pancakebot, Maker Fair, Miguel Valenzuela, sustainable design

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Post tags: eco design, green design, lego, LEGO EN BOIS, sustainable design, sustainable legos, Thibault Malet, WOoden Lego

LEGO bricks were some of our favorite toys as children – hidden in those brightly-colored blocks was the potential to build practically anything, so long as that something involved a lot of right angles. It’s hard to make slopes and curves, so most LEGO creations come out looking a lot like a box. The square nature of LEGO doesn’t seem to have been a stumbling block for Japanese builder Talapz. He recently became an internet sensation (for a second time) by building a miniature LEGO replica of Tōdai-ji, a Buddhist temple complex located in the city of Nara, Japan. But for Talapz, it’s not enough that the mini temple looks remarkably like the real thing – through some type of sorcery we may never understand, he made the LEGO building emerge, pop-up style from a giant book that’s also built of LEGO. Watch the video after the jump to view this mind-blowing feat!

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Post tags: architectural model, Architecture, Buddhist Temple, green design, Japan, lego, Lego bricks, model, pop up building, pop-up book, sustainable design, Talapz, toys

LEGO blocks have been around for over half a century, offering a creative outlet in the form a colorful stackable brick. While some of us have since put those smiling, yellow plastic men aside, others have continued to draw upon this awesome toy as a source of inspiration, a tool for education, and in some of the most amusing cases, have made it a prime material for design application! So to pay homage to this wonderful little brick, we’ve rounded up five of our favorite life-sized LEGO projects – proving you’re never too old to play with LEGO blocks!

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Post tags: creating with legos, ecomat lego building bricks, green design, green design for families, green design for kids, james may's lego house, lego, lego animals, lego art, lego building, lego creations, lego house, lego kitchen, lego sculptures, lego table, lego toys, LEGOs, life-sized lego structures, toy building bricks

Read the rest of Relive Felix Baumgartner’s Breathtaking Stratos Space Jump… In LEGO!

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Post tags: daredevil, Felix Baumgartner, lego, miniature model, skydiving, space, Stratos Jump

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Post tags: Architecture, Art, batman, Bruce Wayne, Carlyle Livingston, comic book, energy saving lights, LED, lego, LEGO Bat Cave, Wayne Hussey

Read the rest of Our World: A Giant Pixelated LEGO Map Built from 1 Million Bricks!

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Post tags: ana lisa alperovich, Art, building blocks, Danish design, DIY, Festival of the World, games, green products, lego, London, Our World in LEGO®, reusable bricks, South Bank, world map

Read the rest of Recycled Materials and Innovative Low-Energy Designs Shine at Paris’ Maison & Objet

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Post tags: "energy efficiency", "green furniture", All Lovely Stuff, ana lisa alperovich, Ay Illuminate, COLORS' Chiba Wood, eco design, eco textiles, EcoJun, Geraldine Gonzales, Green Design Events, green lighting, green materials, green products, green technology, home ware, ID Cook, Ko-Ho, lego, Maison&Objet, Paris Design Week 2012, Recycled Materials, recycling / compost, social design, trade show, vij5, Wonderable

You can see, feel and touch architecture, but what if you could hear it too? Innovative architects and designers across the globe are finding inspiration in music to create sound-producing structures that aim to heighten our senses and open our minds to the finer details that make up the world around us. From a cargo container that mimics the experience of being inside a guitar, to a multi-faceted building facade that produces an aqueous resonance on rainy days, to a towering hands-on pavilion that visitors can touch and play like a keyboard, see 6 of our favorite sustainable structures that have been inspired by music!

This content series is brought to you in partnership with smartwater. smartwater, good taste travels well. To learn more click here.

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Post tags: 2012 olympics, Andre Temple, Annette Paul, asif Khan, Beatbox Pavilion, cargoguitar, Cargotecture, Christopher Rossner, Coca Cola, Court of Water, Danish Urbanbotics, Dithytamblaina, Dresden, germany, Kobe Biennale, Kunsthof Passage, lego, LEGO-certified professional, LEGOLAND Germany, london 2012, louisiana, Marcelo Ertorteguy, Mark Ronson, New Orleans, New Orleans Airlift, Olympic Games, orbs, Pernilla Ohrstedt, reclaimed shipping container, Rene Hoffmeister, Sara Valente, Serviceplan, shipping container, smartwater, star wars, Star Wars saga, Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace, swoon, Takahiro Fukuda, The Music Box, Urbanbotics

Read the rest of Universidad Cardenal Herrera’s SML System House is a Solar Decathlon Entry that Adapts to its Occupants

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Post tags: "sustainable architecture", lego, madrid, photovoltaic panels, prefabricated home, Solar Decathlon, solar powered house, Valencia

Remember how long it took you to build a house or car with LEGO bricks? In a matter of minutes you could slap together four walls and a roof, or four tires and a steering wheel, and your LEGO person would be living the good life. As adults, many of us realize that real houses and cars are much more complicated, but Eric Steenstra refused to believe it. Using a massive amount of LEGO Mindstorms pieces, Steenstra built his very own fully-functional go kart – and yes, it’s big enough to hold an adult passenger.

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Post tags: Design, eco-art, electric vehicle, Eric Steenstra, go kart, green design, green transportation, lego, lego car, mindstorms, sustainable design

LEGO fans rejoice! Gadget guru Michael McCooey just unveiled a super cool flexible Spiderman action figure made entirely from LEGO bricks. McCooey is an active member of the Lego Cuusoo network, which encourages fans of the famous toy building bricks to share their designs – and he stepped up to the challenge to build an action figure that was not only agile and posable, but also slim and natural looking like the amazing super hero himself.  The finished figurine is designed to bend and twist into all of Spidey’s limber poses, and of course it can hang upside down.

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Post tags: action figures, amazing spiderman, Design, eco design, green design, green toys, lego, lego action figures, lego design, lego figurine, lego spiderman, lego toys, LegoCuusoo, Michael McCooey, spiderman, spiderman action figure, sustainable design

The successful landing of the Mars Curiosity rover last week has inspired people around the world. A few enterprising geeks at BattleBricks decided to immortalize it in LEGO form, and now a NASA designer named Perijove has posted instructions to make a more simplified version for those that don’t have unlimited LEGO resources.

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Post tags: Curiosity, lego, LEGO Curiosity, LEGO CUUSOO, LEGO Lander, LEGO Mars Rover, mars, mars lander, mars rover, mars science laboratory, nasa, Perijove

Read the rest of Kids Build Epic Model of Japan from 1.8 Million LEGO Bricks!

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Post tags: 1.8 million LEGOs, 50th Anniversary LEGO, Build up Japan, eco design, GIant Japan Map, green design, lego, LEGO map, sustainable design

On Sunday, America watched with bated breath as the Curiosity Rover successfully touched down on the surface of Mars. For two years, the highly advanced, nuclear-powered rover will explore the surface of the Red Planet, allowing us to view live images of its surface for the first time in human history. The sophisticated Rover is so interesting, a few enterprising geeks at BattleBricks decided to immortalize it in miniature LEGO form.

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Post tags: curiosity rover, Doug Moran, kennedy space center, lego, mars, nasa, space exploration, Will Gorman