Tiny Bricks Full-Size Ambition

At what point do small plastic bricks stop reading as pieces and start reading as a world? The answer kept changing with the scale: first an object, then a landscape, then a city.

[1]

a life-size model race car made of plastic building blocks inside a building

First, make the pieces disappear

[2]

an industrial machinery exhibit inside a building with a white brick-patterned ceiling

At life size, the race car reads as a vehicle before its material becomes apparent. The industrial machinery exhibit complicates that trick: beneath a white brick-patterned ceiling, even the room seems to echo the construction method. ([1], [2])

[3]

a detailed model tree made of plastic building blocks inside a building

[4]

a large plastic brick dinosaur sculpture in a museum

[5]

A detailed scale model mountain exhibit in a museum or theme park.

Then stretch from detail to spectacle

[6]

a brightly lit interior with a yellow overhead construction and digital display panels in a museum or interactive space

The tree rewards close looking, while the large dinosaur works through sheer volume. The mountain model changes the scale again, compressing a landscape into something that can be taken in from one spot. ([3], [4], [5])

[7]

a detailed city scale model made of plastic building blocks

[8]

A note containing a date or set of coordinates and a specific geographic location in Billund.

Finally, build the surroundings

A yellow overhead structure and digital display panels frame the exhibits as part of a larger designed interior. The city model completes the shift from individual sculpture to an inhabited-looking world. They also photographed a note containing a date or coordinates and a specific Billund location, though its actual wording is not available. ([6], [7], [8])

The scale kept moving: a full-size car, a tree and dinosaur, a mountain, then a city. The bricks remained visible, but the subjects took over.