James May to build life size lego house!

[Dfenz]

I hope he's got some good sewing skills: If he wants to sleep on a lego bed, he'll need to have a LOT of lego capes!

A few thousand bed mattresses from the princess and the pea [set 5963] would do the trick !!!

[allanp]

Will they allow any photography at the event? Wasn't sure if they want to maintain exclusive rights to the event, considering they're planning on airing it and so forth. If they DO allow pictures, I'm sure I'm not alone in absolutely demanding some of you :)

If I can take some pics I diffinately will. There is nothing in the e-mail to say that I can't take pics.

Are they letting kids build too? Or just adults? Something tells me your standard AFOL could put together elements a lot faster than that, but non-Lego people would be slower. And kids would be even slower still.

The invitaiton was open to everyone but in my opinion I don't think it was in a place that any normal child would have visited on the net, being a boring kinda news website where I found it.

I wish I had some good stats-- we did some major group builds with the public for the Millyard project a few years back, and let some kids and other adults build, but I have no idea what our average rate was... (does some checking)... Looks like the estimate we had was about 3 million bricks for the Millyard, and about 10,000 person hours. But admittedly, that's including a lot of detail work that wasn't just raw stacking of bricks (which goes much faster), and includes a LOT of hours spend doing research and measuring and other non-building related tasks. Hmmm... The more "grunt" work was done in about 6 sessions for about 6 hours a day with maybe 30 people at a time (with kids) which probably accounted for about 2 million of the bricks as a wild guess. So, perhaps 1000 person hours for 2 million bricks?

So averyone averaged 2000 bricks per hour. That's fast. My time is much slower as I mainly build with lego technic , I kinda guessed at how many bricks per hour the average person could build.

So for the 600 person hours for the house that would be 1,200,000 bricks. Still under a half of 3,000,000. IM GONNA BUILD LIKE THE WIND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[davee123]

So averyone averaged 2000 bricks per hour. That's fast. My time is much slower as I mainly build with lego technic , I kinda guessed at how many bricks per hour the average person could build.

That's just a very rough guess of course-- but our rate was probably increased because people were doing very basic, repetitive building, like stacking 2x4's on a wall for several hours straight. It's obviously much slower when you have to look at a step in an instruction manual, find the correct element, and then add it to the creation. Hopefully it'll be similarly simple stuff at the event.

So for the 600 person hours for the house that would be 1,200,000 bricks. Still under a half of 3,000,000. IM GONNA BUILD LIKE THE WIND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow, yeah, that still won't even come close to the whole thing. Good luck building! Do us AFOLs proud!

DaveE

[allanp]

Wow, yeah, that still won't even come close to the whole thing. Good luck building! Do us AFOLs proud!

I'll try my best. I'm gonna go into a frenzy and build James a double garage weather he wanted one ot not!

[Joey Lock]

Its now a Ticketed Event. Only 600 Tickets will be given out.

They will not be for sale, But they will be giving them out from 9:30am.

[allanp]

Well I have just got back from the event. I have taken some pictures but there really isn't much to see (deffinately no house). We were just building big bricks out of small ones. isning only 2x4 bricks the big bricks were 48 studs x 24 studs x 8 bricks high (272 bricks). There were hollow with only a single wall with no top or bottom. Whilst each big brick is made of only one colour there were many different colored bricks (red, yellow, black, white, green, blue and grey). This is not the best way to build this house but it is the most economical use of bricks so 3,000,000 might be mostly enough.

I managed to build 5 bricks and re-build 2 others that had been made the wrong size in my 1 hour sitting. 7 bricks really won't go far will it but I tried anyway. James May was a very pleasent chap and surprisingly tall BTW.

[Joey Lock]

Well I have just got back from the event. I have taken some pictures but there really isn't much to see (deffinately no house). We were just building big bricks out of small ones. isning only 2x4 bricks the big bricks were 48 studs x 24 studs x 8 bricks high (272 bricks). There were hollow with only a single wall with no top or bottom. Whilst each big brick is made of only one colour there were many different colored bricks (red, yellow, black, white, green, blue and grey). This is not the best way to build this house but it is the most economical use of bricks so 3,000,000 might be mostly enough.

I managed to build 5 bricks and re-build 2 others that had been made the wrong size in my 1 hour sitting. 7 bricks really won't go far will it but I tried anyway. James May was a very pleasent chap and surprisingly tall BTW.

I thought they said you cant speak to James?

[The Rancor]

I thought they said you cant speak to James?

Some people seem to be able to judge other people in real life, just by seeing what they are doing and talking to other people.

He IS still Captain Slow though. Hopefully, the house still meets its deadline

[The Who]

Well I have just got back from the event. I have taken some pictures but there really isn't much to see (deffinately no house). We were just building big bricks out of small ones. isning only 2x4 bricks the big bricks were 48 studs x 24 studs x 8 bricks high (272 bricks). There were hollow with only a single wall with no top or bottom. Whilst each big brick is made of only one colour there were many different colored bricks (red, yellow, black, white, green, blue and grey). This is not the best way to build this house but it is the most economical use of bricks so 3,000,000 might be mostly enough.

I managed to build 5 bricks and re-build 2 others that had been made the wrong size in my 1 hour sitting. 7 bricks really won't go far will it but I tried anyway. James May was a very pleasent chap and surprisingly tall BTW.

Pictures?

Can you post them, or scan them or something?

Even if it isn't finished, I'd be interesting in seeing their progress.

[allanp]

I thought they said you cant speak to James?

You couldn't really approach him for a conversation or anything. He came over to us, with a megaphone! . He said he was happy with the pace of the building of the bricks as it was going faster than anticipated and that the house build will take about two and a half weeks. He also said that there is a parrallel universe made of lego and the front door of his house will lead to it! Ha ha.

Another Guy told me they are currently trying to design a beam strong enough to support the 1st floor (is that 2nd floor in American?). Do you think they read the first post in this topic! They should try using 8x16 baseplates instead of 2x4 bricks and have it about 24 bricks high (and 15 feet long). Surely that would be pretty strong. Also they should find a way of supporting them so that any flexing of the beam (which if designed well should flex long before it breaks) will not cause any flexing or bowing of the walls (ie by having them placed on top of the inner wall with a small gap above the beam to allow for some movement) as this could be disasterous and very hazardous.

Pictures?

Can you post them, or scan them or something?

Even if it isn't finished, I'd be interesting in seeing their progress.

Hear are some pictures (not mine) of the bricks. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/surrey/8179678.stm There really wasn't anything else to see as the house is going to be built in a different location. I shall try to post some pictures soon tho.

[posades]

Saw the BBC story on my Firefox headlines yesterday. I'm wishing him good luck, though I'm not sure how sturdy those hollow super-sized bricks are gonna be. Going to be interesting to see how he does the roof.

[Yloquen]

I found this movie on YouTube:

[______]

I can't believe i missed it! I would of loved it. Back on topic, i thought they would make big bricks out of smaller ones.

Edited August 5, 2009 by halfpenguinhalflego

[kabel]

does anyone know what happened to this project?

[Lord Of Pies]

I went to Denbies Wine estate today to see the Lego House, although it turns out they haven't actually started building it yet. They have started to lay the foundations today, and according to someone who works there, it will be better to come next week when their is something to see. (You can just turn up and have a look)

Also in the Denbies wine shop their is a whole wall dedicated to Lego merchandise such as keyrings and the like.

[The Who]

(You can just turn up and have a look)

Not if we live across the pond, we can't.

Still hoping somebody posts WIP pictures of the house being built.

In the video Yloquen posted, I saw that the kid with the red wagon was donating Fabuland parts to the build.

Donating! Such a waste of good Fabuland...

[Lord Of Pies]

Still hoping somebody posts WIP pictures of the house being built.

When I go again next week, I will take some pictures and share them here. There really isn't anything to see at the moment.

[dgoodrid]

Does anyone know when and what channel this program will be shown (Cant Wait - Sound like fun and lots of hard Work)

[allanp]

Does anyone know when and what channel this program will be shown (Cant Wait - Sound like fun and lots of hard Work)

My guess would be around about christmas time on the bbc.

[Peppermint_M]

BBC2 is the channel it plays on.

Not sure when in the year?

[Wout]

Zoot101, who made the video, said in the grey block on the right of the youtubescreen that it will air in spring 2010.

Still a long time to wait.

[The Who]

Zoot101, who made the video, said in the grey block on the right of the youtubescreen that it will air in spring 2010.

Still a long time to wait.

Hopefully we will still be seeing WIP pictures soon, though.

[______]

I heard it was a programme called toy storys to be aired at Christmas.

[Joey Lock]

Email from the people:

"Thank you for your interest in James May’s Lego House.

We still need volunteers for this weekend, Saturday 22nd and Sunday 23rd August.

To make it easier for us to contact you, please send us your mobile number if you are interested in taking part.

You will need to be able to attend Denbies Wine Estate in Dorking, Surrey from 9am until 5pm on either Saturday, Sunday, or both days.

Due to the physical nature of the work, we will not now be admitting children under 15.

We apologise if you are not personally contacted. Our team will do their best to read every application."

So Im guessing that they are going to start making the stairs and Flushable toilets now.

[Lego Architect]

Hi Guy's. I know your really want to see some photos.

Some photos attached are of a few days ago. we are now on to the first floor. Ignore the timber, it is there for insurance and health and safety purposes. The lego bricks are not in contact with the timber frame, the lego blocks are free standing.

Only about another 1.5m lego bricks to go... all lego bricks in the construction are 2x4 or 2x8 bricks except lego roof tiles and windows.

PS. Head of Lego visited site on saturday and he was impressed!

another photo