Lego Is All Wright

That is a shocking title. I must be tired.

One of the things I have noticed with flying is that in-flight magazines are pretty bloody boring. They are full of stuff like Top Ten Best Destinations For Your Next Work Conference or Electronic Gadgets For the Executive With Everything. But every so often there is something interesting. Last time I flew I read an article about how it was the fiftieth anniversary of the death of the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright.

Wright is possibly the most influential architect of last century and I have been aware of him since my family saw a television documentary on him ages ago (as a result Lukas got a pop-up book of Frank Lloyd Wright architecture). Wright was totally innovative but drew on both tradition and natural forms (as opposed to the Bauhaus take on architecture which was purely functional in nature). Also I recently discovered that one of his apprentices was none other than Walter Burly Griffin (designer of Canberra).

Once you know the Frank Lloyd Wright look you can see hints of it in all sorts of things and it resonates with a lot of things I loved as a kid. Falling Water looks like something that International Rescue (aka The Thunderbirds) would have been at home in. And I reckon you could film Star Fleet Headquarters at the New York Guggenheim and get away with it.

Now Lego (themselves an icon of last century) have produced sets of both Falling Water and the Guggenheim. Legoland Space was one of the three kinds of toy I collected the most. I would consider reviving my interest in Lego just for these things.