German Artist Travels World Fixing Buildings With Lego

At hundreds of sites across the world, crumbling buildings and monuments have been given a light hearted repair in the form of Lego. From banks to bridges and statues to stations, German artist Jan Vormann has been filling in the missing pieces with the colourful children’s toy.

Since a 2007 arts fair in Rome, Vormann has travelled the world in an unusual attempt to save many of the worlds historical buildings from decay with his brightly coloured version of polyfiller. Although seeking the permission of authorities, he has worked alone, only receiving a helping hand from eager passers by to painstakingly place the little blocks in cracks, missing bricks and even bullet holes.

Vormann, 26, has used thousands of the little Danish building blocks to highlight the demise of our iconic structures in a positive attitude. Passers by have noted that although he brings to your attention the fact that these buildings are not what they used to be, for whatever reason, he fills that void with colour, joy and nostalgic childhood memories. “My work draws attention to the smallest parts of our cities that are falling apart because of the brightness of the Lego. It draws people’s attention through the coloured blocks and makes them aware that this wall or statue or construction is not complete anymore.”

Vormann has explained that since beginning the project in 2007, he has most enjoyed visiting Ecuador and Serbia, but his favourite still remains his hometown Berlin, “I filled in the holes still left by guns and shrapnel from the Second World War. That drew people’s attention to the Lego and hopefully they would ask themselves why the Lego was there.”

Although the Lego bricks bring colour to an otherwise dull background, they provide no actual purpose in the restoration of the buildings. Leading architect Jon Pipe says “The bricks themselves offer no structural benefit to the buildings and monuments, they in fact offer no purpose whatsoever which I guess is the whole point of art.” Some city planners and building owners have criticised Vormann’s work as it highlights their shortfalls in maintaining buildings but Vormann claims this is definitely not his intent. He could argue that if they did their job properly he would have nowhere to put his art, but he doesn’t.

Although receiving much media attention, Vormann’s work does not count to any official building refurbishment chester but since his project many of the cities he visited have commissioned measured building surveys chester.