James May to build Lego house

KaHn said:
I hate the BBC for pawning James may as some sort of engineering guru when in truthhe is thick as pig crap!

KaHn
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As far as journalist's go I wouldn't say he's "thick" and he's been an engineering/motoring journalist for a while.

He's pretty funny and a bit quirky tbh...

also got sacked from auto car for putting together a hidden message:

File:JamesMayAutocar.jpg
 
Well what a load of **** that turned out to be. I arrived at bang on 8:55 only to be greeted by a line of security turning people away stating that all the places for the entire day had already been allocated, the build was already underway and there was no room for spectators.

Drove 30 more miles south and played in the sea instead.
 
Lee2k4 said:
he won't pull this off, theres not enough lego in the world to do it. and hes going to need a hell of a lot more then 3m try 60 times more at least.
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No, there is many many times more lego in the world that would be needed for this...

I reckon they could build a house strong enough out of it, but he'd have to use something else for the floors. I reckon it'll be a bungalow too.
 
Geckovich - that sucks :( apparently people were queuing from 04:30 so no surprises all tickets had gone

Went to the vineyard today ..... house hasn't even been built yet! no signs to say where it will be either.

there's only a small patch of flat land where it could go so I reckon it's only going to be a very small "bungalow"
 
Each "brick" looks to be 8 blocks high, and I think they're hollow. I assume he's using the 2x4 lego blocks, which are basically two 2x2 blocks, meaning 272 2x4 blocks = 544 2x2 blocks.

544 / 8 means the area, looking from the top, not including the middle, is 68 2x2 blocks. There are 4 2x2 blocks at each corner, meaning the sides ad up to 64. Since the bricks are longer than they are wide, I'd take a guess that the longer sides are 22 blocks (not including corners), and the ends are 10 blocks not including corners, making each "brick" 24x12x8 (LxWxH) in 2x2 blocks. At an estimate anyway, they could be longer or shorter.

The dimensions of a 2x2 lego brick are about 16mm*16mm*9.6mm (not including the studs), so each full brick would be 384mm*192mm*76.8mm (LWH).

Now I don't know how large the house is, or indeed how many inside walls it's gonna have, but for a tiny square bungalow of, say, 8m*8m*3m, he's gonna need:

8000mm / 384mm for one layer of one wall (20.833r bricks, so, say 21 bricks)
that means for 4 walls, with 1 layer, that's approximately 80 (due to corners).

For height, 3000mm / 76.8mm = ~39 bricks.

80 x 39 = 3120 bricks. 3120 bricks x 272 blocks per brick means he'll need 848,640 2x4 bricks for a tiny bungalow, not including inside walls, furniture, a roof, etc. Approximately anyway.

If he's gonna make it two story, he'll have no where near enough bricks.
 
secretspy said:
Geckovich - that sucks :( apparently people were queuing from 04:30 so no surprises all tickets had gone

Went to the vineyard today ..... house hasn't even been built yet! no signs to say where it will be either.

there's only a small patch of flat land where it could go so I reckon it's only going to be a very small "bungalow"
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They're building it inside.

The more I think about this the less grand it all sounds. When I first heard about it I was really excited, but the more you think about it in realistic terms, the poorer it becomes.

What I was thinking of during the drive down was:

Say there are 1000 volunteers, then each needed to assemble 3000 lego bricks just to use what they already have - which most people, myself included, don't think will be enough.

That would equate to over 4 hours of constant assembly per person, based on it taking 5 seconds to clip each brick together.

How many volunteers would work at that pace for 4 hours straight with no break?
 
ah that's annoying we didnt look inside as all that ive ever seen in there was the cafe and the gift shop. surely it cant be big enough in there for a "house" ? :confused:
 
I couldn't tell how big it was inside, security never let me get close enough :P

After being turned away at the main entrance I parked up about half a mile down the road and tried to come in through the actual vineyards. I walked right into the middle of some kind of garden party being held at the rear of the house, security removed me.
 
Geckovich said:
I couldn't tell how big it was inside, security never let me get close enough :P

After being turned away at the main entrance I parked up about half a mile down the road and tried to come in through the actual vineyards. I walked right into the middle of some kind of garden party being held at the rear of the house, security removed me.
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it's not that big inside from what i can tell.

crikey!

i might have to take another trip there to see if its been completed.
 
Geckovich said:
They're building it inside.

The more I think about this the less grand it all sounds. When I first heard about it I was really excited, but the more you think about it in realistic terms, the poorer it becomes.

What I was thinking of during the drive down was:

Say there are 1000 volunteers, then each needed to assemble 3000 lego bricks just to use what they already have - which most people, myself included, don't think will be enough.

That would equate to over 4 hours of constant assembly per person, based on it taking 5 seconds to clip each brick together.

How many volunteers would work at that pace for 4 hours straight with no break?
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Based on taking 5 seconds to clip each brick together, it'd take just over an hour for each person to assemble 3 bricks. With 1000 volunteers, thats 3000 bricks in an hour. I think it's perfectly feasible, because if someone gets bored and leaves, there's bound to be someone else waiting to come in.

It just depends if he can get enough bricks and whether it'll be stable enough to live in. I can't see a few mm high studs supporting over a ton of lego.
 
Bumpage! Just seen this: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8266896.stm. Legoland have pulled out of a deal to purchase and re-construct the house at Legoland.

Surely the fantastic publicity and extra gate receipts that having this house would bring, would compensate for even the steepest of 'costs and logistics' challenges?

It will be a shame if they just have to knock it down and that's that.
 
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