LEGO at the library: Urban planner building sustainable cities one piece at a time

If you visit a Halifax Public Libraries branch this year, you may find LEGO on display, in addition to books.

The library system launched an Artists and Innovators in Residence program this spring to share arts and culture across its branches.

“(We’re) bringing in artists and innovators to our library spaces for a longer period of time, getting them to work kind of on the floor in less formal ways with the public and we really want to engage with all ages and all levels of experience,” says Hannah Colville, Halifax Public Libraries programming and community manager.

Christine Hempel kicked off the program in June with her “Design with Nature, Design with LEGO” initiative.

The urban designer has an interesting backstory as to how LEGO came into her life.

Hempel’s husband got a job working for LEGO in Denmark, where the company is based. Once they moved there from Ontario, her interest in the construction toys began.

“I really had no experience with it, although my husband and my sons, they had been playing with it forever,” she says. “I started to see some real opportunities for imagining future cities in a little bit of a different way than what I’d been seeing.”

She then wondered what a modern, sustainable city would look like, if it was designed with landscape features as the focal point. She eventually got to work on a model, although she can’t guess how long it took to build.

“I lost count after four months,” Hempel says.

That model is now on display at the Woodlawn Public Library in Dartmouth, N.S.

“If you move along the edge of the model, you can see the way the geology works,” says Hempel. “There’s underground springs and you can see how the water flows though and makes really interesting landscapes. All streams that run though create opportunities for the people who live here, but also for the natural systems, the wildlife that occupy cities.”

For the next year, Hempel will be at local branches for workshops and to chat and play with visitors about her LEGO creations – which are designed for kids, adults, or for all ages.

Colville says the response from library visitors has been “wonderful” so far.

“She’s very comfortable in a room with room full of planners and academics – she’s just as comfortable talking to children about the same kind of issues,” she says. “The kids, the adults have loved it. And obviously, LEGO is that key kind of access point – everyone loves LEGO.”

Hempel’s city display isn’t done in the typical LEGO grid style – its natural turns and curves are something she hopes fans will appreciate.

“That’s my favorite part, that it ended up looking so bright and so inviting,” she says. “When we do the workshops, we use hands-on materials and we make scenes of our own and invent new ways of building and thinking about how we live that are pleasant and look like a joyous place, instead of something that’s going to be tough work.”

Upcoming “Design with Nature, Design with LEGO” events will be posted online.