If You Can Dream It, You Can Build It

Ever wonder what Sydney Harbor would look like if it were covered in LEGOs? None of us at LEARNING STARTS had either. But now, thanks to Build, a project of Google Chrome in partnership with Google Maps and the LEGO Festival of Play, let the wonder begin.

LEGO bricks have been a feature of childhood for decades. The colorful and interlocking shapes, gears, and figures have been counted on for hours of creative fun since their unveiling in 1949. Along the way, the construction kits have been utilized in classrooms, competitions, and learning centers across the globe. They were even taken to space in May 2011. Tucked aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour, 13 LEGO kits made their way to the International Space Station as part of a LEGO Bricks in Space program led by LEGO Education.

At the heart of the LEGO experience is the freedom to build castles and cars and whatever else your imagination might hold. Today, that same freedom is more and more a feature of the digital world, with web browsers even providing users the ability to create objects and worlds based on memory and imagination. That’s not to say LEGOs have lost the power to transform childhood. The bricks persist...

Because they do, it makes perfect sense that Google would turn to LEGO in order to showcase the developing potential of the Chrome browser. What better way to demonstrate how easily 3D graphics can be manipulated online than with the toys most synonymous with play. The name LEGO is taken from a phrase in Danish that translates as “play well,” after all.

The increasing capacity of web browsers to support 3D graphics, games and more, is allowing online users all over the world—including moms, dads, daughters and sons—to put stakes in the ground and contribute LEGO-built landmarks to the land down under. The interplay with Google Maps means that the creative output of your time online can be plotted and shared. And, according to Google, new environments for Build are on the way. Australia and New Zealand are just the first frontier.

You may not have wondered what Sydney Harbor would look like in LEGOs, but a T-Rex roaming the Australian outback? Who hasn’t considered that?