TELUS World of Science presents Towers of Tomorrow with LEGO® Bricks January 24 – September 7

TELUS World of Science presents Towers of Tomorrow with LEGO® Bricks the exhibition that combines architecture and design in a lively, creative space

This interactive new gallery, presented by Concert Properties and White Spot Restaurants, encourages attendees to explore how they can contribute to Vancouver as a thriving community while engaging in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts & design and math) learning

On January 24, TELUS World of Science will debut its newest exhibition Towers of Tomorrow with LEGO® Bricks presented by Concert Properties and White Spot Restaurants. This exciting gallery features 20 of the world’s most astonishing skyscrapers from Canada, the United States, Australia, Asia and the United Arab Emirates constructed with breathtaking architectural detail and accuracy by Australia’s Ryan McNaught, the only certified LEGO® professional in the Southern Hemisphere.

Some of the most iconic and eye-popping towers from across North America are featured in this gallery including Toronto’s CN Tower, Philadelphia’s Comcast Technology Center, Los Angeles’ Wilshire Grand Center, Chicago’s Willis Tower, Atlanta’s Bank of America Plaza, New York’s super slender skyscrapers 111 West 75th Street, Central Park Towers and the city’s famous landmarks, Empire State Building and Chrysler Building. 

On a scale of 1:200 and built with stunning precision and attention to detail, the LEGO® towers offer visitors a birds-eye view of these extra-ordinary buildings and are just as impressive in model size. Visitors, young and old, can create their own ‘tower of tomorrow’ from over 200,000 loose LEGO® bricks in hands-on construction areas and can add their creations to a steadily rising futuristic LEGO® metropolis inside the exhibition. 

Outside the entrance to the gallery at TELUS World of Science, visitors will be able to contribute to a crowdsourced LEGO® mural that over time will reveal a fun, large-scale landscape of some of Vancouver’s most iconic features.

The back of the gallery will host an interactive Community Building exhibit designed to facilitate creative thinking and playing with how urban and neighbourhood design can support and contribute to thriving communities — a central element of Science World’s vision and a key priority for Concert Properties. Using Science World’s False Creek neighbourhood as a hyper-local example, visitors will question how the physical features of great communities are designed and how we can envision and create thriving communities together.

The exhibition also features TransLink’s Transport2050 MicroCity animated 3D model presenting the story of Metro Vancouver’s transportation and transit past, present and future. The experience was developed to inspire thought, discussion and feedback utilized to shape the next 30 year blueprint – Transport 2050. 

Ryan McNaught is one of only 14 Certified LEGO® professionals worldwide modelling larger than life LEGO® masterpieces. McNaught and his team used more than half a million LEGO® bricks (well over 1.5 tons of LEGO®) and took over 2,400 hours to build the structures featured in the Towers of Tomorrow exhibition. McNaught and his team will be in Vancouver to help build out the exhibition at TELUS World of Science.

“I was thrilled to work with Sydney Living Museums on this first-of-its-kind exhibition. Creating two to four-metre high versions of these iconic buildings has been an incredible challenge, pushing the almost limitless possibilities of LEGO®,” said Ryan McNaught.

“This exhibition is particularly exciting because LEGO® develops many critical thinking skills, expands creativity, and explores basic STEAM concepts,” said Janet Wood, President & CEO of Science World. “Not only that, LEGO® is an iconic toy that many adults engaged with growing up and now play with their children so it evokes positive feelings for many people. We can’t wait to see what gets created here at TELUS World of Science.”

“Towers of Tomorrow with LEGO® Bricks brings architecture and design to life in a wonderfully creative and engaging way,” said Adam Lindsay, Executive Director, Sydney Living Museums. “With such amazing scale and detail, this exhibition has something for everyone to enjoy.”

Towers of Tomorrow with LEGO® Bricks is a travelling exhibition from Sydney Living Museums and toured internationally by Flying Fish Exhibits.

This gallery is perfect for people of all ages and includes two programming spaces using Duplo targeted at younger audiences. An interactive experience using LEGO® WeDo 2.0 kits will introduce visitors to computational thinking and engineering principles in fun and engaging ways, such as building their own earthquake simulator and testing the durability of different building designs.

This exhibition runs from January 24 to September 7, 2020

Tickets are available at https://tickets.scienceworld.ca/

About Science World 

Science World is a BC-based charitable organization that engages the people of British Columbia in STEAM literacy. Their mission is to ignite wonder and empower dreams through science and nature. Their vision is that within a generation, Canada will be a country of thriving, sustainable communities rooted in science, innovation and a deep connection to nature.

Interesting facts:

How many LEGO® bricks are used in this exhibition? More than 577,000

How many hours did it take to build Towers of Tomorrow with LEGO® Bricks? More than 2, 4000 – nearly six months of constant construction

How much do the towers weigh? All the LEGO® in this exhibition weighs more than 1.5 tons

What is the rarest LEGO® colour? Gold

What is the most common LEGO® colour? Trans-blue

What is the most common brick? The 2×4

Which tower has the most LEGO® bricks? Shanghai Tower (104,800 bricks)

Did you know? More than 400 billion bricks have been made since LEGO® was first invented

How old is LEGO®? Invented in 1958, the LEGO® brick is more than 55 years old

LEGO® Land – If LEGO® mini-figures were people, they’d make up the largest population in the world four billion have been made in the last 30 years

Sky-high 40 billion LEGO® bricks stacked one by one would reach from the earth to the moon

Did you know? The first LEGO® toys were made from wood instead of plastic

Brain cruncher – 915,103,765 combinations can be created from just six 2 x 4 LEGO® bricks.

Media release and images provided by Larissa Dundon, Larissa Dundon & Co.

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