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Page 1 of 3 There is a special component
in this year's President's Challenge (PC) 2007 that is quite unusual
in nature. It displays, to a great extent, an individual's very impressive
talent at constructing complicated models from mere LEGO bricks.
This
person is none other than Mr. Eugene Tan, an NUS Alumni who graduated
with a Masters Degree in Architecture in 2005, and a very ardent fan
of LEGO since the age of 4.
Hooked catches up with the
man behind the scene, the architect of a whopping 2.54m by 3.81m PC 2007 LEGO model, to ask him what it was like planning and constructing
this logo from scratch and what were some of the major challenges he faced
in the midst of it.
On a voluntary basis, Eugene has planned and
constructed the PC 2007 logo using approximately 150
000 LEGO bricks in all, which is no mean feat, to say the least.
How this works
as a charity cause is like this: members of the public can play a part
by donating $2 to adopt a LEGO brick, or by helping to assemble the
bricks to form the logo.
$2 seems trivial an amount, but such a project
calls for strength in numbers, both in constructing the logo and reaching
the donation target (S$307 200). It will surely succeed if every Singaporean
who can, is willing to put forth a little token to show they care.
Construction Process of the Logo
Apparently, the project began
as early as February 2007 and the idea originated from People's Association
(PA), the organizer of this event, who wanted a mosaic of the PC 2007
logo built. They contacted Lego Education, who then solicited Eugene
Tan's help in the project, based on his long working relationship
with the company.
There are surprisingly many
ways in which mosaics can be made, but PA chose the simplest, because they had
plans to involve the public in its construction.
After deciding on its
size as aforementioned, he had to "incorporate the logo onto a grid
to pixelise the image into LEGO studs" (studs are the protruding bumps
on a LEGO brick), which was a tedious task that required many factors
to be taken into consideration.
Firstly, the mosaic had to be subdivided
into 160 smaller panels, without any of them overlapping, to ease transportation
of each panel to various locations.
Secondly, the types of LEGO bricks
used should be kept minimal for ease and efficiency of building. 4 types
of LEGO bricks were eventually selected: 1x1 bricks, 1x4 bricks, 2x2
bricks and 2x4 bricks.
The 2x4 bricks helped to fill up large areas
whereas the other brick types helped in areas that required more detail.
These were also the most basic of LEGO brick types so they were readily
available in different colours.
That done, the amount of bricks
required had to be counted. Orders were then placed with the LEGO Education
and took about 2 months to be processed, manufactured and sent to Singapore.
However, this waiting time did not allow for temporary relief or rest. Instead,
it was used to tackle the next challenge - to come up with a set of
self-explanatory, comprehensible instructions and guidelines to building
the logo as efficiently as possible.
This was achieved using Microsoft
Excel, as the grids in this programme allowed for a customable grid
sizing, which corresponded to that of a LEGO stud. The use of colours
further clarified the instructions.
In fact, a total of 4 Mosaics
were built: the large PC 2007 Logo, a small PA Logo, a small LEGO Educational
Logo and a miniature PC 2007 Logo. While the first garnered help from
the public, the 3 smaller Mosaics were made by Eugene Tan alone.
Doing it on a voluntary basis
made it very exhaustive for Eugene.
Planning and designing were
only done in the night, after putting his 1-year-old son to bed. Nevertheless,
after seeing the end product, he felt that the effort and time dedicated
to it were worthwhile.
"I think what compelled me to
persist on was my passion and determination to produce this piece of
work for charity."
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