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| CANADA'S SOURCE FOR LEGO HUMOUR, PARODY, AND SATIRE
Educational courses are the building blocks for a successful career, but have you ever thought that maybe building with building blocks may the blocks upon which your career could be built?
If your answer is yes, or even 'huh?', you may have a future in the prospering trade of LEGO construction, a relatively new vocation that utilizes those cute moulded plastic pieces. If you consider your childhood experiences, you probably already have years of experience building with LEGO, or LEGO-like knock-offs LEGO blocks have been the architectural province of children for decades, and the indestructible cubes have likely seeded the success of many engineers and designers. LEGO has always been a viable building material for toys, but engineers soon realized the blocks had more industrial potential after the construction of LEGOLAND in Denmark, and another LEGO-built theme park in California. LEGO blocks are stable, and because of their special interlocking system, do not require mortar. That gives Lego a huge advantage over traditional masonry or bricklaying. "LEGO is stronger--brick for brick, block for block," said LEGO builder Mort Cavanagh. "The pieces are lock-tight when fitted, they're waterproof, and they can be used in almost any design. Plus, the pieces are small, and very easy to lift."
"The colours are so much cheerier than brick," continued Mort. "I did a house recently with bright blue walls and a cherry red roof. It'll never need to be painted!" There are other advantages to building with LEGO. The pieces weigh less than brick, stone, or concrete, so transportation costs are lower than traditional building materials, and there is a lower potential for worker's compensation claims due to back injury. "Oh yes, LEGO building can be tedious work," admitted Mort, "but that means the industry requires a lot of labour, and the need for more skilled LEGO tradespersons. The real problem is when you've been contracted to build a LEGO wall and you find that you're short about three pieces. Do you go with another colour? Or do you pull the wall apart, and start again with a different colour pattern? It's a good thing that you didn't use any glue!" Contractors will use millions of LEGO pieces in the construction of a standard strata building, somewhere between 4,000-7,000 buckets of Lego (1,000 pieces). Expensive? Maybe. But if a company is forced to move, they could disassemble their building, and have it rebuilt at the new location, with huge cost savings. Or if a business wanted to expand, they should be able to add-on to their existing structure. "We can really help people save on landscaping costs too," said Mort. "We have a variety of synthetic shrubs, trees and flowers that will never die, not to mention our 'always green' dimpled lawns. It's amazingly maintenance free!" A three-year
LEGO masonry apprentice program is currently being offered at several
technical institutions, many of which also offer courses in Meccan-ics,
and Tinker-Toyometry. (Not affiliated with the LEGO Learning Institute).
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