What Japan Would Look Like if it Were Made of 1.8 Million LEGOs

It’s been proven that you can make anything out of LEGOs. The building blocks have been used to create everything from stairwells, touch-sensor wheelchairs and even skyscrapers, but it’s a real feat to recreate an entire country using just the famed toy. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of LEGO’s introduction to Japan, the company sponsored a “building” project to render the island nation in 1.8 million LEGO bricks. The event, entitled "Build Up Japan," encompassed a cross-country workshop that spanned 6 different regions and picked up over 5,000 collaborators. Individual installments were assembled at each site before travelling to Tokyo where the map was pieced together in its entirety and put on display.

The organizers encouraged the children to not simply recreate Tokyo as it exists, but rather to imagine their own architectural landscapes. The result is an intricate megalopolis that stretches the whole of the country’s geography, the long, narrow island brimming over with sky high structures and kilometer-long bridges. The whole ensemble has a sci-fi feel about them, only without the concomitant dystopian trappings.

This post originally appeared on Architizer, an Atlantic partner site.