Baroque Bricks

What does someone who is equally serious about “LEGO as a medium holds rather well, not to LEGO and Bach do in their spare time? Make a fully mention it’s heavier than hell on a compoundedly functional LEGO harpsichord, of course. large scale,” points out the 33-year-old Lim, who

Requiring around 100,000 LEGO pieces and two currently has the life-sized harpsichord on display years of theorizing, designing, collecting parts, in his living room in Redondo Beach, Calif. building, testing, and rebuilding, Henry Lim’s harp- Acoustically, the harpsichord needed to be as sichord was definitely a labor of love. Lim is a prolific smooth as possible, so instead of having the stan-LEGO artist (see henrylim.org/LEGOSculptures. dard LEGO studs exposed, Lim covered these up html), but the harpsichord was the most difficult with smooth-topped flat tiles. The end result is and ambitious LEGO project he’s taken on so far. a sound as resonant as LEGO will get.

Photograph by Henry Lim

The most important design considerations were While musically the LEGO harpsichord leaves strength, efficiency, and durability. The instrument a little to be desired — “Tuning it is a bitch,” explains had to be strong enough to support the tension Lim — that really wasn’t the point. Lim’s working of the strings, as well as be able to withstand the harpsichord is a majestic LEGO engineering feat. repeated movements required of a keyboard instru- —Bruce Stewart ment. The final design relied heavily on the larger

2x8 and 1x16 bricks and 6x8 and 6x16 plates to achieve the necessary strength. With the exception >>LEGO Harpsichord: henrylim.org/Harpsichord.html of the strings, every single part of Lim’s harpsichord is made of LEGO. Hear Lim’s harpsichord at makezine.com/04/made.