Building with Legos is always fun, no matter how old you are. But unless you’re an elite expert builder, all of your creations are blocky and square. That’s still fun, but imagine what you could do if you were as talented as a Japanese builder who goes by Talapz.

Talapz makes incredible pop-up works of Lego art. They start out looking like regular, if quite ornate, boxes built of Lego bricks. But when the maker opens them, they reveal spectacular sculptures. Above, an almost-unbelievable fold-out temple complete with reflecting pools and a pathway to the front door.

The above build, first posted on YouTube in 2009, is modeled on the Kinkaku-ji temple in Kyoto, Japan. After the short demonstration of its movement, the video shows the truly impressive details involved in making the temple fold and unfold inside its case.

This incredible masterpiece shows a scene of a dragon being slayed. The form of the dragon is large and splayed out, making it less stable than the buildings during the folding and unfolding process. Still, the remarkable sculpture holds together and opens up into an amazing battle scene before folding away into a seemingly impossibly small hinged box made of Legos. Check out Talapz’s YouTube channel for all kinds of awesome Lego craziness.

The post Surprise! Intricate LEGO Sculptures Pop Out From Boxes first appeared on Gajitz.

Shelter is a basic human need, but we often overlook the means we use to obtain that need. The construction industry is accountable for “40% of global carbon dioxide emissions,” according to bioMason, a company that has a very unique way to cut back on those emissions.

The biotech start-up company has come up with a way to ‘grow’ bricks from naturally abundant materials like bacteria. A winner of the Cradle to Cradle Innovation Challenge, their method of employing these microorganisms is stated that “Bacteria, which provide a precise environment to form in combination with a nutrient, nitrogen and calcium source allow for the formation of natural cement in ambient temperatures, taking less than five days to produce a pre-cast material.”

The beauty of this technology is that instead of building materials being created in super-heated environments like kilns, where carbon emissions are heavily released, they’re grown in ambient temperatures. bioMason has developed a business model that would license their methods to existing masonry manufacturers.

The post Biotech Company Grows Its Own Bricks With Bacteria first appeared on Gajitz.