Here's a Japanese alternative to Lego

The well-known Japanese architecture firm Kengo Kuma and Associates have designed a set of cedar building blocks that allow children to explore more complex and unusual shapes. The designers think that the time has come for the next generation of architects to put down the square and rectangular  building blocks and to embrace the triangle.

Teaming up with the Japanese forest conservation group More Trees, the firm has released ‘tsumiki’, a set of non-traditional building blocks that the architects bill as the Japanese alternative to the famous Danish toy brand Lego.

Yet, apart from being able to build things with them, there is little similarity between ‘tsumiki’ and Lego in either shape, material or construction. Each ‘tsumiki’ block is a triangular wedge of cedar, with notches in its legs that allow them to fit together.

Its unique angular shape allows for structures that would actually be much more difficult to achieve with rectangular blocks. One can still use ‘tsumiki’ to construct simple cubic buildings, but the system can just as easily make structures that would be inelegant or rickety to construct with Lego, such as arches, temples, bridges and more.

‘Tsumiki’ is expected to be available in packs of seven, 13 and 22 pieces. The
individual components can be stacked and arranged in a variety of formations to create unique sculptural pieces.