James May is a British TV presenter. Best known for co-presenting the motor vehicle show Top Gear, in 2009 he also presented six episodes of the show James May's Toy Stories, where he took six traditional toys and, with the help of armies of volunteers, expanded them to a real-world scale. The fifth episode dealt with LEGO and saw James hoping to design, build and live in a functioning house made from LEGO bricks, with help from professional architects, builders, materials developers and interior designers.
Constructing the LEGO House[]
The blocks used to make the LEGO house were made from 272 normal 2x4 bricks each
The major difficulty in designing the house was the fact that LEGO bricks are designed to separate easily, making them unsuitable for use in standard building elements such as beams and girders. The designers needed to come up with completely new ways of designing a structure so that the house would hold its own weight, as well as that of its contents and James May himself. Because of the insurance costs, and the unwillingness of any city council to grant it a permit, the house was constructed at Denbies Wine Estate in Dorking, Surrey, with the individual bricks being hand-built by over a thousand volunteers. The finished house consisted of more than 3.5 million bricks and included two floors, full plumbing and lighting, and LEGO chairs, coffee tables, bathroom fittings, kitchen utensils, and a cat, named Fusker after May's own cat.
The Completed Building[]
The finished house
At the end of the show, James held a house-warming party with guests from previous episodes, and then spent the night in the LEGO bed. After the show finished filming, the house was originally supposed to be moved to LEGOLAND, but the expense proved to be too great. With the land needed to grow vines, the house was demolished in September 2009 and the bricks given to charity.
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| Management Board | Jesper Andersen \ Niels Christiansen \ Atul Bhardwaj \ Colette Burke \ Julia Goldin \ John Goodwin \ Bali Padda \ Carsten Rasmussen \ Loren I. Shuster | |||
| Board of Directors | Ebi Atawodi \ Fiona Dawson \ Jørgen Vig Knudstorp \ Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen \ Thomas Kirk Kristiansen \ Jan Thorsgaard Nielsen \ Ilkka Paananen \ Anne Sweeney | |||
| Community Team | Jan Beyer \ Tim Courtney \ Hani Dib \ Peter Espersen \ Kevin Hinkle \ John Longbottom \ Pelle Bjorn Nielsen \ Jordan Paxton \ José Pereira \ Kristina Rasmussen \ Keith Severson \ Sara Skahill \ Helene Teichert \ Kim Thomsen \ Hannah Quill | |||
| Designers | Henrik Andersen \ Steen Sig Andersen \ Jamie Berard \ Marcos Bessa \ Antica Bracanov \ Bas Brederode \ Mel Caddick \ Tiago Catarino \ Freddy Charters \ Andrew Clark \ Rosario Costa \ Nathan Davis \ Søren Dyrhøj Randy Elliot \ Greg Farshtey \ Marta Fernandez \ Niels M. Frederiksen \ Sven Franic \ Leigh Gallagher \ George Gilliatt \ Casper Glahder \ Ilia Gotlib \ Adam Grabowski \ Morten Graff-Wang \ Anderson Ward Grubb \ Janko Grujic \ Stuart Harris \ Lars Joe Hyldig \ Wes Jenkins \ Erik Jensen \ Samuel Liltorp Johnson \ Jens Nygaard Knudsen \ Rok Žgalin Kobe \ Daniel August Krentz \ Kurt Kristiansen \ Joe Kyde \ Edward Lawrence \ Benjamin Liboriussen \ Jeremy Luettgen \ Milan Madge \ Bjarke Lykke Madsen \ James May \ Carl Merriam \ Pop Mhan \ Florian Müller \ Pierre Normandin \ Jan Neergaard Olesen \ Madison O’Neil \ Chris Perron \ Laura Perron \ Harald Pofahl \ Mike Psiaki \ Leon Pijnenburg \ Justin Ramsden \ Milan Reindl \ Markus Rollbühler \ Henrik Rubin Saaby \ Stuart Sayger \ Hans Burkhard Schlömer \ Jordan David Scott \ Hans Henrik Sidenius \ Torben Skov \ Niek van Slagmaat \ Isaac Snyder \ Mark Stafford \ Dimitrios Stamatis \ Corvin Stichert \ Marin Stipkovic \ Chris Stamp \ Wes Talbott \ Adam Reed Tucker \ Atticus Tsai-McCarthy \ Nick Vas \ Ashwin Visser \ Christian Vonsild \ Jme Wheeler \ Ryan Baird-Van Woerkom \ Jason Zapantis | |||
| Certified Professionals | Nicholas Foo \ Rene Hoffmeister \ Sean Kenney \ Ryan McNaught \ Matija Puzar \ Robin Sather \ Nathan Sawaya \ Adam Reed Tucker \ Beth Weis | |||
| Media | James May \ Chris Pratt \ Cryoshell \ Michael Peña | |||
| Other | Gerhardt Kirk Christiansen \ Godtfred Kirk Christiansen \ Gunhild Kirk Johansen \ Hanne Christiansen \ Helge Torpe \ Hilary Fisher Page \ Jesse Shwayder \ Karl Georg Kirk Christiansen \ King David Shwayder \ Mogans Johansen \ Ole Kirk Christiansen \ Sten Daugaard \ Mads Nipper | |||