Holdfast Training Services Trial Blog

Whilst doing a bit of additional research for my CI paper presentation I came across a recent interesting news article. It seems that you can actually construct buildings out of giant plastic lego blocks! The pictures below show an urban training area being constructed at Camp Taji, Iraq by an Australian and New Zealand task group (news article here – 13 June 2019). The buildings were made using a system devised by a company called Everblock (official site here). The blocks claim to be durable and reusable which makes them potentially of interest to military construction. The blocks are also lightweight meaning faster construction, less operator fatigue and potentially less risk of lifting injuries.

Having looked at the specifications it would seem that there are some fairly obvious limitations. These include poor thermal resistance and a limited resistance to fire (including toxic chemicals that may be released in the event of a fire). Whilst the system includes a dowel option to improve the building strength, I would be a little hesitant about building greater than one storey without more information. For these reasons I can see why they have only chosen to use this system for urban training at Taji, rather than as habitable structures. If anyone knows anyone working at Taji I would be very interested to get in touch to get further information on this project.

Limitations also mean that a roof structure would need a separate design. I’ve seen examples using timber or steel stringers with corrugated sheet roof cladding. Everblock also produce modular flooring though I would think that foundations might provide a challenge due to the minimal tolerances of building this way.

One option that might be interesting to explore is using recycled materials to make in-situ blocks similar to the Everblock system. Cement could be mixed with recycled plastic to potentially produce concrete blocks similar to this with improved thermal and fire resistance characteristics.

Finally Everblock have an online block builder here where you can relive part of your childhood and design your very own giant lego construction!