This Artist Uses LEGO to Repair Structures All Over the World

Reason one million and one why LEGO will forever remain relevant. In addition to being classic toys and reminders of the best of our childhood days, they serve us in the most unexpected ways. There’s the extremely eye-catching LEGO kitchen island, and the 6,000-piece Hogwarts set made entirely out of the colorful building blocks to satisfy your inner wizard. At the intersection of art and functionality are the LEGO repairs by street artist Jan Vormann.

Evidence of Vormann’s creative, colorful approach to repairs—collectively known as Dispatchwork—can be seen all over the world, in former cracks and crevices in random walls and other structures that he meticulously fills in with the building blocks.

Vormann keeps the public up to date on his various LEGO repairs via an interactive website, which includes the latest location to receive his signature building block treatment. Some entries even include a back story on why the spot was chosen.

An entry on the handiwork done in South Kurdistan reads:

Jan gave me a bag of LEGO, before I travelled to South Kurdistan for the art project ‘Space 21.’ I promised to find a place for his work. When I visited the Amna Suraka (the red museum), the former prison of Saddam Hussein’s intelligence service, where the Kurds were tortured until the liberation in 1991, I felt that this place had a very sad energy that needed Jan’s positive and colourful work as a symbol for a brighter future. When you walk through the main entrance of Amna Suraka you find the Dispatchwork at the building in front of you on the upper left side of the facade.

Vormann has utilized the plastic construction pieces to revitalize spaces across the globe since 2007, and according to his website, a “worldwide network” of enthusiastic participants inspired by his work have also contributed their own LEGO repairs to Dispatchwork.