I’ve wanted to make a city in Legos, or a section of one, and this is a first effort. But it is an architectural model of a novel, Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. The project was inspired by Matteo Pericoli’s work in his Laboratory of Literary Architecture. The model tries to capture the transparency and corruption of the western world in Africa at the time of the novel, in a city-like form. Matteo’s laboratory and my project are explained in full at Numéro Cinq here.

I started with a 10 inch base and divided it into a grid of 6×6 streets for 36 blocks, and took it from there.

There are moments, however, I am moved by bright visions and red passions, and I hear fresh voices from a distance speaking a strange language, and they come, and they gather, massing, and I join them, and they join me, and I lead them to light, and words come, and I hear a beating in dark places that matches the beating of my heart, faster, faster…

See also my essay “Heart of Darkness” at Numéro Cinq.