News

ACRE donated Lego bricks to the daycares

Published: 31.8.2023

Aalto University and Aalto University Campus & Real Estate (ACRE) donated the university's old Lego bricks to Touhula daycares. The Legos had previously been used by the university's campus development as part of Aalto and MIT University's CityScope joint project, but after the project, they wanted to give the Legos a new life in the hands of children.

Lapset leikkivät Lego-palikoilla — Photo: Milla Uusitalo / ACRE

Aalto University and Aalto University Campus & Real Estate (ACRE) donated the university's old Lego bricks to Touhula daycares. The white Legos were previously used by the university's campus development as part of Aalto and MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) CityScope joint project. In the project, Legos were used as an augmented reality platform to visualize the relationships between various variables on campus and to simulate the effects of different projects, for example, by changing the locations or quantities of different bricks. Otaniemi served as a prototype for the project.

After the project ended, ACRE wanted to give the Legos a new life. Some of the white bricks went to Perkkaa School in Espoo, and the rest to Touhula daycares throughout Southern Finland.

"There were a lot of Legos, and the university couldn't find a new use for this quantity. We thought together about where there would surely be a need for the Legos, and daycares came to mind. We then took action,” says ACRE Head of Property and Campus Services Jukka Salmisto.

At Touhula daycares, the building blocks were received with enthusiasm and joy. At the Espoo Tikasmäki Touhula, the Lego boxes were opened immediately, and the children let their imaginations run wild.

Touhula-päiväkodin aikuisia ja ACRElaisia — One batch of Legos was brought to Touhula in Tikasmäki. In the picture are Regional Director Pirjo Kosonen/Touhula, Head of Property and Campus Services Jukka Salmisto/ACRE, Property Manager Mikko Aho/ACRE and Daycare Director Daliah Javne/Touhula.

"From the perspective of early childhood education, Legos act as a unifying factor for different children. The language of building blocks is universal, and everyone understands it! Legos allow both communal play and individual ideation, as well as the development of social skills and emotional processing. In addition, they support logical and mathematical thinking.

Such a large number of building blocks also means that after each play session, what has been built doesn't have to be taken apart. Instead, it can be left waiting for further development, and there are still enough Legos left for other children," says Daliah Javne, the Director of Tikasmäki Touhula daycare.

Lapset leikkivät Legoilla — The Legos were immediately put into use for the children's play.

The Lego donation immediately inspired Touhula's regional director, Pirjo Kosonen, to come up with collaborative projects between the daycares:

"The donation wonderfully connects the Touhulas in Southern Finland. Now that several Touhulas have received a batch of the same kind of bricks, we can also think about projects that unite the daycares. For instance, we could create a joint Lego winter world exhibition and photograph it."

Indeed, in the children's hands, a variety of structures began to be made from the white Lego bricks.

Aalto University Campus & Real Estate - ACRE

Aalto University Campus & Real Estate (ACRE) maintains, develops and rents out Aalto University facilities in Otaniemi and Töölö. We also build new concepts and shared facilities for parties outside the university, thus turning Otaniemi into a unique partnership centre and the most inspiring campus in the world.