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Pixie Planks Get Big Response

25,000 "Pixie Planks" Turn Visitors into Architects and Artists

For Immediate Release
August 1, 2005

With structures that range from the ingenious to the beautiful to the implausible, vistors of all ages are turning Pauley Hall at LHS into a hands-on gallery with Kapla blocks. 

Families are constructing fortified castles, grandfathers are creating trains, kids are competing to build the highest tower. Kapla - from the words for pixie planks in Dutch - are simple, versatile building blocks measuring 4 5/8" x 1 5/16" x 5/16". Precisely milled from pine, these identical pieces can be used to build very large, high, and stable structures or models of bridges, buildings, animals, figures, furniture, vehicles, pretty much anything the imagination can produce. 

Twenty-five thousands of these blocks are part of the hands-on Kapla exhibit featured in Construction Junction, the summer exhibit at Lawrence Hall of Science. 

The Guinness Book of World Records lists a Kapla structure as the Tallest Ever Free-Standing Structure at 51', 4", built at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC in November 2003.

Lawrence Hall of Science, the public science center at the University of California, is open daily, 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. Admission is $8.50 for adults (ages 19-61); $6.50 for student/senior/disabled (ages 5-18); and $4.50 for children (ages 3-4). LHS is located at on Centennial Drive, below Grizzly Peak Blvd., in Berkeley. For information call (510) 642-5132 or check lawrencehallofscience.org.

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