Cristie North’s version of utopia is built from thousands of plastic bricks and takes up most of her basement.

克里斯蒂·诺斯（Cristie North）心中的乌托邦是由数千块塑料积木搭建而成的，占据了她家地下室的大部分空间。

There’s a bustling main street and a beach with swimmers. There’s a moving roller coaster and Ferris wheel and tiny pedestrians. All rendered in Lego. The 55-year-old’s Salt Lake City house has undergone multiple construction projects, including tearing down walls, to make room for her toy projects.

那里有一条熙熙攘攘的主干道，还有一个有游泳者的海滩。有会移动的过山车和摩天轮，以及迷你行人。所有这些都由乐高积木搭建而成。这位55岁女士位于盐湖城的房子，为了容纳她的玩具项目，已经进行了多次改造，包括拆除墙壁。

North, an executive at a mortgage company, says she’s spent $100,000 to build her Lego world and the space to display it. That excludes costs for the large Lego mosaic she commissioned for outside the basement room that’s become her Lego lair.

诺斯是抵押贷款公司的一位高管，她说自己已经花费了10万美元来建造她的乐高世界以及展示它的空间。这还不包括一块大型乐高马赛克的费用，这块马赛克是她委托制作的，用于她地下室房间外面，而这个房间已经变成了她的乐高专属空间。

“I kept wanting to make it bigger and better,” North said of the town, which she started building in 2022, not long after she bought her first Lego kit to stave off boredom during the pandemic. “It just feeds my soul.”

诺斯谈到这个小镇时说：“我一直想把它做得更大、更好。”她于2022年开始搭建这个小镇，而这距离她在疫情期间为排解无聊购买她的第一套乐高积木没多久。她补充道：“这简直滋养了我的灵魂。”

North opens the door to her Lego room via a fingerprint scanner. She’s considering adding cameras around the setup so she can view it when traveling.

诺思通过指纹扫描仪打开了她的乐高房间的门。她正考虑在乐高作品周围安装摄像头，以便她在旅行时也能查看。

In recent years, Lego has cultivated a devoted base of adult fans, who might not have been able to afford the pricey Danish kits as kids but now come armed with fervor and disposable income.

近年来，乐高培养了一批忠实的成年粉丝，他们小时候可能买不起那些昂贵的丹麦积木套装，但如今，他们带着高涨的热情和充裕的可支配收入。

That creates a new problem, since the biggest Lego sets have thousands of pieces and quickly eat up available display space. Some builders have devoted certain rooms wholly to Lego. Others decorate mantelpieces, bookshelves and walls with their plastic builds, often to spouses’ chagrin.

这也带来了一个新问题，因为最大的乐高套装拥有数千个零件，很快就会占用可用的展示空间。一些玩家将特定的房间完全用来摆放乐高。还有一些人则用他们的塑料积木作品装饰壁炉架、书架和墙壁，这常常让他们的配偶感到不悦。

“I think I just have to get a bigger house,” says Steve Isom, 39, the Omaha, Neb.-based chief financial officer for a tech company. His dining table and buffet have been commandeered by Lego sets built by him and three of his children, as has his office. Spaceships dangle from the ceiling via fishing wire.

“我觉得我得买个更大的房子了，”39岁的史蒂夫·艾索姆（Steve Isom）说，他是内布拉斯加州奥马哈市一家科技公司的首席财务官。他和他三个孩子搭建的乐高积木，已经占据了他的餐桌、餐边柜，甚至还有他的办公室。天花板上还用鱼线吊着宇宙飞船。

Isom has personally assembled 275 sets in the past four years, including a titanic Titanic moored on a long shelf and a 10,000-piece, nearly 5-foot-tall Eiffel Tower.

伊瑟姆在过去四年里亲手组装了275套乐高，其中包括一艘停泊在长架子上的巨型“泰坦尼克号”，以及一座由10,000块积木组成、将近5英尺高（约1.5米）的埃菲尔铁塔。

“It’s not a toy, it’s a sophisticated interlocking brick system,” says Isom. The hobby helps him unwind after hectic days.

“这并非玩具，而是一套精密的互锁积木系统，”伊索姆（Isom）说道。这项爱好帮助他在忙碌的日子后放松身心。

His wife, Preston Isom, says the plastic bricks aren’t necessarily in line with their home’s modern farmhouse aesthetic, but she’s glad her husband and children find pleasure in them. Still, she’s banned Lego displays in the bedroom. “It’s a slippery slope.”

他的妻子普雷斯顿·伊索姆（Preston Isom）表示，这些塑料积木不一定符合他们家现代农舍风格的审美，但她很高兴她的丈夫和孩子们能从中找到乐趣。不过，她禁止在卧室里摆放乐高作品。“这样会一发不可收拾。”

Seattle architect Jeff Pelletier says he’s helped design plans for around 25 houses since the pandemic that have included Lego rooms, 90% of them for grown-ups. Pelletier, a Lego fan himself, says he advises clients to avoid rooms with too much sunlight—lest bricks discolor—and use glassed-in cabinets to display creations, thereby avoiding dust. A quick douse in the shower, he says, is his usual trick to get them clean.

西雅图建筑师杰夫·佩尔蒂埃 (Jeff Pelletier) 表示，自疫情以来，他已经帮助设计了大约25套包含乐高房间的房屋，其中90%是为成年人设计的。佩尔蒂埃本人也是乐高迷，他说他建议客户避开阳光过多的房间——以免乐高积木褪色——并使用带玻璃门的展示柜来展示作品，从而避免积灰。他补充说，快速冲个淋浴是他清洁乐高积木的常用方法。

Pelletier has one Lego room for his children and is planning another for himself in a backyard pool house. Elsewhere, he’s tried to cultivate “little moments of Lego”—a brick botanical arrangement on a cabinet, or Lego versions of famous paintings, such as Hokusai’s “The Great Wave,” incorporated into a gallery wall.

佩尔蒂埃为他的孩子们准备了一间乐高房，并计划在后院的泳池房里给自己再建一间。在其他地方，他尝试营造“乐高小瞬间”——比如，在柜子上摆放积木植物，或者将乐高版的名画，例如葛饰北斋的《神奈川冲浪里》（Hokusai’s “The Great Wave”），融入到一面画廊墙中。

Niko Cejic, a Realtor with Douglas Elliman who’s handled the sale of multiple houses with Lego rooms, says such touches add character. During recent open houses for a $2 million home in the Hamptons, the seller kept his Lego Lamborghini and Ferraris out, charming several buyers.

道格拉斯·埃利曼（Douglas Elliman）地产公司的房地产经纪人尼科·切吉奇（Niko Cejic）经手了多栋带有乐高（Lego）主题房间的房屋销售，他说这些（独特的乐高）装饰能为房屋增添特色。在汉普顿斯（Hamptons）一栋价值200万美元的房屋最近的开放日活动中，房主展示了他的乐高兰博基尼（Lamborghini）和法拉利（Ferrari）模型，吸引了不少买家。

“We have so many sterile vanilla houses,” Cejic says. “This is just more fun.”

“我们有太多千篇一律、平淡无奇的房子了，”切伊奇说，“这样才更有趣。”

Evan Rubin, 41, agrees. Between shuttling kids to sports and school and commuting for his job at a medical equipment company in southeastern Pennsylvania, “life can get monotonous.”

41岁的埃文·鲁宾对此表示赞同。他说，在接送孩子参加体育活动和上学，以及通勤去宾夕法尼亚州东南部一家医疗设备公司上班之间，“生活可能会变得单调乏味。”

“This is bringing back some of our childhood,” says Rubin. “Nobody really wants to grow up.”

“这让我们找回了一些童年时光，”鲁宾说，“没人真正想长大。”

Still, out of deference to his wife, he mostly keeps his constructions confined to a single room downstairs. “My wife gets the house, and I get the basement,” he says, though he sometimes tries to sneak a set in elsewhere. He once hid a Lego treehouse above their china cabinet for more than a month before she noticed.

尽管如此，出于对妻子的尊重，他大多把自己的乐高作品限制在楼下的一个房间里。他说：“房子归我妻子，地下室归我。”不过，他有时也会设法把一套乐高藏到别的地方。他曾把一个乐高树屋藏在他们家的碗柜上方，藏了一个多月才被她发现。

Many Lego rooms wind up in basements, which have the advantage of discretion, says Brodie Overton, 40, a nurse and Lego fan in central Iowa.

爱荷华州中部的护士兼乐高迷布罗迪·奥弗顿（Brodie Overton，40岁）说，许多乐高房间最终都设在地下室里，因为地下室有隐蔽性好的优点。

“When the HVAC guy or plumber comes, they’re like, ‘What’s going on?’” he says of his own subterranean Lego room. “Then they’ll spend 20 minutes looking around.”

“当暖通空调工或水管工来的时候，他们会说，‘这是怎么回事？’”他谈到自己那个地下的乐高房间时说，“然后他们就会花20分钟在里面四处打量。”

Lego’s adult fan base has exploded since 2020, when the company began targeting them with sets sleekly packaged in black. Today, its grown-up offerings include everything from a $1,000 Death Star to more living-room-friendly items, including flowers and holiday decor.

自2020年以来，乐高的成人粉丝群体迅速壮大，彼时该公司开始针对他们推出采用时尚黑色包装的套装。如今，其面向成年人的产品包罗万象，从价值1000美元的“死星”（Death Star，星球大战中的知名飞船）到更适合摆放在客厅的物品，如花卉和节日装饰品。

Especially for those with skeptical spouses, the latter are a boon, says Ridwan Adhami, 45, who fell in love with Lego when he began building with his daughter, then 4. She’s now 17 and has long since grown out of the pastime. He’s kept building, even as she rolls her eyes.

“尤其是对于那些配偶不怎么理解自己爱好的玩家来说，后一种（指适合摆放在客厅的乐高装饰品）简直是福音，”45岁的里德万·阿德哈米（Ridwan Adhami）说，他是在和当时4岁的女儿一起拼乐高时爱上乐高的。如今女儿已经17岁，早就不再玩这项消遣活动了，但他却一直在继续拼搭，尽管女儿对此会翻白眼。

His wife insists he restrict his Lego hobby to a basement storage room. Still, Adhami keeps trying to make inroads. Last year, the Montclair, N.J.-based creative director rejoiced when she agreed to let him arrange a Lego winter village on their mantel.

他的妻子坚持让他把乐高爱好限制在地下室的储藏室里。尽管如此，阿达米仍不断尝试争取更多空间。去年，这位居住在新泽西州蒙特克莱尔的创意总监欣喜不已，因为他的妻子同意他把一个乐高冬季村庄摆放在他们的壁炉架上。

“It was like a pitch. I had to bring the sets up,” he says. “She was like, ‘I don’t like the way that snowman looks. That little post office is cute, it can stay.’”

“这就像是一场‘推销’。我不得不把这些套装搬到楼上来，”他说，“她就说，‘我不喜欢那个雪人的样子。那个小邮局挺可爱的，可以留着。’”

Recently he showed her a picture of a Lego fall wreath to try to gain her approval. He’s hoping to commandeer another part of their basement, one currently reserved for their cats.

最近，他给她看了一张乐高秋季花环的照片，试图获得她的同意。他希望能挪用他们地下室的另一部分空间，那里目前是他们家猫咪的专属区域。

“I’m just trying to get her used to the idea so I can start sneaking more,” he says.

“我只是想让她慢慢习惯这个想法，这样我就可以开始偷偷地多放一些（乐高）了。”他说。