Citations › Citation ID: 156

C156. BOOK: Daniel Konstanski, The Secret Life of LEGO Bricks: The Inside Story of a Design Icon (Unbound, 2022), p. 295-297.

Even as that first set was being developed, LEGO Creator team members began working on a solution to the challenges being encountered. Right then and there they sketched out a whole family of windows and doors, with windowpanes to match: 1x2, 1x3, 1x4, with variants two studs high, three studs high, six studs high and so on. Being in the LEGO Creator theme, they knew that a windfall of new element frames allowing for a large number of parts was not on the cards. Instead, they campaigned for a doors-and-windows platform and obtained approval. A schedule for release, with new entries from their wish list ranked by priority, was developed as part of that process, with a 1x4 door six bricks tall at the top. Over the next decade most of their platform would become reality.

...

Set 10185 Green Grocer got to benefit from the new doors-and-windows platform prompted by Café Corner. ... Two new doors were now available, each sized to fit in the large window frame. Joining them were the first two alternative window sizes they had requested: 1x2 at two bricks tall, and 1x4 at three bricks tall with transparent panes to fill them. In short, there were a total of six new parts from the platform, an unprecedented, immediate windfall; filling out the rest of the platform would take years. Investment in these parts had been warranted because multiple other project teams had expressed enthusiastic interest, and all six components quickly saw wide use.

The Creator Expert team established a 'platform' to design a wide range of large and small window/door sizes to be produced across many years.