What’s with the name?

One doesn’t normally feel the need to explain the logic behind a given name but with bygo we wanted to. It derives from two Danish words Bygge and Godt. Bygge meaning Build and Godt meaning Well.

bygo is therefore like a verb to ‘Build Well’. If only the same thing could be said of every building. We believe that bygo will transform the procurement, design and construction industries. Everyone involved will help to Build Well.

The inventors are English, not Danish, so what gives? For anyone who has twigged, well done.

As we have sought to explain the system, and particularly before we had submitted the patent application, we tried to make comparisons and the one that was most obvious was children’s building blocks. Probably the most famous of these is Lego. The name Lego derives from the Danish words ‘Leg’ meaning Play and ‘God’ meaning Well. A playful parallel.

The comparison with children’s building blocks is obvious. Standardised module sizes patented interlocking system and huge flexibility.

When developing some of the concepts for bygo, I recalled the ‘Kipper’ advert for Lego from 1980 in which a mouse meets a cat, the cat becomes a dog, the cat becomes a dragon etc.. finally ending with a missile munching machine becoming a mouse again to face down a big yellow elephant. Genius.

What I love about bygo so much is that it is not only an amazing building system, but it is the playful opportunity for any designer to come up with their own idea for a building in seconds. And of course, they can be confident in the knowledge that one the component modules are ordered and delivered to site they can easily get on and ‘build well’.

Robert Barker FRIBA Visiting Professor, Director, Abode Industries