Next month London's Design Museum will open "Ai Weiwei: Making Sense," the artist's first exhibition focusing on design. Despite the design theme, there's an unexpected showstopper that will be on display.

"This major exhibition, developed in collaboration with the artist, will be the first to present his work as a commentary on design and what it reveals about our changing values. Through his engagement with material culture, Ai explores the tension between past and present, hand and machine, precious and worthless, construction and destruction."

"The exhibition draws on Ai's fascination with historical Chinese artefacts, placing their traditional craftsmanship in dialogue with the more recent history of demolition and urban development in China. The result is a meditation on value – on histories and skills that have been ignored or erased."

"Discover some of the artist's most important works displayed alongside collections of objects that have never been seen and new commissions made for the exhibition."

What's strange is that the piece of Ai's work generating the most buzz for this exhibition isn't a design object at all. Instead it's his Water Lilies #1, a recreation of Monet's Water Lilies done entirely in Lego, as Ai is wont to do.

The finished piece is some 50 feet long and contains 650,000 Lego bricks. We couldn't clear the rights for the full image of the piece, so you'll have to click on the Design Museum's site to see it. (The photos you see here are all from Ai's Instagram.)