Last year, 10 builders came together to build a fictional city inspired by cities of the Middle East and North Africa called “Medina Al Musawrah.” It was one of TBB’s favorite LEGO projects of last year, and you can read our interview with the organizers of this remarkable collaboration here.  At last month’s BrickFair NoVa,  a year of planning with triple the number of collaborators came to fruition as Medina Al Musawrah made its return, bigger and more spectacular than ever.

While the collaborators based elements of the build on different specific locations from personal travel or research, the city like a Pakastani transport truck and La Pyramid hotel from Ivory Coast. As Michael said in our interview, “It’s Cairo, Damascus, Baghdad, Jerusalem, Casablanca, Beirut, Istanbul. It’s anywhere at any time.”

Builders like Blake Foster joined the mix with new buildings that add to the city’s texture.

For the collaborators, and especially Tobias Whelan, the project is as much about the photography of the imaginary city as it is the construction. The team’s photos capture the metropolis as if they were taken in the ’70s, an analog record of a forgotten place.

In recent years, there’s been an increase in architectural builds inspired by the Middle East and Islamic architecture, but usually in a more medieval timeframe. For this collaboration, the organizers wanted to reflect a more modern city where skyscrapers and AC units coexist with medieval gates and crumbling mosques.

The expanded city is built on an 8′ x 12′ footprint, which includes a new waterfront area, split level streets, and a towering new centerpiece that doubles the height of the skyline.

Organizer Michael Willhoit said that this would be the final appearance of the Medinat collaboration, with no plans to carry on like New Hashima. At least we’ll have an incredible photo record to remember it by.