Tag Archives: Architecture

LEGO provides the perfect medium for recreating the buildings and landmarks of the world — LEGO has even released a line of official LEGO Architecture sets. Check out our coverage of the official sets, and don’t miss all the gorgeous architectural models created by LEGO fans from around the world.

Cafe and pizza, Mediterranean-style, in a towering LEGO modular

Mediterranean architecture — like Mediterranean living — has a unique flavor to it, sun-kissed and rooted in tradition. Andrew Tate has captured a beautiful slice of it with his latest modular-style creation. While Andrew mentioned some of the really difficult connections (the SNOT shutters offset ever so slightly), so much of this building is very “normal” LEGO. Relax and take in those pleasing right angles! Even with new LEGO elements that come out every season, never underestimate the beautiful work that can be done with a standard LEGO brick. For an extra old-world touch, rather than use tiles for the sidewalk, Andrew uses the brick-embossed brick for the entire base…or as we call it in our house, the “brick-brick.”

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LEGO Architecture 21063 Neuschwanstein Castle – Bavarian Cream of the Crop [Review]

Neuschwanstein Castle is a real-life fairytale landmark that inspired Disney’s Sleeping Beauty Castle and was just added to the list of UNESCO heritage sites. On August 1, you can bring it home with LEGO Architecture 21063 Neuschwanstein Castle. We received an early copy of this beautiful set and are excited to bring you our review from guest writer Ids de Jong.

LEGO Architecture 21063 Neuschwanstein Castle
3,455 Pieces
Available August 1
Buy for US $279.99 | CAN $349.99 | UK £239.99

The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

Our in-depth review follows…

Neuschwanstein Castle revealed as your next LEGO Architecture destination [News]

Perched atop the foothills of Alps, Neuschwanstein Castle is a real-life fairytale destination and the cream of Bavarian landmarks. This icon of 19th-century Romanticism inspired Disney’s Sleeping Beauty Castle and now it inspires the next essential display set: LEGO Architecture 21063 Neuschwanstein Castle. Featuring 3455 pieces, the set marks a return to the architecture line’s microscale roots after the larger-scale Trevi Fountain, and should make an excellent companion set for Himeji Castle. Neuschwanstein Castle will be available on August 1, 2025, and can be pre-ordered now for US $279.99 | CAN $349.99 | UK £239.99.

Will you be booking a Bavarian vacation to this fairytale palace? Let us know in the comments.

Additional photos and set details follow

DeRa celebrates Kitano Ijinkan-gai landmark Weathercock House with LEGO modular masterpiece

Japanese builder DeRa has created some of the most spectacular MOCs of recent years, such as this entrancing LEGO tiger and brick-built Godzilla. But while mecha and monsters have been the builder’s calling card, DeRa’s academic focus as a university student is architecture. For their latest build, DeRa brings an AFOL’s perspective to the iconic Weathercock House from Kobe Japan’s Kitano Ijinkan-gai, a neighborhood where foreign residents created magnificent manors of Western design in the early 20th century.

Sticking to LEGO modular conventions, DeRa builds atop a 32×32 and 16×32 stud plate while allowing between 4-6 studs for sidewalk space. This pushes the build into stylized space, with both exterior and interior designed around minifig scale. But DeRa’s design holds another secret.

Like an ornate puzzle box, this modular slides apart into 12 separate modules!

Read on for details on the build process and pictures of the interior

Finding the unusual in everyday Japanese architecture

We’re used to seeing some weird and wonderful buildings from Pan Noda, from the quirky to the downright fantastical. So imagine my surprise when I found that their latest build is of a real house! This depicts a residence in Kitano Ijinkan – a historical district of Kobe, in Japan. Many of the buildings here are built with more non-Japanese flair than traditional influence. Pan’s build, though, is of their usual high standard!

This is the ‘Hilltop House’, which apparently used to serve as the Chinese Consulate, among other things. There are a pair of ‘komainu’ guardian lion statutes just inside the gates, and rumour has it that walking past them will lead to success in your love life. I don’t know if there’s any truth to that, but I do know that I love Pan’s LEGO recreation of these statues!

See more of Pan Noda’s haunting recreation of the Kobe Hilltop House

This general store is an admirable build

Builder Andrew Tate has a knack for capturing bygone eras in brick form. His latest creation is an early 20th-century building housing a first-floor general store with apartments above. The structure is assembled in various shades of brown, with a few pops of muted greens in both the architecture and the well-manicured plant life, creating a warm and inviting atmosphere that has us wondering if there are any vacancies.

The interior is just as charming with goods and sundries to meet all your household needs. Inside, as out, Andrew’s build feels of a kind to official LEGO modulars, while smoothing away nearly every stud.

Take a trip to Kyoto for a postcard perfect build of the Golden Pavilion in LEGO

Kinkaku-ji, the Temple of the Golden Pavilion, is a jewel of Kyoto with a storied history. It burned down several times since the site became a Zen Buddhist temple in 1399, most recently in 1950, but it was always rebuilt with its top stories covered in gold leaf. Now it’s been rebuilt in LEGO as well, courtesy of Lasse Vestergård. Unlike the original, Lasse’s version isn’t just gilded but uses pearl gold bricks. With a limited range of elements in that color, the builder had to find creative solutions and work with small 1×1 and 1×2 plates to build the large structure. (Lasse has some experience with golden temples!) The temple looks incredible as it sits at an angle on a placid lake surrounded by gardens. I appreciate the brick-built hills in the distance, keeping every element on screen made from LEGO.

This isn’t the first time we’ve featured a MOC of Kinkaku-ji. 18 years ago we presented a version by Japanese LEGO legend Jumpei Mitsui.

LEGO Mid-century modern house is the definition of design

I am pretty sure this mid-century modern LEGO house by Sarah Beyer may be my entire personality right now. The attention to mid-mod detail doesn’t stop with the house’s design, or with the great exterior features and landscaping. The interior is filled with period-appropriate furniture, all assembled with great building techniques. Sarah calls the house Endeavour, in honor of the British TV series of the same name, which inspired her with insights into 1960s interior design. (If you haven’t watched Endeavour, put it on your watchlist, along with it’s in-universe friends Inspector Morse and Inspector Lewis.)

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Join our haunted tour of this epic LEGO lair for New Orleans vampires

Jeff Chapman has carved out a place in the LEGO builder scene with a bloody knife, specializing in the macabre with a historical twist. While most of his creations so far have centered around Salem, for his latest build, Jeff travels south to New Orleans, another American city brimming with haunted history. Like his New England builds, Jeff bases his model on a real-world location, in this case an iconic corner building on Royal Street that was home to the legendary Jacques St Germain, the French Quarter vampire!

Jeff’s models are always best experienced via narrated tour of history and build process on his Spooky Brixx YouTube channel, which you can watch here. Or skip down to a photo gallery for more pics of this haunted masterpiece.

Grab some garlic and a state and read on for a tour of Jeff’s French Quarter masterpiece… if you dare!

Istanbul’s Blue Mosque looks magnificent in LEGO microscale

Completed in 1617, the Sultan Ahmet Mosque, commonly known as the Blue Mosque, is one of Istanbul’s most iconic structures and a UNESCO World Heritage site. Scott Wilhelm gives this masterpiece of Ottoman architecture the LEGO microscale treatment in a sprawling build that includes Sultan Ahmet’s mausoleum, gardens, and a madrasa. For the mosque’s six minarets, Scott uses white Technic axle extenders broken up by bevel gears and bushes topped with a drill bit. The many small domes are represented with knit caps. If you’re wondering why the mosque rooftops are grey when it’s called the Blue Mosque, the nickname comes from the decorative tiles inside.

Continue for additional photos of Scott’s magnificent miniature mosque

Double-decker Ponte de Dom Luís I bridge is a massive microscale achievement

With two decks built above and below its iron arch, Portugal’s Dom Luís I Bridge is a beautiful testament to late 19th-century engineering. Inspired by this double-deck marvel, civil engineering student and LEGO architecture fan Sébastien Houyoux took to Studio to painstakingly recreate the bridge and the the buildings of Porto and Gaia built in its shadow.

The model stretches 1.3 meters and is made up of 13,000 elements. The builder designed a 1/650 scale version of the bridge two years ago, but for this updated take, Sébastien doubles the detail with a scale of 1/325.

Y’ell take the high road and I’ll take the low road and we’ll get a better look at this amazing double decker bridge!

This futuristic microscale LEGO city runs rings around modern cities

Building a circular model using LEGO is a challenge in itself, but Plastic Pauper took on that challenge and built a microscale city with not just one ring, but three, creating nested neighborhoods that all have a specific purpose and vibe. The outer ring looks industrial, with smokestacks, factories, and other gray structures. The middle ring is composed of many smaller buildings and greenery, while the central section sports tall, sterile, and modern structures fit for the city’s wealthy elite. And what futuristic city would be complete without flying cars?