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.

LEGO Architecture 21039 Shanghai skyline [Review]

Heading into 2018, LEGO’s city skyline series is growing again, with LEGO Architecture 21039 Shanghai available on January 1st from the LEGO Shop Online (and available now in some local LEGO stores). The set features many iconic buildings on the Huangpu River, including the Chenghuang Miao Temple, Longhua Temple and Pagoda, HSBC Building, the Customs House, Radisson Blu Hotel, Oriental Pearl Tower, World Financial Center and the Shanghai Tower. The Shanghai skyline contains 597 pieces and retails at $59.99.

While the set is technically the second largest Architecture skyline set by piece count (one less than 21028 New York City), Shanghai is largest by any other measure, ranking as the tallest, widest, deepest and heaviest of the skyline series so far.

Click to read our full review of the Shanghai skyline.

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Koffee at the new LEGO café on the corner

If your minifigures need to stop for a coffee during their busy mini-day, they should look no further than this new coffee house, Kahunka Koffee. Built by Andrew Tate , this is a larger, grander interpretation of the retired, iconic modular set 10182 Cafe Corner. Andrew also built a subtle stone face into the main entrance on the corner in recognition of his favourite LEGO theme – Pirates, hence the name Kahuka Koffee. I always like when street scene details are added, in this case, a delivery truck as well as some relaxed coffee-drinkers enjoying the outside seating.

Kahuka Koffee

Andrew admits that he has only built a ground floor interior, but the brown and tan colour scheme perfectly reflects shades of coffee. Perhaps the flight of stairs hints to some further building work to be done on this model.

Kahuka Koffee

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A new beauty born of decay

When I first looked at this picture, I thought to myself that someone really needs to clean up the weeds on their mansion, but then with some quick research it turned out there is nobody to do the cleaning. Château Nottebohm is an abandoned castle in Belgium, which has been uninhabited for over half a century. While the landscape looks more like a savannah than a temperate forested plain, Marion has definetely done justice to the mansion itself.

Château Nottebohm 05

On the outside the building seems to contain no large bricks whatsoever, achieving intense chaotic textures characteristic of decaying buildings. Textures like these feel more at home in larger creations, but Marion has managed to make them look good even at this small scale. There are complex shapes achieved with more or less legal techniques, for some of which I am not even sure they can be done without cutting bricks, so purists beware! For a better understanding of some of these techniques, I suggest anyone interested to look at the work in progress photos, like this example here.

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Preserving Hong Kong’s heritage; State Theatre captured in 40,000 bricks

The State Theatre (皇都戲院) is a former cinema in the North Point area of Hong Kong. It is currently in a poor state of repair and faces demolition, despite being a Graded building and part of Hong Kong’s heritage. Originally known as the Empire Theatre, it was renamed the State Theatre in 1959 and was a cultural hub in post-war Hong Kong. Alan Boar and Mythbot collaborated to build this historic building in LEGO as a way to raise awareness of its plight, encouraging support for the preservation of Hong Kong’s historic buildings.

LEGO STATE Theatre

Don’t miss all the  street levels details like the Classic Tram , Leyland Truck, food vendor, as well as a hubbub of pedestrian activity.

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The great Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Chartres stands tall in microscale

Chartre Cathedral is the crowning masterpiece of French Gothic architecture, built primarily between 194 and 1220. I studied the cathedral in college, but today I mainly remember it as a climbable location in Assassin’s Creed. So much for my higher education. Nevertheless, Isaac Snyder says he was inspired to build Our Lady of Chartre in LEGO microscale for a college assignment. Isaac packs an amazing amount of detail into the tiny structure, from the different spires of the west façade to the rows of flying buttresses behind the south porch.

Chartres Cathedral

The other side is no less wonderfully detailed, with round chapels extending from the apse.

Chartres Cathedral

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New LEGO Architecture 21039 Shanghai Set Revealed [News]

An image has surfaced today of the latest LEGO Architecture 21039 set depicting Shanghai, China. From left to right, the set includes what appears to be Longhua Temple, The Bund, The Oriental Pearl Radio&TV Tower, The Shanghai World Financial Center, and Shanghai Tower.

The set will be available worldwide on January 1, 2018. However, if you’re lucky enough to be in Shanghai on December 2, 2017, make sure to visit the Shanghai Disneyland LEGO flagship store to get your copy of the set a month ahead of the rest of the world signed by the design lead for the Architecture series Jamie Berard!

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21037 LEGO House [Review]

Every child knows how easy it is to build a house with LEGO bricks. It’s almost impossible to build a bad-looking one. And the concept of “house” is pretty universal: 4 walls, a door, a window, and a roof — any form, any type and any materials you want. But what happens when you build a house based on an actual building that was originally designed to look like it was built with LEGO bricks? This mind-boggling concept hides behind the most unique LEGO Architecture set to date — 21097 LEGO House. Like other Architecture sets, this model is based on a real building, but this time it’s the LEGO House in Billund, Denmark that opened in September 2017. The set is only available at the LEGO House gift shop for 449 DKK (~$70 USD).

The box art shows off the model and its wonderful colours. The back displays the main feature — a removable second floor revealing the House’s spacious interior. This is a rare play feature amongst the relatively small Architecture models.

Click through to read our full review of this interesting and unusual set…
Continue reading

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Once upon a time in old Beijing

This diorama by vincentkiew showcases the beauty of traditional Chinese architecture and landscaping. A quaint courtyard and miniature garden completes the peaceful setting, and the use of the new Ninjago fences as well as the wallpaper brick are fantastic details that add style to the creation.

Once Upon A Time.. (35)

There are many delightful detail shots to discover in the Flickr gallery, or you can check them out in this slideshow accompanied by traditional Chinese music.

Once Upon A Time. (2)

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Amazing detailed recreation of a city train station in Germany

The City Station of Trossingen in Germany built by Steffen Rau is simply breathtaking. The architectural detailing and color are astounding and eye-popping, with intricate features on the facade that look like it took some marvelously complex techniques to achieve that even an architect would be proud of. The siding just below the roof which was most likely wooden gives a beautiful compliment in color to the red roof tiling and a nice contrast with the mid-section in black and white.

Trossingen Station 6

The back of the building features the train tracks and a platform with minifigure commuters waiting for their train to arrive.

See more of this massive LEGO train station

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25,000 bricks and 200 man hours for a LEGO chapel replica

Building a showcase that’s meant to be permanently displayed as a model in the very building is always going to be a challenge and an honor. Builder Julien Andries had the pleasure of showcasing his 25,000-brick replica model of a school chapel at the grand opening of the newly renovated building. Though I’m no expert in architecture, I’m willing to bet that the original building is probably more than a century old.

Commissioned model finished

Reference to the original chapel and comparison looks like Julien did an astounding job!

Original for comparison

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The golden age of colonial Paris 1889

We are back visiting Paris in 1889 again with Castor Troy’s latest addition to his Steampunk-era rendition of the city. The Colonial Office has a striking black, white and gold color scheme with some beautiful architectural details. No expense has been spared in this particular office as a number of fancy gold elements can be found, such as the ornamental fences and, in particular, the Ninjago swords used in the roof to the far right. Castor has also created a great selection of minifigures to populate the uneven, grubby streets in front of the plush offices.Paris Steampunk 1889 - The Colonial Office

This is just one building in an incredible Paris 1889 collaboration, so you may enjoy another of Castor’s buildings that we highlighted a few weeks ago, The Lourve in 1889.

PARIS STEAMPUNK 1889

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Learn from a LEGO master at the Royal Academy

There’s a whole medieval world created by LEGO fan builders as part of a role-playing game called Nine Kingdoms hosted by German-language site RogueBricks. Even RPGs need educational institutions and Markus Rollbühler has built the Royal Academy, a place for students to come and learn from the masters. There are lots of interesting LEGO techniques that we can also study at the Royal Academy with some fine LEGO construction and parts use on show. My eye was immediately drawn to the tree, with its foliage uniquely constructed using plumes of green feathers. I also love the bird’s nest sitting on the roof of the Academy, my ornithological knowledge is rather limited but it looks like a stork has made a home up there.

The Royal Academy

There are almost too many gems to mention, as the Academy itself has some lovely architectural details such as the beautifully shaped dormer windows. Can you spot the brown minifigure hockey sticks in the scene? There’s a lot to love in this creation and if you like this build, you will certainly enjoy spending a quiet summer evening at Markus’ windmill.

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