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.

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.

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.

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

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!

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…
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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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Incredible revenge is best served explosively

They say revenge is best served cold, but it seems like Syndrome is serving up his hot and explosive. monstrophonic has built a LEGO scene from The Incredibles featuring Syndrome and his Omnidroid attacking the superhero family. Our heroes are beating a hasty retreat as some impressive firepower rains down from above. The explosion has been nicely crafted, but it’s the fantastic architecture as the backdrop that makes this street scene truly awesome.

The front on image doesn’t quite show the clever angles the builder has used to create a forced perspective effect. The view from above reveals the acutely angled buildings…

A whimsical and woodsy cottage

This two-story cottage looks as though it belongs on top of Mount Crumpit or possibly deep within Fangorn Forest. Even with minimal (and rather muddy) landscaping, this ramshackle LEGO house by Pieter Dennison is spectacular! In addition to the wonderful curved roof and cobbled walls, this creation is full of intricate details such as wrought iron lanterns, laundry drying in the breeze, and creeping thorny vines (created with green minifig hands and sprues, possibly from this piece).

Nature lovers will Lovell this modernist home

Lovell Health House is an International Style modernist residence designed and built by Richard Neutra between 1927 and 1929. It was built for the active, health-conscious Lovell family in the hills of Los Angeles. The house’s construction is rather interesting. In addition to the steel structure integrated with tension cables, the house is actually one of the first to use gunite. Mattias Søndergaard has captured Lovell House in LEGO form with its clean lines and overlapping planes perfectly suited to LEGO construction.

Whilst the house sits nestled into the cliff surrounded by nature, Mattias has used some artistic license to give the natural flora of Los Angeles a ‘New Hampshire’ colour spectrum.