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.

A quiet corner of chaotic Hong Kong

An extremely neat piece of Hong Kong by Vincent Lai is actually much more sophisticated than it may seem at the first glance. Three different architectural styles — the “legged” version that stands on the pavement; cantilevered one at the corner; and the typical set-back type with smaller windows — represent the evolution of the city throughout the second half of the last century. Moreover, the diorama tells several stories of ordinary citizens. For instance, an old lady picks up unwanted paper boxes and cartons in exchange of little money, while one of thousands of light trucks, buzzing around the city, is parking outside for loading. And, of course, bonus points are for the retro road sign piece, which is out of production for 20 years already.

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Welcome home to Bosco Verticale

Bosco Verticale is a skyscraper full of lush greenery in Milan, Italy . Built by TBB’s own Elspeth De Montes, this micro-version is a fantastic urban forest coupled with beautiful architectural details. There are a lot of things to love in this build. I particularly love the use of non-traditional green bits to bring diversity and life to this miniature forest: I spot cheese grater slopes, quarter-circle tiles, brushes, and combs. There are teeth pieces, taps, blades, and Medusa’s hair from Series 10 of the Collectible Minifigure line. Repurposing the Eye of Ender tiles from the Minecraft line as solar panels is a fantastic use of that piece.

University building constructed with a degree of accuracy

Current students at the University of Colorado in Boulder will not need an introduction to the Koelbel Building as it’s part of the Leeds School of Business. Older graduates may not immediately recognise the building as it reopened with a new name in the autumn of 2007 after renovation and expansion financed by the Koelbel family. Imagine Rigney’s LEGO version has accurately captured the contrasting brick building with its central curved balcony atop tall columns and the ribbed dome.

If you fancy seeing this build in person, then it will soon be installed at Old Main for the Hit the Bricks exhibit on campus at the University of Colorado Boulder.

French revolution of steam-powered gears

We have spoken about the LEGO steampunk genre many times before, but for the uninitiated it is a genre of science fiction that has a historical, normally Victorian, setting and features steam-powered machinery. Castor Troy‘s latest creation adds to his growing Paris Steampunk 1889 display with the world’s largest museum, the Louvre. The architecture has been brilliantly captured using a host of smaller parts to add decorative features, ranging from Technic gears and monochrome tan minifigures to studs, slopes and droid body parts.

The larger glass pyramid has been replaced with an altogether different type of pyramid, worthy of a place in steampunk history.

Modern castle is just a tower with no walls

This very aesthetically pleasing microscale skyscraper by Sheo. definitely houses something evil inside. It totally looks like a villain’s headquarters from a dystopian movie or a book, plus “Nasty tower” is a very peculiar choice of name for a building! Although its design seems to be advanced, this tower is just a polygonal hinged core with attached vertical stripes, and this is what makes this build a very smart and remarkable creation.

You are never lost when you can see the temple

Built relatively recently, around the turn of the 20th century, Kek Lok Si is said to be the largest Buddhist temple in Malaysia. Now local builder WingYew has constructed this gorgious LEGO diorama of the famed site:

As you can see below, and also in the full photo album, the build is brimming with tiny details such as the central 7-storey pagoda that contains 10,000 statues of Buddha (which are sadly too small to be captured at this scale!). From the looks of it, a person could lose themselves for hours in this temple – and quite possibly in this LEGO version as well!

Station yourself here to get back on track

One of the buildings that most large cities have is a railway station, and LEGO cities are no different in this respect. morimorilego has built this rather traditional looking railway station with its bell tower and pleasing arched design, using a complimentary combination of greys, reddish brown, and tan. Every station needs a clock at the entrance to help passengers decide if they are late and require a last minute dash to the platform.

There are plenty of nice architectural details and interest with the main façade. The Mansard-esque roof and floral displays bring a touch of class to this building but those light stone steps will definitely be high maintenance on rainy days when muddy footprints strike.

A quaint lakeside village

This little Chinese LEGO village by Toltomeja is adorable. I love the irregular base and the squat buildings. There are some great details like the wavy patterns in the water and flippers-as-tiles roof design. But the real star of Toltomeja’s scene is that beautiful Chinese bridge and winding path.

The main photo doesn’t do nearly enough to show off the sweet curves of the sidewalk, so be sure to check the alternate angles.

Cruising the aquatic streets of Amsterdam

Amsterdam’s 165 canals were created over the centuries to stimulate trade and transport, reclaiming land to expand the city. They continue to define the city’s landscape as a network of ‘water streets’ and in 2010 Amsterdam’s canal ring was recognised as a UNESCO world heritage site. Palixa and the Bricks built a canal corner in LEGO, capturing the essentials of the canal, canal house, and two barges. There’s a busy street scene with a florist, book store and a cheese shop on the ground floors and lots more going on inside the modular buildings.

See more of this lovely city in the Netherlands

Remember the Alamo!

The Battle of the Alamo in 1836 marked a pivotal event in the Texas Revolution. This LEGO version of the Alamo by Jason Hlavenka looks just like the iconic Texas landmark as it is seen today.

The detailed facade is worth taking a closer look for its clever building techniques, such as the barred windows.

You can see more photos on Flickr.

A woodland home with Tolkien’s bear essentials

Thorin and Company, along with Gandalf, seek the aid of Beorn after their Misty Mountains adventure — calling in at Beorn Hall, on the western borders of Mirkwood. Paul Rizzi has based his LEGO version of Beorn’s Hall on the description and illustrations from J.R.R. Tolkien’s writing rather than anything seen on the big screen. There’s a lot of detail in this huge build, the beehives on the far left, the tall oak trees, and the landscaping around this woodland home.

A closer look shows some of the detail used to give a lot of character to the Hall. There are different textures represented with the wooden main structure, a stone opening, the green landscaping, and vegetation on the roof. It’s no surprise to learn Paul won a prize for this creation at Brickfair Virginia earlier this month.

What treasure lies within?

Here’s a LEGO temple to stir the soul of an explorer. W. Navarre has covered his pyramid temple with just enough foliage and texture to create an Indiana Jones adventure spirit in me. I want to scout out these ruins for anything that glitters and sparkles. The mix of greys, and the tumbledown rockwork makes for a real sense of age and decay, whilst the shaping of the structure creates the unmistakable feel of Central or South American antiquity.