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.
Despite all the different “genres” in LEGO building, there’s something deeply satisfying when our beloved bricks are used to build a really nice house. This creation by betweenbrickwalls is stunning — a stylish contemporary home, with a hint of Modernism about the design. You might imagine a predominantly dark grey and tan colour scheme would look drab, but here it lends the model a smart contrast, and offsets the surrounding autumnal tones. I particularly like some of the details of the structure — those four brick fin-like pillars, and the raised section over the stream.
Don’t miss the detailed interior, including a beautiful spiral staircase…
It may not be high noon yet, but it seems as thought there are already a few transactions going on at the bank in this Western scene by Paul Trach. The Brick Bank is a handsome building with its clock above the entrance complete with ‘saloon-style’ swing doors. The roof has a water barrel, brick-built signs, and some lovely detailing on the railings. It’s clear that this ain’t no drinking establishment as there are some finely dressed gentlemen exiting with their pocketwatches and bowler hats in place.
My favourite part of the build is best seen in this close-up view of the ground floor. The beautiful glass windows have some fancy metal-work to prevent any outlaws from breaking in and stealing from the bank. These windows are really a stand-out detail for me, but I have to mention the fun use of light bluish grey ingots as brickwork.
No Western scene is complete without a cactus, but since this is a fine banking establishment, Paul has chosen a lovely flowering cactus as decorative flora.
With the excitement about The LEGO Ninjago Movie building and new movie tie-in sets being released, it is no surprise to see lots of Ninjago themed fan creations being built. Svend Eric Saksun tells us that he was going for a Ninjago feel with this house and garden creation. There’s a hearty feast going on in the private garden area with what looks like the head of a buffalo on the barbecue. I can’t be certain as the LEGO part used is a chicken body with a couple of horns added for taste.
The aspect of this build I like the most is actually the colour coordination and sense of balance to the overall composition. Svend named his build ‘Nonjago‘ as he felt he failed to capture the Ninjago theme. But theme aside, he has certainly captured something beautiful.
Sometimes, history is quite literally the foundation of the present. This creation is one such example, but with an interesting duality: not only does it represent medieval structures built upon ancient ruins, but it is also literally a rebuild of Antonio Carretti‘s earlier LEGO Forum of Nerva, which we also featured here on The Brothers Brick. The creations very obviously represant the same structure, despite the contrast between a shiny new temple and fortified ruins.
The dark red and orange tower blends with the remains of the temple beautifully, and the white details in the house on the left really show how the stairs of the temple were used to build it. My favourite part is definetely the overgrown and decrepit temple itself, with its former glory hardly recognizable anymore, replaced with an impression of great age and a long and tragic history.
Microscale builds are great for fantasy castles and sprawling sci-fi cities done on the cheap, but it’s also a great tool for recreating real buildings with a reasonably small number of pieces. Brazilian builder Gilcelio chagas has done that with the Penha Convent, which is located in the Vila Velha region of Brazil. Compare the build to pictures of the site and you’ll see the effort that has gone into making this look authentic at such a small scale. Make sure you also spot the clever used of an army helmet as the top of rounded tree and an alternate view that offers a better look at the build of the mountain that the convent sits on.
Belgium doesn’t feature in the LEGO Architecture theme yet but Bert Van Raemdonck has corrected this oversight with his own skyline view of the Flemish municipality of Temse. His skyline of Temse creation includes, from left to right, Boelwerf Crane, Onze Lieve Vrouwe Church, Old Town Hall and Temse Bridge. As with a lot of microscale builds we feature, Bert has used some clever parts and techniques to pack texture and detail into a small space. I love the helmet that forms the spire of the church and the lever handle flagpoles on the side of the town hall. You will need to look closely at the church to spot the clever placement of tiles forming the buttresses.
![[MOC] Temse Skyline](https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/media.brothers-brick.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/36074846882_e670b229c7_z.jpg)
The Old Town Hall is a magnificent piece of neo-Flemish renaissance architecture so my only critique would be the lack of colour as the actual building is a fantastic shade of pinky red and tan.
Summer (if you live in the Northern hemisphere) is movie blockbuster season, and it’s already turning out to be a good one! What better choice for our August cover photo than this beautifully decked out retro movie theater façade by RVA LUG, which comes complete with LEGO-themed posters and is illuminated using 260 lights.
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Finding beauty in decay may be difficult and an acquired taste, but this scene by Revan New is so realistic, I believe everyone can appreciate the LEGO building skills on display. The photography and editing help a lot in achieving the effect, but the build itself is nothing to scoff at.
The uneven angles, hanging chains, and cluttered floor show obvious disuse, and the metal supports everywhere give it a strong industrial look. The composition is excellent, with moody lighting revealing a few splashes of yellow, around which the whole scene seems to be built.
While architecture skyline builds are a popular way to capture some of the landmark structures of a city, city son has created this fantastic mountainous sculpture of Hong Kong’s landmarks. At the base we have the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre with its glass façade, surrounded by Golden Bauhinia Square. Dominating the scene is the Big Buddha with the Ngong Ping 360 cable car and Peak Tram exiting the mountainside, all of which are located on Lantau Island, Hong Kong’s largest outlying island.
What a great way to capture some of the highs of Hong Kong, although Big Buddha doesn’t look impressed with the cable car exiting his head!
This astonishing golden temple is one of seven new additions to the Piece of Peace World Tour, opening this week in Singapore. This display of amazing builds features the Haw Pha Bang temple in Laos, built masterfully by Singaporean Eugene Tan. The builder toiled on this labour of love for over 90 hours from start to finish and used an estimated total of 13,000 bricks.
While I admire the exquisite detailing, it’s worth highlighting that the real challenge behind this majestic temple is the adornment of gold, a color that LEGO does not offer a very broad palette of elements to work with. Stay tuned for our coverage of the UNESCO World Heritage Exhibition for more amazing places in the world imagined in LEGO.
Machiya are traditional wooden townhouses found throughout Japan and typified in the historical capital of Kyoto. This LEGO version of a machiya by Dan Blom is a great example of a seemingly simple build that really looks the part. The key architectural details like the barred window, known as mushiko mado [literal translation is ‘insect cage window’] and the wooden lattice façade are accurately represented. These days most roofs are covered with clay tiles called kawara, and Dan has left the LEGO studs exposed to give the impression of neatly arranged, rough tiles.
The addition of some extra little details such as the cart, the various items outside the front of the house and the ancient-looking tree complete the scene perfectly.