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.

Catch Yanni or Vangelis at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus

The Odeon of Herodes Atticus is a theater on the Acropolis in Athens, which still hosts concerts, plays, and other events today. George Panteleon has recreated this ancient Greek structure in LEGO, with a central stage, a ring of seating, and the original backdrop against which both modern and ancient artists wowed the crowd.

The technique George used for the sloped seating is quite interesting, and worth a closer look. Clips connect slopes set on their side to achieve the classic bowl shape of theaters.

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Time stands still in a picturesque scene in a kampung

A kampung is the definition of a village in parts of Southeast Asia. Malaysian builder Ng Wen Yeh recreates an astounding and accurate dwelling frequently seen in rural communities, with some inspiration from life and memories of yesteryears. This beautiful build shares a typical day around a family and community life in simpler times.

Click to see more of this wonderful build

Living it up in the Land of Cleve

If you’ve ever strolled through the streets of downtown Cleveland, you’ll definitely recognize Spencer Rezkalla‘s most recent microscale creation. It’s Key Tower, the tallest building in Ohio! This build is chock full of amazing building techniques like SNOT and some weird, half-plate offsettings. Spencer even included the Marriott and Society for Savings buildings, making his tiny city block match the original one perfectly.

If you happen to be within driving distance of “The Land,” you can see Spencer’s creation in person at the Great Lakes Science Center’s Build it! exhibit going on right now. You’ll also see other amazing LEGO creations that we’ve featured in the past such as Tyler Halliwell’s Monkey King, Adrian Drake’s life-sized Bender and Matt De Lanoy’s Springfield layout, just to name a few.

Fancy going Dutch at this pizza house?

The canal houses of Amsterdam are part of the United Nations World Heritage and are famous for their tall, slim stature and ornate façades and stylised gables. While Barrie Crossan has not given his building much of a gable, he has taken inspiration from those famous Dutch canal houses when designing his five-storey LEGO pizza house. If you look closely you will see some lovely decorative details on the façade and the back stairs on the bottom left, leading directly to the restaurant’s busy kitchen.

While the outside is attractive, it’s worth taking a look inside where Barry has made an effort to create a hugely detailed interior. The apartment on the upper floors has an impressive sitting room with a dining area behind the couch. The furniture is certainly not the average LEGO table and chairs: it looks like it has been supplied by an exclusive designer, with a price tag to match.

Take a closer look inside

An Octan petrol station with the best advertising

If I had to choose someone to design my petrol station, Filius Rucilo would surely be at the top of the list. The station and its accompanying giant promotional Octan minifig are great, but what sets the build apart from similar ones is that it is part of a larger scene. While the colours of the “Taxizentrale” (taxi office) are not all that eye-popping, its architectural design is simply amazing.

A beach scene that will float your boat

There’s a gentle wave lapping at the shore as you gaze out over the panoramic deep blue ocean. Swedish builder Magnus has chosen to maximise the view by building his beach house on stilts. Although the focus of the build is the beach house, my own favourite part is the use of the minifigure lifeguard float as a dingy sitting by the dock. The palm tree is also a nice touch, with clever use of the 4-leaf plant part to bring a touch of tropical flora to the scene.

I hope those foundations are deep, as we all know what happened to the man who built his house upon the sand…

An Ottoman dream in green and gold

The Brothers Brick’s own Patrick Massey has created this beautiful mosque after a short hiatus from LEGO master building. He shared some insider tricks he implemented to save time and bricks, and the most interesting is that he created the model purely for photographing. In other words, there is no back to this incredible build! Patrick has been reading a book about Ottoman history called Osman’s Dream, which contains a lot of descriptions of the various styles of Ottoman architecture. Petrea Central Mosque hasn’t been modeled on any particular mosque, but it is very reminiscent of the Imperial Ottoman style of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

A media empire under one LEGO roof

Manhattan bustles with the edifices of American enterprise, towering symbols of capitalism whose many styles span New York City’s distinct historical periods. Past, present, and future often lie within the same block, Art Deco and Modern architecture mingling to reflect the city’s status as a permanent symbol of capitalism. One building which exemplifies this mix of old and new is the Hearst Tower, painstakingly recreated here in LEGO form by Daniel Stoffler.

Built for and named after the famous American publisher William Randolph Hearst, the building claims a spot as the headquarters for one of the world’s largest media corporations, Hearst Communications, with ownership of numerous newspapers and publications including Esquire, Harper’s Bazaar and Cosmopolitan. The builder took on a daunting challenge recreating Hearst Tower, but the effort paid off with this accurate and realistically detailed model – which includes the original six-story base as well as the 40-story glass tower finished in 2006, here accomplished perfectly with triangular road sign elements. This makes for an interesting mix of architecture and an extremely impressive LEGO model.

A dream home of a coffee shop owner

What attracted me to this interesting looking mansion is its unique foundation built over a canal and seated at the edge of a small cliff. However, the striking front with full height windows overlooking the harbor is only a small part of this quaint looking home. What’s inside this build by morimoilego is just as beautiful and equally interesting, since the home has been partly converted into a quaint and cozy coffee shop.

click to see more details inside of the home

Oh, wicked, bad, naughty Zoot!

She has been setting alight to our beacon, which, I just remembered, is grail-shaped. The beacon appears to have drawn in Letranger Absurde, who has commemorated the occasion with this fantastic rendition of the Wicked Zoot Abbey from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

The scale is deceptive here; I daresay it’s microscale of a very large abbey. He’s made excellent use of SNOT techniques, using new corner tiles to give texture to the walls of the building. Take a peak at the spire in the back – it’s not often you see a string reel drum used without string, or the complete assembly!

If you haven’t already done so, check out our interview we did with him earlier this year to gain excellent insight into his creative process.

Magnificent micro-builds in glass domes

Building micro-scale brings a unique set of challenges, and finding the right piece to represent a particular feature can often be a particularly tricky task. Builder yang wang seems to have a knack for it though, as demonstrated by these two delightful domed dioramas. The first is a wonderful Romanesque revival style castle poised on a rock over the sea. The highlights for me are the tiny ship with smokestacks, the small tree made from a brown droid arm, and the spindly towers with golden ski pole spires.

Continuing the colorful creation on a rock under a dome theme, the second build is a vertical wooden town atop a rocky outcrop, complete with bell tower and windmill. I love how the builder has used the grill plates to give the small buildings windows — plus there’s that cute little car made from a rollerskate. And not only does the dome make the building inside look wonderful, it also keeps the dust off!

The World Peace Gate stands ready to welcome the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games

The World Peace Gate is a unique architectural element of Olympic Park in Seoul, South Korea, built for the 1988 Summer Olympic Games. Korean LEGO building team OliveSeon have recreated the arch in LEGO, complete with the colorful undersides of the “wings” extending outward from the top of the structure. The ground level of the park is no less detailed, with people walking through the park, enjoying the pools of water and bright pink flowers.