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.

Impressive LEGO Palace of Westminster built from 50,000 bricks

Anyone who has seen LEGO’s beautiful set 10253 Big Ben was no doubt impressed but might have wondered how many sets you would have to get to build the entire Palace of Westminster. Well, Jamie Douglas not only wondered that himself, but actually discovered the answer to be eleven. Yes, eleven!

That’s one Big Ben set used for Elizabeth Tower and the other 10 used to build the Victoria Tower, the House of Lords, St Stephens Hall, and all the various libraries and committee rooms in between. Plus a lot of Bricklink orders for all the extra pieces, including the roof of the beautifully angled Westminster Hall and the wonderfully decorated Parliament Square – and he did all that in just five months!

Jamie’s giant and detailed model was built exclusively for the UK event Bricktastic, taking center stage for the July 2017 show. With a footprint of 5.5 x 3 feet (1.7 x 1 metres) not a single detail of this 19th-century architectural masterpiece has been left out (I checked for myself on Google Earth). Constructed from over 50,000 bricks, Jamie confesses to having spent 30 hours planning it before even starting the epic 234-hour build. You can see more pictures on Jamie’s Flickr stream.

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Your dream apartment is just a few bricks away

Heikki Mattila continues to inspire with another brilliant interior, this time with an emphasis on mirrors. These aren’t official LEGO pieces, but are instead a reflective material that has been cut to size. Even if you’re a purist, you can probably agree that they add a nice dimension to the build that otherwise would not have existed.

As for the actual LEGO parts, this is a great example of how a few builds, combined with great lighting and photography, can create an amazing scene. The two little oddities here are the picture frame (which could have been a simple wooden affair) and the gold helmet visors being used as bowls.

Iconic buildings from the heart of Malaysia

When LEGO released their new Skyline Architecture series, it was inevitable that we started seeing LEGO builders take the diminutive buildings to heart and begin creating skylines closer to their own homeland that LEGO missed in their official sets. This build of three iconic buildings in Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia expresses the love that Ng Wen Yeh has for his country. These are great, iconic buildings that highlight a spectacular, multicultural and multi-racial city.

The left-most building, Sultan Abdul Samad Building was built in the 19th century and today houses the Information, Communications and Culture ministry. If we step back in time, it was once the home to various key departments during the British administration.

In the middle we have the Petronas Towers, sometimes referred to as the Twin Towers of Malaysia, which was once the tallest buildings in the world from 1998 until 2004.

On the far right, we have the 7th tallest communications tower in the world, simply named the KL Tower which broadcasts free to air radio and TV channels.

But where are Princess Ida & the Totem?

Ok, I have to admit when I first saw this I immediately thought it was supposed to be from Monument Valley, the addicting puzzle game from ustwo. But alas, Bangoo H was actually building the Hanging Gardens of Babylon – one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. However, my misinterpretation of the source material most certainly did not take away from the fact that this is a serene little model that is wonderfully built.

The cascading water, terraces and steps all come together to perfectly represent some of the funnest levels of the…oh sorry…I mean, the ancient Babylonians’ amazing feat of engineering.

I betcha if you spun the base those two staircases would line-up perfectly, and a few stacked 1×1 yellow bricks couldn’t hurt either…

A medieval construction site that will go down in history

Often LEGO creations are simplified, cartoony versions of what they represent, with some details skipped for a better overall effect. Hardly so in this medieval construction site by Jonas Kramm. There are more realistic details here than I could count, but I should point out the wooden supports and the amazing stone brick construction. Most importantly, the scene feels real. The composition and minifig action really make you feel like you are back in time.

Nine chapels of St. Basil’s Cathedral are a marvelous example of LEGO microscale architecture

Markus Rollbühler is a LEGO product designer based in Billund, Denmark. Despite spending his weekdays working with LEGO pieces, Markus challenges himself to build microscale versions of the world’s most famous cathedrals in his spare time. His very special series of architectural masterpieces featuring Frauenkirche Dresden and Santa Maria della Salute is now joined by a marvelous copy of St. Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow, Russia.

St. Basil’s Cathedral is famous for its nine chapels of vibrant colors. Markus did an amazing job recreating each of them in a unique building style using bricks, hoses, slopes, and tiles of over a dozen different colors. However, the most genius trick of the build is nine sonic screwdrivers right from Doctor Who sets used as crosses on top of the chapels.

And, of course, the cathedral is totally worth checking out from all angles — make sure you visit Markus’ photosream for more high-res pictures!

A place to observe the stars

Unfortunately, Madrid now suffers from too much light pollution to be a good spot for observing the stars and planets. The Real Observatorio de Madrid remains the seat of the Spanish National Astronomical Observatory and houses historic scientific equipment, including a 25-foot reflecting telescope from the 18th Century. Víctor M. Nouvilas has built a fantastic LEGO version of the Observatory in the style of LEGO’s own Architecture theme. Victor has captured the neoclassical style of the building with its clean lines and, in particular, the dramatic columns of the main entrance and the circular temple-like dome on top.

An elegant 1930s scene complete with tailor shop and tarot readings

There is a lot going on in this modular-style street scene by Agata Pakita. Apparently we are back in the 1930s, judging by the outfits and car on show. The lower floors of the buildings house an arts and crafts store, a tailor, and a mysterious woman who reads tarot cards and predicts your fate. The colourful architecture is a lovely combination of LEGO’s more muted palette of medium dark flesh, light grey, dark red, and tan. I love the curvaceous greenhouse on the roof of the building, where an older lady and her cat relax away from the bustling street.

See more photos of this beautiful modular building

TBB Weekly Brick Report: LEGO news roundup for April 9, 2017 [News]

The Brothers Brick gives you the best of LEGO news and reviews. This is our Weekly Brick Report for the second week of April 2017.

TBB NEWS & REVIEWS: What a week for news! We learned about four new sets and reviewed three other sets for your LEGO enjoyment.

Review of LEGO 71018 Collectible Minifigures Series 17 – A rocket ship, corn on the cob and a mystery fig, oh my! Your first look at Series 17 is here.
Star Wars Celebration exclusive set revealed: Detention Block Rescue – LEGO has revealed an exclusive set, Detention Block Rescue, which will be available for purchase by some lucky attendees at the annual Star Wars Celebration next week in Orlando, Florida.
LEGO Rebrick reveals upcoming sets from The LEGO Ninjago Movie – Take a peek at a nifty red mecha and an awesome green dragon set, courtesy of LEGO Rebrick.
Review of LEGO Architecture 21035 Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum – Frank Lloyd Wright’s museum gets a second go at the LEGO Architecture line, but is it better than the first?
Review of LEGO Technic 40th Anniversary Car Chassis – To celebrate 40 years of Technic sets, LEGO created up-to-date instructions for the legendary 8860 Car Chassis set from 1980.
Review of LEGO Star Wars 75172 Y-wing Starfighter from Rogue One – This is the fifth minifig-scale Y-wing that LEGO has released since 1999 and the largest at 691 pieces.
Amazon Sales include deals on Batman, Spider-Man, Frozen, and City sets – This week Amazon has discounts on many sets, but the highlights include a Frozen set at a great price, five Super Hero sets, and two LEGO City fire sets!

TBB INTERVIEWS & INSTRUCTIONS: Buildable droids and a Star Wars interview! What a time to be alive.

Instructions to build a GONK droid from Star Wars – French builder Eric Druon recreates a classic Star Wars GONK power droid and shows us how he did it.
An interview with builder Amado Canlas Pinlac – Arms outstretched as always, we chat with the builder of all things Star Wars.

Build your own city of tomorrow

Who hasn’t taken LEGO to school in their lunchbox before? Simon Liu received a cool Build your city of Tomorrow lunchbox as part of LEGO Canada’s celebration of Canada’s 150th birthday. Simon was then inspired to build his futuristic version of Toronto inside the lunchbox! I love that future microscale Toronto features plenty of greenery throughout the city, including on the roofs of skyscrapers, but the highlight for me is the little tube transportation system. However, I don’t know how much luck Simon’s going to have transporting his miniature city in the lunchbox without losing the top of the CN Tower.

LEGO Architecture 21035 Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum [Review]

As we reported from Toy Fair in February, the April 2017 LEGO Architecture releases include a redesigned Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (21035). The new LEGO Guggenheim includes 744 pieces and retails for $79.99.

This latest Guggenheim is a new edition of an earlier LEGO Architecture set released in 2009. We’ll compare the two versions later in this review.

Click to read the full review

12-foot-long LEGO Golden Gate Bridge is realistically suspended

Microscale architecture builder Rocco Buttliere has achieved a remarkable feat of LEGO engineering with his 40,000+ piece model of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California. Like the actual suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate strait, Rocco’s beautiful and highly detailed LEGO rendition crosses its 6 foot long central span suspended by a combination of red string, Technic bushings, LEGO flexible hoses, and non-LEGO metal wire.

Rocco’s LEGO model even includes the buildings and landscaping of the Presidio in Golden Gate Park.

See more photos of Rocco’s incredible LEGO Golden Gate Bridge on Flickr.