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.
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.
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.
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.
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…
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.
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!
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.
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
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.
TBB INTERVIEWS & INSTRUCTIONS: Buildable droids and a Star Wars interview! What a time to be alive.
Read more LEGO news from around the web
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.
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.