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.

World Architecture, Al Pacino and Stealing your brother’s LEGO: a chat with Anu Pehrson [Interview]

This week we were able to talk with Anu Pehrson about her beautiful architectural builds, as well as many other aspects of the hobby. Anu lives in Seattle with her husband David and volunteers a lot of time to help make many different behind-the-scenes aspects of BrickCon run smoothly. She is a very easy person to talk to. If you ever get the chance, spend some time with her. You will be well-rewarded. Until then, however, this interview will have to do! Let’s dive in and explore the mind of a builder.

TBB: Can you give our readers some background on yourself? What is it about LEGO that draws you to it?

Anu: I’m from India. Growing up, there wasn’t much Lego to play with. Someone had gifted my brother a Lego systems set that I commandeered. Every time I sat down with the set, I tried to build something different. That’s how the story of building my own creations started. Then came my dark ages and in 2001 I moved to Seattle where I found Lego in abundance and rekindled my love for building. I built by myself for a few years and then accidently found the local LUG, BrickCon and the online Lego community. I see Lego as more of a medium of Art, rather than a child’s toy. Something that can be used to express one’s feelings, maybe like paint for a painter… As I build more, I use its limitations of being a finite piece of plastic to push its own limits and try to give models an organic and natural feel. Some of the newer parts definitely help in this process.

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A theatrical build from Freedom Square

Dohodno Zdanie is an architectural masterpiece with over 110 years of history, art and culture located in the heart of Rousse, Bulgaria. This imposing Neoclassical building can be found in Freedom Square, within the city centre of Rousse, and continues to hold a busy events calendar of theatre, show and art. Thomassio has done an impressive job of capturing this stylish edifice in LEGO, with a host of detailed textures. I really like the tiled roof in between those arched segmental windows, the occasional use of a dark blue tile is very effective. He utilises a good variety of parts use to add texture to this build, Technic gears, 2×2 dishes, turntables and even some handcuffs.

There is a slight Dr. Who twist to Thomassio’s version as he has replaced the winged Mercury statue that appears on the top of the original building in Russia with a Weeping Angel, just don’t catch her eye!

Spring 2017 LEGO Architecture Guggenheim & Arc de Triomphe sets revealed at Toy Fair New York 2017 [News]

We’re in New York City today covering LEGO unveiled at Toy Fair. LEGO unveiled two new LEGO Architecture sets this morning that will be released in April 2017.

New York’s own home of Modern and contemporary art, housed in a Frank Lloyd Wright building, gets a redesigned second edition with a new 21035 Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. The set will retail at $79.99, with 744 pieces.

Another Paris landmark joins the LEGO Architecture series with 21036 Arc de Triomphe, retailing at $39.99 with 386 pieces.

Don’t miss the rest of our Toy Fair 2017 coverage here on The Brothers Brick:

Famous towers in London skyline recreated at 1:650 in LEGO

Anyone who’s ever visited London will be sure to recall the city’s amazing skyline with its mixture of historic buildings and contemporary skyscrapers. Czech builder Milan Vančura has picked two of London’s more unique towers to recreate at 1:650 scale, including this model of 20 Fenchurch Street.

Nicknamed the ‘Walkie Talkie’ for its bulbous shape, 20 Fenchurch Street opened in 2015 with much less fanfare and a whole lot more criticism than its architects had imagined – including concerns about a slight solar glare problem which caused sunlight reflecting off the building to reach temperatures of over 90 degrees Celsius at street-level and melt the paint off parked cars. In fact, you’d be hard pressed to find a city resident who would describe the building as anything other than bloated and inelegant. Nevertheless, the LEGO builder has done a fantastic job recreating the Walkie Talkie’s distinctive design in LEGO form, even including the sky garden which occupies the building’s top floors.

Milan also built one of London’s more eye-catching (and much less controversial) skyscrapers, the Gherkin located at 30 St. Mary Axe.

The builder does a nice job using 1×2 plates to capture the swirling architecture of the Gherkin. Impressively, the LEGO model is completely hollow with only a central pillar and several horizontal beams to support the structure. Milan tells us both models are part of a project to build a microcity exhibit by Czech LUG Kostky. We’ll certainly be keeping an eye out for more great additions and for the entire exhibit once it’s finished.

LEGO interior prompts nostalgia for Modernism

Clean brickwork and good macro photography make this modernist LEGO interior by Brick Of Infamy really stand out. There’s a lot here to love — from the excellent giant angle-poise lamp, the smart-looking chair, through to the way the desk is integrated into the wonderful bookcase. And last, but not least, don’t overlook the clever use of grey toothed monorail tracks to lend texture to the background wall. This is a deceptively simple-looking scene, which probably took much longer to build than you think!

A big gulp in little China

This lovely modular bar, created by Chinese builder Tony Toy, has a great deal of colour and style. Tony manages to pull the dark blue, red, green and gold together into an attractive modular-style building with some lovely architectural details. I especially like the red and orange lanterns hanging on the post outside the front of the building. The little white bridge over a pond is a nice touch and love the effect created by using transparent plates overlying green plates for the water.

Interestingly, it seems that Tony designed his creation digitally first using the free Lego Digital Designer application and then built it in ‘the brick’.

Brick built replica of the Disney LEGO Shanghai Store

The Disney LEGO store in Shanghai opened its doors to the public in May 2016. If you can’t visit it in person, there’s no excuse for you to not enjoy the next best thing: this brick built version. Builder Qian YJ took about 3 weeks to build this and its current on display on the 2nd floor of the very same LEGO store in Disney Shanghai!

Preserving history, blending old and new

This restaurant in Beijing, China by Qian YJ shows how real life can be imitated and brought to life by the magic of LEGO bricks. The exquisite outdoor detailing of the curves of the roof and color scheme shows clear attention to detail during the build process. The the red lanterns hanging remind us how little details can bring out life in architectural builds.

The inside the restaurant is a contrast to the exterior with modern facilities to feature all the creature comforts that we so much are used to these days. What a way to preserve our past and merge it with today’s needs, mixing both form and fucntion.

First look at the new 2017 LEGO sets from Nuremberg Toy Fair [News]

Germany’s Nuremberg Toy Fair is the largest Toy Fair in the world, and where toy manufacturers go to show off their new products to potential buyers. As in previous years, LEGO has a large presence with a lot of new sets. Thanks to our friends at Promobricks, we’re able to bring you the first look at some of what LEGO has planned for the rest of the year, including Architecture, Creator, Technic, City and more. In a few weeks we’ll be covering the New York Toy Fair and bringing you close-up, hands-on coverage of these new sets and more.

LEGO Architecture 2017

Don’t miss other upcoming LEGO sets we’ve announced, including:
Summer wave of The LEGO Batman Movie sets
21035 Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
Marvel & DC Superheroes LEGO Brick Headz
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 LEGO sets

Click to see the rest of the new sets

Architect of style

This architectural gem by o0ger depicts a cultural center you can catch a performace by an indie band or play some giant chess. One of its most captivating features is the clever use of the wing plate for the roof. The builder even took advantage of the cutout in the center of the wing to add a dormer.

TBB Weekly Brick Report: LEGO news roundup for January 28, 2017 [News]

The Brothers Brick publishes so many stories that we’re giving you the best of LEGO news and reviews. This is our Weekly Brick Report for the last week of January 2017.

TBB NEWS: New LEGO! Fake LEGO! Cheap LEGO! What a week to be alive.

Brick Headz new LEGO line revealed! – Check out the first official images of LEGO’s new Marvel & DC Superheroes Brick Headz. People might think they are too square, but we think they are right on every angle.
First look at the new LEGO Architecture Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum – Here’s your first look at Manhattan’s striking Guggenheim art museum designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.
Can you tell which LEGO minifig is real and which is fake? – In BBC interview, a LEGO manager in Asia has a hard time telling the difference. What do you think of fake LEGO?
Amazon has some great LEGO sales going on, including Star Wars – TBB always has your back when finding LEGO sales, and this week Amazon had a few worth mentioning.

TBB INSTRUCTIONS & INTERVIWS: We have some cool things to build and techniques to learn from two incredible builders.

How to build Peppermint Butler from Adventure Time – TBB’s own Iain Heath shows off his character design to go with the new LEGO Ideas Adventure Time set.
Build your own working LEGO Nerf gun – Following up on their previous LEGO Nerf gun, YouTuber AstonishingStudios shows how to construct a simple working LEGO Nerf blaster.
Martin Redfern tells us how Wacky Races and LEGO collided – Read our interview with British builder Martin Redfern about his Wacky Races creations.
The Retro-future is bright: a chat with French builder Vincent Gachod – We pick the brains of this father of two and master of the brick.

OTHER NEWS: There was a massive amount of LEGO news from other places around the web this week. Here are a few items we noticed and thought you might enjoy.

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There are no rodents at the Osterode town hall

The original name of this creation is “Osterode Rathaus”, which means town hall, not “building containing rodents” as some might assume at first. Multilingual puns aside, this is some quality architectural work. There are many buildings like this one in town centres in my country, so I can confirm from first-hand experience that this creation is very accurate. The builder, Przemysław Czarnik, has filled this build with great textures and details, and I’m especially impressed by the simple yet effective roof.