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.

Massive LEGO sales & deals for Black Friday & Cyber Monday 2016 [News]

Amazon.com and the LEGO Shop have a number of “Brick Friday” and Cyber Monday deals from now through the 28th. Starting at midnight Eastern at the LEGO Shop online, shipping is free regardless of order size, and orders over $99 USD / £60 qualify for a free 40223 Snowglobe.

A number of exclusive and hard-to-find sets are 20% off from the LEGO Shop as well — we’ll update this post with the specific sets once we see what’s actually available on the 25th. And scroll down for links to the LEGO Shop sales & deals for our UK and Canadian readers.

Meanwhile, Amazon.com is already having a huge LEGO sale, with sets as much as 44% off.

LEGO Star Wars sets on sale at Amazon

The fantastic LEGO Star Wars set 75150 Vader’s TIE Advanced vs. A-Wing Starfighter (read our review) is 37% or $33.20 off, at only $56.79.

See more LEGO Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales & deals

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LEGO Architecture 21034 London city skyline [Review]

LEGO’s city skylines series continues with LEGO Architecture set 21034 London, one of 3 new city skylines announced yesterday. Released at the grand opening of the new London flagship LEGO store in Leicester Square today, this set captures 5 iconic landmarks from Great Britain’s capital city and is exclusive to the new London store until wider release in Jan 2017. London skyline retails at £44.99, contains 468 parts and features the National Gallery, Nelson’s Column, Big Ben, the London Eye and Tower Bridge.

I was intrigued to know which iconic landmarks would be chosen as London is a city full of grand architecture, iconic buildings and landmarks. Indeed LEGO have already captured Buckingham Palace, Big Ben (twice) and a London Bus across the Architecture and Creator series. The 5 chosen landmarks are all well known and perhaps more historical than other potential buildings such as the Shard or the Gherkin.

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3 new city skylines grace the LEGO Architecture theme for 2017 [News]

LEGO is adding 3 more cities to its popular skylines branch of the Architecture theme. This time around we’ll get the iconic structures of Sydney, Chicago, and London. These will nicely complement last year’s New York City skyline, which we reviewed, as well as the Berlin and Venice skyline sets (all 3 of which are on sale for 25-30% off on Amazon). We’re pleased to say that we’ve got a hands-on review of the London Skyline set for you, so you won’t have to wait to see more.

21032 Sydney, 361 pieces

Check out more brand new sets:
2017 LEGO City sets
2017 LEGO Nexo Knights sets
2017 LEGO Technic sets
LEGO Technic BMW R 1200 GS set
2017 LEGO Friends sets
2017 LEGO Creator sets, part 1
2017 LEGO Creator sets, part 2
2017 LEGO Ninjago sets
2017 LEGO Batman Movie sets

Click to see the other new skyline sets

Living in a house of bricks

We’ve previously featured Terez trz‘s ongoing project of creating a LEGO version of their own home. Now we have more images to pore over — a wonderful sitting area.

Whilst the building is cool, once again it’s the quality of Terez’s photography which elevates the models out of the ordinary. The images wouldn’t look out of place in a fancy interiors catalog. Whilst the diorama doesn’t feature any people, I think it avoids sterility with the sense of lived-in clutter created by touches like the pile of mail by the door and the organic messiness of the pot plants.

A bike shop perfect for a modular building layout

Minifigs residing in a city of LEGO modular buildings can purchase and repair their bicycles at this custom modular bike shop built by Łukasz Libuszewski. Interesting colors and unusual use of elements define the series as much as the modular standard, and there is no shortage of this throughout the build.

Łukasz added an elevator to his bike shop modular, and looking in the center column with gear racks on either side and a janitor standing slightly elevated, it appears to be functional.

View more shots of Łukasz’s building on Flickr.

Paris skyline in microscale

Cecilie Fritzvold has once again been inspired to create a microscale city skyline in the style of the skyline sets within the LEGO Architecture theme. LEGO released 21028 New York City, 21027 Berlin and 21026 Venice as part of a trio of new city skyline sets earlier this year. Cecilie has chosen the beautiful French capital, Paris, a city full of impressive architecture and grandiose buildings. Cecile’s build includes (from left to right) Arc de Triomphe, Tour Eiffel, Dômes des Invalides, Notre-Dame, and Colonne de Juillet (Place de la Bastille). The small strips of transparent blue on each side represent the River Seine.

Notre-Dame is my own favourite in this build — I think that the combination of ingenious parts use and the textured stonework for such a small build are fantastic. If you like this type of build, you will also enjoy Cecilie’s Tokyo skyline build that we blogged a couple of months ago and Michael Jasper’s microscale model of Dortmund.

A handy way to build the Eiffel Tower

The official LEGO Eiffel Tower 10181 set is one of the largest sets released, with 3428 parts. For those with less room for such a monster set or fewer pennies to afford such a sizeable price-tag, have a look at LegoJale‘s latest creation, which users a single part depicting the Eiffel Tower: A minifig hand. This microscale build manages to capture the essence of the Eiffel Tower, the skyline in the background, and the fountains in the foreground (as per the image that the build is based upon) with just a handful of parts.

The set-up for this shot shows how distancing parts of the build can give a very good foreground and background feel to the final shot without requiring any scaling. I always enjoy seeing set-up shots and this one is great because there is no fancy equipment — just LEGO, a book, and a camera.

Come warm yourself by the LEGO fire

It’s a bit to early for roasting chestnuts, though I suppose you could go for roasting pumpkin seeds near the fire. Heikki Mattila has given us this glorious little fireplace, complete with a stand for wood and kindling. The fireplace itself is lit with LEDs, which adds a very nice touch to the presentation. I particularly like the spindly tree off to the left, though I daresay it looks like it should be a bit further away from the heat source.

Every window tells a story

There aren’t many things more brutal or impersonal than a 41-story public housing tower. Seen from afar, they almost look like prisons from the future. Sau Mau Ping was one of the first tower projects in the Hong Kong area. Construction began in the 60s, and even though most of the buildings have been torn down, the towers still house over 38,000 people. But this LEGO model inspired by the towers from Yan and Vincent is not brutal or impersonal at all. Each window decoration offers a glimpse into the personality of the person who calls this place home. And the brightly colored lamps in the courtyard are a reminder that this is a place of history and culture, not a prison. Being made of concrete blocks doesn’t prevent a house from becoming a home.

This rendition might not be 41 stories like the real towers, but it is definitely a massive model that is interesting from many different perspectives. I challenge you to find two windows the same.

Walk through time with a LEGO history of Roskilde Cathedral

I am fascinated by how buildings change through time. It’s so interesting to see how they are built, rebuilt, and modified as the needs of a community change. Lasse Vestergård has built this evolution of Roskilde Cathedral, a beautiful cathredral in Denmark. It serves as the final resting place for Danish royalty, and has been on the UNESCO World Heritage Site list since 1995.

Lasse has provided a ton of history and backstory for each iteration of the Catherdral, starting with the Danish King Harald Bluetooth in 980 CE all the way up to 2016. I invite you to view each build and read its history!

Click here to take a walk through time

Even LEGO cars need a tune up from time to time

In addition to his LEGO-fied versions of the il Duomo di Milano, the mosque of Al-Zaytuna in Tunis, and the busy streets of Amsterdam, the LEGO architectural-wizard, brickbink is adding a humble mechanic’s garage. That’s right, a garage. And it is spectacular!

The simple design of the building, roof, and the two styles of lettering on the facade are perfect. Brickbink also filled the interior of his building with mechanic goodies including various tools, car parts, jacks, toolboxes, and even a tiny fire extinguisher. And the placement of all these items makes the garage look truly authentic. Perhaps the only thing missing is a few oil spots on the floor.

Time to catch some LEGO piggies!

It’s that time of the year again, time for the annual New England Pig Scramble! I always thought this was something only done in the movies, but according to builder Dunedain98, each year at the Deerfield Fair in New Hampshire, people toss their names into a hat and five lucky winners are chosen to try to wrangle a pig. Sounds fun… right?

Well, maybe not — chasing a pig around doesn’t exactly sound like my kind of fun, but I do appreciate Dunedain’s lovely LEGO build highlighting this event (or is it a sport?). The pig barn is really nicely designed and I love the little details like the power lines, tiny trash can, and the lush grassy field.