I’d never seen Canada’s Library of Parliament before encountering Erwin te Kortschot‘s beautiful LEGO version, and I was amazed by its stunning Victorian High Gothic architecture shaped as a round library. A better structure to hold an nation’s library could hardly be imagined, as the cumulative knowledge of a people ought to be enshrined in a building which inspires awe. Erwin’s brick-built version is just as lovely as the original, despite the difficult circular design.
This idyllic Chinese building by qian yj radiates peace and tranquility. The dark grey bricks and the painted dark red wooden supports are popular among this style of architecture along with the blank white walls. This picture-perfect setting is definitely worth posing for a shot.
“Elaborate” and “enchanting.” As simply as that, these two words define Japanese culture for me. Surprisingly, this pair of words perfectly suits these two LEGO creations below.
Andrew JN charms us with this tiny diorama. It is hardly bigger than a medium Creator set, but take your time to choose what exactly you’re going to behold first: an astonishing roof, some charming usage of color in trees or river water calmly flowing by.
Gzu Bricks presents us another tiny vignette featuring one of the giant bonshō bells. I especially love that both creations are of the same concept — Japanese architecture surrounded by Japanese flora — but look how different building techniques are! Gzu Bricks’ build might look a little simpler, but I can’t imagine anything that could make it more complete.
A great LEGO build isn’t always about the best part usage, or the most amazing technique; sometimes, it comes down to great presentation.
These builds from Anders Löfgren are a great example of presentation and lighting and how it just makes the photo. I didn’t realize this was LEGO, at first. I thought it was just a lovely picture of a doorway with a play on light and dark. The build is simple, and the photograph does an excellent job of tricking you into seeing something other than LEGO.
Fifteen years ago today, the United States was attacked: one plane crashed in Pennsylvania, one plane was crashed into the Pentagon, and two planes attacked the World Trade Center in New York City. The attacks took nearly 3,000 lives and forever changed the identify of a nation and the course of the world.
Rocco Buttliere gives us this beautiful LEGO build of One World Trade Center and the 9/11 Memorial, which are situated on the site where the Twin Towers once stood. We invite you to reflect on how the world has changed in the last 15 years and take a moment of silence today in remembrance.
One of my favorite LEGO Architecture sets of the last few years have been the city skyline series, including 21028 New York City. LEGO architect Spencer_R specializes in 1/650 scale models of landmarks, including numerous skyscrapers. Spencer says he’d already built several of the buildings in the set, so he built the Flatiron building and Statue of Liberty, and then put all of them on a large black base. This much larger scale enables Spencer to include much more detail than the minuscule buildings in the official set, and the higher-resolution photo on Flickr — as well as Spencer’s photostream as a whole — is well worth a closer look.
Reader Berthil van Beek tells us that he’s been playing squash for more than 30 years, the most recent 5 years at a squash gym in Maastricht, the Netherlands. After starting to build again with LEGO a few years ago, Berthil decided to recreate the the gym and the lovely building that it’s housed in. Built from 11,000 LEGO bricks, Berthil tells us that he spent about 400 hours designing and building this highly detailed LEGO model — a creation that celebrates the place full of “fun and wonderful people.”
The LEGO version of the Squash Centrum includes all the details of the real thing, from solar panels and a little garden on the roof to men’s and women’s locker rooms (complete with sauna) and the glass-enclosed squash court itself. Whether you love squash or not, this is an incredibly detailed creation worth poring over for lots of fun little scenes.
See more photos of this amazingly detailed building
Summer 2016 sees two additions to the LEGO Architecture range — Washington DC’s Capitol Building and London’s Buckingham Palace. Here’s the Brothers Brick’s look at LEGO’s version of a very rich old lady’s house…
Click here to read our verdict on this new set
LEGO creations always have a story. Sometimes, when we find things online, the builder gives a very brief story; sometimes, we find something amazing, and do an interview so we can bring you a bigger story. And then sometimes, like this beautiful Eiffel Tower by Rafal Piasek, the builder gives us the whole story and takes us on a journey.
As I wrote in introducing ArzLan’s LEGO Petra, I spent the summer of 1994 on an archaeological dig in Jordan, and visited Petra for one memorable weekend. Both Petra and Jordan as a whole remain one of the highlights of my life. Letranger Absurde has built a lovely microscale version of Al-Khazneh, the “Treasury” (actually an empty tomb), that greets each visitor to Petra as they emerge from the winding gorge called the Siq.
My one critique of this excellent LEGO model is that the sandstone geology of Petra is nearly as spectacular as the many structures carved into the rock face. Although building a detailed tomb using varying shades of tan and red might not have been achievable, plain brown LEGO for the surrounding rocks seems like a lost opportunity.
Al-Khazneh is, of course best known as the entrance to the fictional, trap-filled obstacle course leading to the Holy Grail in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. The facade is the most spectacular thing about the tomb — the interior is just an empty square chamber, though the acoustics are great for singing.
I suppose derjoe has just created another public space like a museum, library or cafe. But this is the first time that I’ve seen public toilets used as the theme for a LEGO ‘playset’. The builder has cleverly captured some of the common findings in a male public toilet block, such as urinals (and some pee ewwww), wash basin, toilet brushes, toilet rolls, and cisterns complete with their seats left up!
The playset is hinged and opens out to allow the paper towel dispenser and waste bin to be revealed. Thankfully the stalls all have their door closed in this view and the brown frog is not visible, although I find the fact that the toilet paper is placed the wrong way much more upsetting.
Overall, a quirky, fun build and I really like the colour scheme used, although it does not reflect the average public toilet here here in the UK. Also, for us females, a long queue of minifigures patiently waiting while the male toilets are empty would seem about right.
Paul Wellington‘s latest microscale building uses the still relatively new Mixel joint piece to create a fabulous pattern effect. Sometimes I think repeated elements like this can be overdone in microscale buildings — cool techniques but failing to capture the feel of real world architecture. That’s not the case here. I could totally see Paul’s building sitting downtown in any modern city.
Of course, Paul doesn’t need this building to show up in your city. He’s got a LEGO one all of his own that he’s been adding to over time. I’d heartily recommend a visit to his photostream for lots of pictures of his brick-built metropolis — current piece count sitting at around 19,000 parts!
