Jongno Tower is a unique office building in Seoul designed by architect Rafael Viñoly and completed in 1999. bigcrown85 has faithfully recreated the structure in LEGO, with extensive use of transparent blue bricks. Similarly, the outer structural elements of the building use numerous LEGO struts, demonstrating that repetition is often a key element of achieving a real-world look in a LEGO creation.
Even the trees at ground level use some interesting techniques.
The Palace of Culture and Science is the tallest building in Poland and dominates the skyline of the Polish capital, Warsaw. Łukasz Libuszewski has not only recreated the building in LEGO but has also managed to capture his creation in a beautifully atmospheric photograph.
The building’s art deco style is achieved with clean lines, grille tiles for the tall windows and some lovely detailing using texture bricks. I particularly like the seemingly simple parts used by the builder to represent the decorative masonry atop the walls, the original architect purposefully copied this from Renaissance houses and palaces of Kraków and Zamośćthat – a tile with clip and technic gear rack.
The full sets of photographs and views of the Palace of Culture and Science can be seen on Flickr.
As a minifig-scale creation, this beautiful Medieval church by Croatian builder Franko Komljenovic is relatively small, yet packs in an amazing amount of architectural detail. The variation of roof tile colors and liberal mixing of ‘old’ and ‘new’ grey bricks throughout also give the building a sense of age.
Everyone knows Paul Hetherington is no stranger to phenomenal Batman-themed dioramas. Even so, I was completely blown away by Paul’s latest Batman build. This thing is brimming with clean lines, super-sharp details, and even moving parts! The 1950s Batman logo looks like a sticker rather than LEGO brick and the dual-distanced skyline is simply inspired. The Art Deco theater gives me chills it’s so good. Even the lamp posts look like tiny pieces of art. Seriously, look at a closeup photo and tell me you’re not going to start redecorating your living room in brown, black, and gold today. I know I am!
Paul explained that he modeled his Gotham theater off of the Marbro Theater which used to stand in Chicago. He also posted a terrific video showing all of the amazing power functions. Check it out here:
Check out more photos of this amazingly-detailed build on Flickr.
Here’s proof that you don’t need a lot of colors to build an exciting and dynamic model. Simple grays and white convey the power of the water and the feat of engineering in this vignette of a Russian dam by vir-a-cocha. This model is also notable for its excellent mix of studs and tiles, conveying both industrial realism and naturalistic landscaping simultaneously. I’d love to see an Architecture set like this.
Holy bananas, Batman! monstrophonic has posted this absolutely stunning, detailed, 1966 Wayne Manor. The facade is just gorgeous, with the mottling and detail work. The landscaping is foreboding, with that sweeping angle up to the front of the house.
But wait, there’s more!
Turn it around to reveal an incredibly detailed interior, including what appears to be an awesome upgrade of the official Classic Batcave set. There are bats in the attic, teddy bears by the luxurious bed, and visitors in the formal living room. While there doesn’t appear to be a fire pole or quick means to the batcave, there’s a lovely hidden staircase to sneak around with!
Let’s discuss this batcave. It’s lit, and contains the classic batmobile (which you can find for yourself in 76052 LEGO Batman TV Series Batcave), along with another surprise guest scientist and innovator to help Batman figure out how to make the batmobile and batcopter even better.
It seems that just as LEGO release LEGO Ghostbusters 75827 Firehouse Headquarters, the upcoming Ghostbusters 2016 movie features a new team of ‘ghost busting’ chicks dispatched from a new HQ building. Thankfully Eric Duron has filled the gap with this excellent LEGO rendition of the Chinese restaurant building re-styled for the movie. I love the Chinatown styling especially since Eric has accomplished a great bit of LEGO lettering over the restaurant entrance.
The addition of some ‘ghost busting’ action on the roof is a lovely touch. I can’t explain why my favourite parts are the various air vents over the garage.
There’s a longstanding tradition — especially here on the West Coast of the U.S. — of novelty architecture that often reflects the specific purpose of the building, from teapots to root beer barrels. Andrew Tate has built a lovely bakery in the shape of a toaster, complete with slices of bread popping up. And the coffee stand next door is, naturally, in the shape of a coffee mug. Andrew makes great use of rounded bricks and slopes throughout his scene, which even includes a brick-built street.
Polish builder Rafal P has perfectly captured the largest landmark in Warsaw in microscale, and he managed to incorparate almost every little detail in this relatively small creation. The building is question is the Palace of Culture and Science and it was built in 1955 in a Stalinist manner. Today it is still the tallest building in Poland and the seventh tallest in the European Union at 237 meters (778 feet).
Rafal’s perfect photography creates an atmospheric look, but bright trees and colorful vehicles cheer up the gloomy ambience. The rounded conference room is perfectly represented despite the difficulty of building curved objects with LEGO parts. The clock tower, antenna and rooftop details are amazing. Soviet remnants in architecture have always amazed me and it’s a joy to see them built with LEGO parts.
While it will probably evoke fond memories of a certain musical movie extravaganza that turns 15 this month, this spectacular recreation of Paris’ famous Moulin Rouge music hall by
domino39 brickpirate is pretty faithful to the original building — except for a few deliberately placed incongruities! Check out the close-up shots below to see if you can spot such anomalies as a Nineteenth century Ghostbuster and hoverboard rider, to name but a few. Then marvel at all of the fine details in this diorama, from the worn down street cobbles to the many examples of brick-built signage (including some rather cleverly put-together neon lights). C’est incroyable!
Antonio Cerretti has brought a marvel of the ancient world to the brick with this stunning Roman temple and courtyard. When many of us LEGO fans saw the Roman soldiers in the collectible minifigures lines, we envisioned a scene like this with legionaries standing in formation before their eagle, perhaps just returned from a campaign in Gaul or Africa. But although I’ve seen a few impressive Roman armies so far, it’s Antonio’s masterful recreation of Roman architecture that sets this model apart. The pure white marble columns and reliefs are beautiful, and the sheer scale of the temple and courtyard is amazing — over five feet in length and featuring around 130 minifigures.
Luca Di Lazzaro and the Italian LEGO club ItLUG have built a minifig-scale model of San Giacomo square in Udine, in northeastern Italy. Featuring over a dozen buildings surrounding the square and populated by numerous minifigs, the model even includes a row of Italian supercars for the minifigs to drive away in.
The model was on display in Udine at an event last month, where the mayor of Udine posed with Luca and the LEGO version of their home town.
