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.

A chinese street in Jakarta

We often see modular buildings with European architecture, but the world is a much bigger place and offers many other forms of beauty. Kosmas Santosa from Jakarta decided to take matters into his own hands and built three modular buildings with Indonesian/Chinese architecture. The diorama is comprised of a tea house, a pharmacy and a residential building which are all inspired by actual locations. Despite the fact that these inspiring buildings look ruined, Kosmas took a nostalgic step and reanimated the street as a lively place.

You can find more detailed pictures on Kosmas’s own website. He built this diorama as part of a Bhinneka LUG display and even made a few trucks and carts to live up the scene.

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This LEGO gallery is a work of art

This fantastic minifig scale art gallery is a creation by Tyler Sky and his wife Frances. The gallery includes both LEGO depictions of actual works of art and some new creations by the builders themselves. Atop the largest floor, you can see a LEGO version of Four Boats Stranded and inside the large window the obvious red square is part of Composition II in Red, Blue and Yellow. The Orca on display in the foreground is definitely one of my favourite parts of this build.

The inside of Tyler’s art gallery is worth taking a virtual stroll through. See if you can spot the white croissants used as an internal architectural feature. Don’t miss the tribute to Bob Ross on the first floor balcony; he is standing painting happy little trees.

There goes the neighborhood

Have you ever seen abject poverty up close, where it lives? The brain almost doesn’t want to accept it: you literally cannot believe it. People can’t possibly live like this: but they do. And ironically, there is a kind of beauty there: colors that a designer would never choose, patterns that leave the eye wanting. The humanity of it cannot be contained. Shannon Sproule perfectly captures the heartbreaking chaos and vitality of economics gone horribly wrong in this wonderful vignette. And the presentation, spoofing the classist bias of the LEGO Architecture line, really hits home. Don’t expect to see this set in the next catalog.

Kid’s room lovingly recreated in LEGO

Kelvin Low takes a break from his usual fun mecha models to bring us a beautiful rendition of a kid’s playroom.

The recreation of the painted wall is obviously charming, but I love the sense of clutter and the feeling that this room is genuinely lived-in. Too often LEGO scenes like this can be a bit stark, lacking life, and looking like showhouse photos. This room feels “real” and I can just imagine kids having a great time playing in it.

Badshahi Mosque built with LEGO bricks

Recreating an actual building is often challenging with LEGO bricks and it becomes even harder when you need to build curved surfaces. It seems that John Snyder didn’t find the perfect solution to form the onion domes of Badshahi Mosque in Lahore, Pakistan. Nevertheless, he came up with an amazing oriental diorama! He has applied very subtle touches decorating the architectural piece and captured the overall appereance of the mosque very well. Careful tiling, delicate minarets and clear photography make the model appear less complicated than it really is. But it must have been a very hard build. Good job John!

Santa Maria del Fiore in microscale

Once, when I was in Italy, I had a chance to visit one of the cathedrals — and was rendered speechless. The massive scale and timeless beauty of these historic works of art is awesome. Each cathedral has its own history and architectural details, and the Santa Maria del Fiore (or Il Duomo, if you prefer) in Florence is a stunning example.

While the original took centuries to complete, Legorevival Lrevival‘s version is small, compact, and considerably easier to construct. He’s given this beautiful landmark the LEGO Architecture treatment, and it’s totally one I’d love to buy someday. It’s instantly recognizable.

Tiny brick-built brownstone neighborhood welcomes you home

Looking for a new place? Barton Thinks has the perfect neighborhood for you. These microscale brownstone homes are just adorable. The build is full of great detail, which can be tricky when you’re working in microscale. The easily recognizable brownstone architecture caught my eye, but check out that wonderful stoplight!

I love the roof and bay windows the building has, all packed into a small footprint. Each home sits on just 3 by 6 studs, making the whole module just 16 by 16 studs.

Giant 4 foot tall LEGO model of Nebraska state capitol

I’ve been watching John Tooker slowly construct his replica of the Nebraska state capitol for several years, and the final building is incredibly impressive. The real Nebraska capitol is the tallest of the United States’ 50 state capitol buildings, and John’s model beautifully captures the magnificent art-deco spire which towers over the surrounding plains. Take a look at the tiny people on the steps to get a sense of tower’s vast scale.

The austere beauty of pure geometry

Although LEGO bricks and plates are regular symmetrical figures, rarely do we come across creations based on perfect geometry. Hanging Gardens by Letranger Absurde is a modest architectural masterpiece built around harmony and symmetry. Because of the fact that the model was photographed at 45 degrees angle and all the surfaces are carefully tiled, it looks totally like a level from the Monument Valley video game. Bonus points are for falling water: the building technique is brilliant, especially the use of Mixels tooth bricks as water foam.

LEGO Vianen City Hall is steeped in history

The City Hall of Vianen sits within the small historical city of Vianen in the province Utrecht in the Netherlands. Sebastian Arts has managed to capture so many details of this beautiful old building that we simply had to share it. The ancient stonework is very well done and the whole design is accurate to the actual building in Vianen, right down to the position of the bench.

The turret at the rear of the hall is equally impressive, the builder’s use of different bricks and earthy tones has really brought the old stonework to life in LEGO. The windows are cleverly crafted from fences rotated 90°. The rear view also show a nice contrast between the old and new buildings side by side.

Leipzig Opera House in LEGO bricks

The opera house in Leipzig is the third oldest functional venue in Europe, and it also happens to be a simple yet beautiful building. LEGO enthusiast Invader01Y is attracted by the delicate lines of the house and decided to recreate it with 11.804 LEGO bricks. The large model features a very smooth surface while successfully capturing all the fine details. It took nearly three years for Invader01Y to build this model with actual LEGO bricks, and he shared a digital render of the opera house early in the project. The prolonged dedication is also worth a note!

Konnichiwa from a modern Japanese home

Japanese style of building are a thing of wonder. I love their style and proper functionality — not a single bit of space is wasted, and this build by Gzu is a perfect example of this.

You can see the attention the builder has paid to all the details, like the little sandals at the door, and admire the functional sliding doors, smart toilet, tea table, small bed, and even the tiny bath. But if you choose, you can always go for something bigger:

So, who is ready for a vacation to Japan?