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.

Cleveland’s Harkness Chapel recreated in LEGO

Ohio builder Zachary Lewis is known for creating incredibly detailed and accurate LEGO models of real-life buildings, such as the suburban house we highlighted last fall. His most recent build, the interior of Cleveland’s Florence Harkness Memorial Chapel, is a prime example. Zachary has perfectly captured this historic landmark’s neo-Gothic interior. I can’t get over the beautiful wood paneling surrounding the stage. And of course, everything from the wooden rafters down to the carpet on the floor is spot on. Don’t believe me? Check out photos of the actual building on Flickr and see for yourself.

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I love livin’ in the city

I’ve got nothing against the classic brick and brownstone facades of yesteryear. But I am a sucker for the hyper-modern apartment buildings that are springing up in urban areas all across America. This model by lisqr hits all the right notes: assymetrical design, complex vertical plane, and surprising color choices. Each minifig-scale balcony is individually detailed, firmly linking the form to a human cityscape. Plus, cats. Just one question: how much is the rent?

Rooftop chase across an Eastern marketplace

Maarten W‘s diorama brings us a fabulous slice of Middle Eastern market life, with an added dash of adventure. There’s a great sense of activity and the hustle and bustle of commerce at the base, and then an exciting rooftop chase going on above. I wonder what treasure the stolen map will lead our intrepid thief to discover?

That wall behind the snake charmer is a lovely detail and there’s just enough texture on the fortifications to avoid “big tan wall” syndrome. This is the latest in the recent spate of Middle Eastern-themed creations we’ve covered, including this beautiful mosque, also built by Maarten. I hope this trend continues.

Amazing LEGO Arc de Triomphe in French tricolor

The famous monument Arc de Triomphe de l’Étoile stands in Paris as an iconic memorial to French soldiers, and LEGO builder Brian Yu has recreated it splendidly in brick, awash in the French tricolor. Brian’s model makes great use of greebling and the undersides of basic plates to mimic the relief sculpting on the arch, and the result beautifully tricks the eye into seeing finely sculpted details.

Still planning your vacation? Go visit the Riviera!

Inspired by the cover of a book about a South European town, Andrew Tate created this very pearl of Mediterranean architecture. A mixture of European and Oriental elements and colors, a beautifully designed wedding shop and a careful cast of minifigures deserve the highest mark. With some minor changes one could even imagine this diorama as part of LEGO’s modular building series, providing city center residents with a view of the bay and a small yet neat quay.

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Usonian architecture in LEGO: The Dorothy H. Turkel House

We have seen a few Frank Lloyd Wright buildings in microscale among the LEGO Architecture series, but this time we have a minifigure scale representation of a Usonian house. Michele must have worked very hard to create this magnificent diorama. The house itself perfectly matches the original building, and there’s even a party going on! We all love parties here at The Brothers Brick! Make sure you check out close-up photographs as there are endless details. It’s also worth paying attention to the vegetation — each part of the diorama features a different kind of plant.

Her Turkel House album on Flickr gives a good insight on building large models. She has shared the full building process starting from the foundation of the house through final decoration.

Blue Mosque

Blue Mosque has been among the most important landmarks in Istanbul ever since it was built in the 17th century. Turkish builder Artizan skillfully captures the details of the mosque in microscale. The mosque’s many domes and semi-domes are smoothly crafted into LEGO form. The balconies and spires on the minarets are also perfectly represented.

Artizan also built the Hagia Sophia and you can see both buildings side by side on his Flickr stream. Also check out his digital rendering of the Ortaköy Mosque!

Fortress city is a desert jewel

Greg Dlx brings us a fabulous desert city, with a beautiful set of gates in an impressive wall. The color scheme catches the eye, but it’s the details evoking the architecture of the Middle East which encourage you to look closer. The sand dunes created with curved tan pieces are also a lovely touch.

When opened, the gates allow access to a nicely-built section of the city itself. I like the way the stables and other buildings follow the curve of the main wall.

After our recent post mentioning a relative lack of Islamic-style architecture in LEGO, this answers the brief. Let’s see even more of this kind of building please.

Old-school classroom is a classy build

Time for a building lesson from LegoJalex. His 80s-era school classroom model is just fantastic. From the blackboard, through the TV on a trolley, to the overhead projector and pull-down screen – the details are immediately recognisable to anyone who went to school before the digital age.

The pictures on the walls, the bags with books, and the caps hanging on chair backs – these all create the impression of a peaceful classroom about to be invaded by noisy kids fresh from the playground break. Check out some of the nice little building touches too – the horns as pieces of chalk, and the grille tiles for bunched up curtains. Beautiful stuff.

Tiny Dortmund is a German gem

Michael Jasper has built an excellent microscale model of his home town Dortmund in a similar style to the new LEGO Cities Architecture range.

Even if you’re unfamiliar with the city itself, you can admire the quality of these tiny creations. The church is a fantastic build for so few bricks, and the coal mine is a lovely little model. But the undoubted star of the show is the Borussia Dortmund stadium where clever parts use delivers an impressive level of detail. The use of “cheesegrater slopes” set at an angle to provide the stadium walls is a particular stroke of genius.

The unrivaled beauty of Islamic architecture in LEGO

I can’t believe it’s been more than six years since we’ve blogged a LEGO mosque. The intricate, geometric designs of Islamic architecture all over the the world — from Córdoba to Jakarta — would seem to lend itself particularly well to LEGO. This wonderful structure by brickbink represents a section of a mosque, with a minaret in which the muezzin is calling a diverse group of people to worship.

Only a handful in the past ten years? It seems to me like the world needs more LEGO mosques.

A vibrant Greek city on the sea

The annual Kockice Brickstory Contest attracted a lot of talented builders this year including jaapxaap’s Hanging Gardens of Babylon that we posted on Wednesday, but Simon Schweyer‘s Greek Polis is the most massive entry I’ve seen so far.

There is so much to take in! Four unique homes, an amphitheater filled with tiny citizens, a vineyard, a goat herder, a temple, an Oracle inspired by the one in Delphi, and even a man-powered war galley.

You can check out even more details on Flickr.