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.

One for the pantheon of great microscale

Jimmy Fortel has built a beautiful microscale model of the Pantheon in Paris. The color scheme makes this look like part of the official LEGO Architecture series – and I’m sure this great little build wouldn’t be out of place in the line-up.

I really like the clean lines and deceptive simplicity of this creation, in particular the use of round 1×1 plates beneath the roof line, adding a nice touch of texture. The pillars at the main entrance are very good, and it took me a while to work out how they were built – the bottom of the pillars are round 1×1 bricks set into the model’s base. This is one of those models which surprises you with how long it can hold your attention, despite its small size.

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Charing Cross station, in Victorian times, built with LEGO bricks

Seattle builder Dave Sterling has built a LEGO version of London’s Charing Cross Railway Station as it appeared in the late-Victorian period. Dave’s creation formed part of an international collaboration entitled Around the World in 80 days which was displayed at Brickworld Chigaco. Dave has really captured the intricate details and elaborate exterior features representative of Victorian architecture.

A replica of the 70ft high Eleanor Cross was built in the forecourt of the station in 1865, and this is very nicely depicted in Dave’s build by the ornate tall ‘cross’ complete with tan microfigs, masonry bricks and arches.

Click here to learn more about this creation and hear from the builder

LEGO fan finds solace in hobby after tragedy

Brothers Brick daily covers cool fan-built models and LEGO news, but sometimes we get a chance to highlight a story from the human side of our favorite hobby. This touching story by the State Journal Register, an Illinois newspaper, shows how sometimes LEGO can be more than just a toy or a fun hobby. Sometimes it can be a means for healing.

After his wife, Tricia, died in the spring of 2011, Ray Hofman was having a hard, hard time. They had been married 39 years and, understandably, Ray felt lost.
“It was two years of long, long days,” he says.
The Christmas before Tricia died, Ray’s nephew, Jason Stokes, gave him a present. It was a replica of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater home, made out of Legos.
It is on such small things life sometimes turns.
“I didn’t know much about Legos,” Ray says. “When I grew up, it was Lincoln Logs.”
But something about that gift resonated with him.

Ray discovered the joy of receiving a LEGO set as a gift, and set out to bring that delight to others. First he built and donated a Taj Mahal to a cancer treatment center charity auction, but soon fell in love with the idea of building LEGO sets and giving them as gifts to everyone around him, including those who least expected it. His postman received sets for his grandchildren, and a local restaurant owner received a Space Shuttle because Hofman knew he was a space enthusiast. His favorite though, is giving gifts to children, and Hofman’s fridge is covered with heart-felt thank-you cards from children.

Hofman has spent the last two years building LEGO sets and giving them away to friends, family, and charities. “It filled a void,” he says.

Read the full story on the State Journal Register.

This is how you get the hang of architectural design

I’m not sure whether WhiteBrix is good at surfing, but he does know how to handle a surfboard – or, better to say, 19 of them at a time. Stacked together, these surfboards create a rather winsome skyscraper shape and, moreover, define each floor, which allows you to see the structure of the whole building clearly. And I especially like how that single-story section completes the complex – what a lovely architectural masterpiece!

The NYC skyline comes to life with LEGO Architecture 21028 New York City [Review]

I’ve traveled to New York City five times in the last two years for work, and it has quickly become one of my favorite cities in the world. I’ve spent most of my time indoors in museums, but I’ve also admired the city’s wonderful architecture — the pinnacle of human art and engineering. LEGO recently sent us a copy of the forthcoming LEGO Architecture set 21028 New York City.

SPOILER! There are a variety of very tall buildings in New York City. Oh, sorry, I’ve gotten so used to writing LEGO set reviews about The Force Awakens that it’s hard to break the habit.

Click through to read the full review!

The perfect beach house retreat

If you caught the winter blues, then retreat to this cozy sunlit beach home by Michaela Clites (Littlehaulic) and you’ll feel warm in no time. Wander through each room and try to catch all the ocean-themed details and decorations. You can see close ups of the house on the builder’s Flickr gallery.

The Houses of Parliament debut at BRICK 2015 in London

The Palace of Westminster, known to most as the Houses of Parliament, has been built in 1:650 scale by Rocco Buttliere. The model is making its debut at BRICK 2015, which takes place at the London Excel, December 11th-13th.

Rocco Buttliere is a fourth-year student in the College of Architecture at Illinois Institute of Technology and his amazing 1:650 scale builds, depicting famous skyscrapers and landmarks, have been the main focus of attention. His collection includes models from eleven global cities including Chicago, New York City, Dubai, Paris, Los Angeles, Toronto, Shanghai, Dallas and of course, London.

Following a successful Kickstarter campaign all 43 of Rocco’s models are making their way to London and will be on display at BRICK 2015. You can find out more about Rocco and his models, including digital downloads of his work, on MOCpages.

Venetian architecture in a patchwork style

Root Canal by Lab Synth is a marvelous and thorough design down to the last detail. One can find such an architectural experiment chaotic, but I’d call it extravagant. In the description of his work Lab shared that he had started with that massive golden window, and I can clearly imagine how the whole diorama was growing section by section until such a bizzare interpretation of a Venetian canal was born.

The Church of Tiny Things

This microscale cathedral by David Hensel is a lovely piece of work. A handsome splash of dark green in the roofing breaks up the light grey, as do the various pieces David has used to add texture. The corrugated tubes and telescopes are nice touches, but it’s the use of Mixel joints as flying buttresses that’s attracting all the attention over on Flickr.

I’m less convinced by the loose tiles David has employed for the ground around the building. It’s making me think of those photographs of lonely churches standing amidst the ruins of bombed-out towns during WW2. Unless that was the look David was aiming for, I think I’d have preferred some kind of “properly built” surroundings.

Never trust a model you can’t pick up and turn upside-down – that’s my motto. However, the rest of this is so well put together I’m going to let it slide. Nice work.

The Ruins of St Paul’s: glorious rather than ruinous

This impressive creation depicting the Ruins of St Paul’s by Alex Hui was built for the Macau X LEGO Exhibition. The model is deceptively large at nearly four feet tall.

The Ruins of St. Paul’s, located in Macao, refer to the façade of what was originally the Church of Mater Dei built in 1602-1640 and the ruins of St. Paul’s College, which stood adjacent to the Church — both destroyed by fire in 1835. The sculptured motifs of the façade include biblical images, mythological representations, Chinese characters, Japanese chrysanthemums, a Portuguese ship, several nautical motifs, Chinese lions, bronze statues and other elements that integrate influences from Europe, China and other parts of Asia.

Alex chose to build in a sufficiently grand scale to allow the carvings and sculptures to be accurately depicted in LEGO and took 6 months to complete the build. The model is approximately 1.2m high and is constructed solely in light gray and dark grey. The use of dark grey is very effective for highlighting the depth of the central sculpture and really captures so many of the fine details from the original. My own favourite part is the winged ‘Holy Spirit’ in the triangular pediment at the top, which symbolizes the ultimate state of divine ascension as seen in the zoomed image below.

The roof, the roof, the roof is afire...

Following on from Jennifer’s recent post on waterfalls, here are some more creations with brick-built “special effects”. This ramshackle Laketown house by David Hensel features a convincing fireball rolling up from the roof…

It’s difficult to depict fire with bricks without it looking like a pixellated explosion from the 8-bit era of gaming. I think David has pulled it off here, with the outer layer of transparent bricks and the darker colors at the edges simulating an expanding ball of flame.

I recently spotted another brick-built explosion which used very different techniques but created a similar sense of energy and motion. This fantastic tower explosion was part of Marc Gelaberto‘s pirate display at a show in Barcelona…

It’s like a still from an action movie – the fireball blossoming, shattering the tower’s masonry as soldiers are flung into the air. Check out the priceless expression on this unfortunate soldier’s face!

I’ve always shied away from building scenes like these, worried they wouldn’t live up to the image in my head. Seeing these great examples of fiery disaster, I feel some explosive action coming on in my building!

Microscale Aztec Pyramid

David Zambito built the smallest recognizable Aztec pyramid out of Lego using stacked corner panels to imitate the steps of the structure. Now the gods demand the sacrifice of your microfigs.