Tag Archives: Hugo Huang

Stained glass in Shanghai

The last time builder Hugo Huang shared an architectural build, it sent me down a research rabbit hole of light boats, German brewers, and Chinese occupation. Once again, Hugo uses LEGO to recreate a historic sight that’s too obscure for the travelogues but reveals a fascinating history. The Catholic Country Church, lovingly recreated in brick yellow and sand green by Hugo, was designed by architect László Hudec and completed in 1925. Hudec was a Hungarian who served in WWI, was captured by Russians and imprisoned in Siberia, jumped a train, and escaped to Shanghai where he joined an American architectural firm before starting his own practice. In the following decades, he designed many landmark buildings in the city, including several churches.

Catholic Country Church,Shanghai

Hugo’s LEGO version is a fitting tribute with wonderful stained glass windows made of transparent cheese slopes, and incredible domes made of sand green aloe vera points from the succulent collection. I love it when a LEGO creation introduces me to new building techniques as well as fascinating facts about our world!

Voyage out to the lighthouse in LEGO

Like moths to a flame, many LEGO builders are drawn to the fresnel lens glow of lighthouses for inspiration. Hugo Huang answered the foghorn’s siren call and recreated a historic Lighthouse found on a tiny island outside Tsingtao (Qingdao) Harbor. First established by the Germans in 1900, the lighthouse was destroyed and rebuilt by the Japanese 14 years later during the Siege of Tsingtao. If you know Tsingtao as a beer, it was those Germans who founded the brewery there back in 1903, who then sold it to the Japanese post-siege, who in turn transferred ownership to the Chinese after WWII.  Oops, I got stuck in the history rabbit hole. Back to LEGO! The octagonal tower is flanked by residence buildings with red clay rooftops recreated with cheese slopes. Hugo puts a vintage LEGO pirate ship mast to great use as a flagpole. Hugo pairs the building with a lightship, a vessel equipped with a lighthouse-style lantern used when a land-based lighthouse wasn’t an option.

Lighthouse1

If you too want to marry be a LEGO lighthouse keeper and live by the side of a sea, the official Motorized Lighthouse is charming, or you can take Hugo’s approach and bring a bit of history to life in bricks.

The Jade Chamber of Genshin Impact descends like a ton of LEGO bricks

Genshin Impact is one of the biggest successes in modern video games with an enormous international fanbase. The Chinese-inspired region of Liyue and the heavenly Jade Chamber are especially popular for their striking architecture and cultural representation. LEGO builder Hugo Huang brings to life the massive Jade Chamber at micro scale, capturing the climactic moment when the palace drops from the heavens to save the city from the god-monster Osial. Hugo adeptly captures the palace’s curves and complex angles in profile, as well as the detailed joinery and gold ornamentation in close up. The blue heads of Osial, the roiling sea, and nanofigures elevate the scene and help sell the scale. Ningguang would be proud! This is the second rendition of the Jade Chamber to be featured here, but the iconic palace also fits nicely in the grand tradition of castles built atop floating rocks.

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