Tag Archives: Micropolis

Honey, I shrunk the Harbour!

The cityscapes from the Architecture series do well to capture individual landmarks with detail; this is true. And while this is an excellent way for LEGO to save on bricks, builders like Samuel M aren’t shy about pushing the parts limit to honor the cities they know and love. This Australian builder clocked in 30 hours of work over four months on this massive micropolis. Over 10,000 pieces were used to recreate a geographically accurate Sydney Harbour and a laundry list of landmarks. Stand-outs like the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House may be hard to miss, but Sam spent a lot of time trying to capture it all.

Sydney Harbour

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This huge LEGO microscale city continues to grow

When we last checked in with Christophe Pujaletplaa almost a year ago, he’d just finished adding roads to the microscale LEGO city he calls Microville. It’s now grown to more than 11 meters squared, or close to 100 large 48×48-stud baseplates and gained a waterfront.

Microville 2020 - vue d'ensemble

Christophe has been continuously working on the city since 2010, slowly adding more streets with detailed buildings, along with the occasional larger upgrade. The waterfront section adds new beach real estate and an industrial port next to the airport. Continue reading →

Microscale spiral-shaped building is mesmerizing

Aptly named The Spiral, the towering extension of the elevated park High Line in Midtown Manhattan will be a stunning blend of modern architecture and green space when finished. While the real building is currently under construction, Rocco Buttliere has completed a LEGO version that uses an incredible amount of transparent clear and blue plates. I love the way the builder has alternated the orientation of the plates along the greenway to reflect the open-aired areas, drawing the outdoors in.

The Spiral

The Spiral has been designed by Danish architectural firm Bjarke Ingels Group, who also designed the LEGO House museum in Billund

Get all your LEGO Klämtares at this tiny IKEA

Need more Klämtares, Kuggises, or Ivars for your LEGO collection? Look no further than IKEA, now in minature form thanks to cubo31. IKEA announced a new partnership with LEGO last year, and we still haven’t seen many details on what that is. But we can only hope that it will include an awesome micro model like this. This Micropolis module is loaded with accurate details, from the incredible brick-built logo to the carefully crafted curbs and even an underground garage. There’s just one inaccurate detail that bothers me, though: there are open parking spaces within sight of the front doors. I’ve never seen that at my IKEA.

A collection of micro city blocks

One of the great things about building with LEGO, is the many different scales which are open to you. Your creations can be built for standard minifigs to live and work, or you can populate your building and vehicles with larger brick-built inhabitants. Or, you can build at a much smaller scale, where the people are only in your imagination. This microscale encourages builders to think about their collection in a different way. LEGO builder Christian Benito has been flexing his micoscale building muscles in a series of city blocks.

In this block, Christian is trying out a few techniques for trees, and I rather like the simple structure of those lime-green trees made from sandwiching 1×1 round plates between 2×2 round plates. The dormer windows are also a nice touch. For the backyard, Christion used a clever way to get more visual interest by alternating 1×1 tiles.

Mismatched Houses (back)

See more city blocks by Christian

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times

That famous opening line from Charles Dicken’s A Tale of Two Cities is as good an introduction as any to Paddy Bricksplitter’s microscale diorama of the same name. The juxtaposition of the glistening white utopian towers and the smoke belching grime of the dystopian factory below creates some wonderful drama. There are nods, as he acknowledges, to the cyberpunk anime Battle of Alita as well as science fiction classics such as Things to Come and Metropolis. In the end, its Paddy’s own style that steals the show, relying on clever repeats of simple LEGO elements and atmospheric lighting to show the contradicting sides of his future city.

A Tale of Two Cities

Incredible LEGO microscale city is 8 years in the making and not done yet

For Christophe Pujaletplaa, a LEGO city is a living thing that grows and evolves like a real city. Having begun in 2010 when he rediscovered his childhood love for the plastic bricks, Christophe continues to expand and update his tiny LEGO metropolis, which he’s dubbed Microville. Only, it’s not so small anymore, rounding out at nearly 50 large LEGO baseplates, or more than 7 meters squared.

Microville - 2018

Even when Christophe started in 2010, he had lofty goals, already planning for a much larger microscale LEGO city than most of us have ever attempted. When he began, he used whatever bricks he had in his collection, and augmented them with cups of red bricks from his local LEGO store.

Click to continue reading about Microville

Micropolis block packs a lot of Microscale punch

The Micropolis standard is what allows LEGO builders from around the world to come together at a convention and build a sprawling but tiny city that fits together. Here, LEGO creator Tammo S demonstrates some great microscale building techniques in this city block, featuring a hotel, some apartments, a pizzeria, a few residential buildings and a lovely courtyard. The model has a very European vibe, with a variety of dormer window designs, satellite dishes, and landscaping.

City Block (Micropolis)

See more photos of this lovely little town

Time to travel to beautiful cityscapes

If you feel nervous about the future and dread the thought of grey concrete buildings taking over our cities, these beautiful microscale futuristic cityscapes by Jeff Friesen should calm your fears. Each unique scene is beautifully crafted, with buildings, transportation links, water, and features like bridges, parks, and flora. The colour schemes have been well thought-out and there are lots of clever details in each scene despite their diminutive size.

Take a closer look at these microscale cityscapes