Through decades of planning and cultivation, Singapore has earned the name of a “Garden City”. Within 277 square miles a population of 5.7 million resides, one of the top 3 major global financial centers. Singaporean local Gavin Foo showcases the core of this economic hub with a skyline built entirely from LEGO bricks. This jungle of towering concrete structures hosts the banking and finance industry, whilst along the Singapore river is the place to head for a cold beer at the end of a hard day’s work.

The Château de Chenonceau is a historic building in the Loire Valley in France, spanning the River Cher. The current château was built in the early 1500s on the foundations of an old mill and was later extended to span the river. While not the original owners, the château was acquired by the Menier family, who are famous for their signature chocolates, and they still own the château to this day. Isaac Snyder has managed to capture the architectural essence of this beautiful, grand building in LEGO microscale.

The complex collection of varying roofs that depict the chapel and library areas at that Northeast end of the château are very nicely built, but my favourite section is definitely the multiple archways with the flowing river below.

A Federal Constitutional Court building might not sound the most obvious inspiration for a LEGO creation. But the resulting microscale creation from Pascal Schmidt is just lovely. Designed by Paul Baumgarten, the original German building was one of the first truly modern court building, avoiding the traditional use of oppressive architecture designed to intimidate and impress. Pascal has perfectly captured the lighter, airy, Modernist feel of the structure. And those trees — fantastic.

Anyone who’s ever visited London will be sure to recall the city’s amazing skyline with its mixture of historic buildings and contemporary skyscrapers. Czech builder Milan Vančura has picked two of London’s more unique towers to recreate at 1:650 scale, including this model of 20 Fenchurch Street.

Nicknamed the ‘Walkie Talkie’ for its bulbous shape, 20 Fenchurch Street opened in 2015 with much less fanfare and a whole lot more criticism than its architects had imagined – including concerns about a slight solar glare problem which caused sunlight reflecting off the building to reach temperatures of over 90 degrees Celsius at street-level and melt the paint off parked cars. In fact, you’d be hard pressed to find a city resident who would describe the building as anything other than bloated and inelegant. Nevertheless, the LEGO builder has done a fantastic job recreating the Walkie Talkie’s distinctive design in LEGO form, even including the sky garden which occupies the building’s top floors.

Milan also built one of London’s more eye-catching (and much less controversial) skyscrapers, the Gherkin located at 30 St. Mary Axe.

The builder does a nice job using 1×2 plates to capture the swirling architecture of the Gherkin. Impressively, the LEGO model is completely hollow with only a central pillar and several horizontal beams to support the structure. Milan tells us both models are part of a project to build a microcity exhibit by Czech LUG Kostky. We’ll certainly be keeping an eye out for more great additions and for the entire exhibit once it’s finished.