Big Builders – Page 2 – Building LEGO models of architecture by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG)

May 11, 2019

TSP – The Spiral

The model has now been fully designed in LEGO Digital Designer!

Overall, the model will consist of nearly 5,500 pieces and will feature a façade made up of transparent LEGO plates, with medium blue plates behind. The spiral pattern was surprisingly tricky to account for as it winds its way up the tower, and resulted in numerous half-stud offsets along the broad faces of the building. The windows directly behind each spiral step will feature tan highlights in an effort to differentiate these sections of façade from the rest of the glass. The balconies will also be covered in plenty of greenery and plants in the spirit of the overall design concept of continuing New York City’s Highline into the Skyline!

This image highlights much of the internal structure of the model. It is made up of four stacked modules which are connected with a central 2×2 technic beam. I chose to use pink during much of the design process as transparent elements can be difficult to see in LEGO Digital Designer. This decision also helped with the program’s performance overall.

[Rocco]

May 1, 2019

MTN – Reaching the summit

I have built Mount Everest in LEGO! Well, just a mosaic but still…

I am quite satisfied with the result. Compared to the instructions from the mosaic maker program, I have substituted about half of the very light grey 1×1 plates with transparent 1×1 plates. This was done partly because of limited supply, partly to reflect the partial transparency of the real-life wall due to the raster effect described in the previous blog post. Also, the dark bluish grey plates representing the sky have been replaced by dark transparent plates and tiles since this part is in fact the area with the highest level of transparency.

As with all mosaics, the result looks better from a distance as seen on the picture below.

During the construction, I followed the instructions meticulously using a ruler, a pencil and temporary tiles to indicate each 10 studs. Where possible, I used larger plates and bricks to keep the wall together. It is not sturdy, but not too fragile either.

I have now moved on to the final touches including the surrounding street and canal environments.

April 17, 2019

DONG – Building instructions

How is a building instruction made?

The process of creating a building instruction is done in several steps and contains some different challanges.

I often get a quick respond that that has to be easy for a software to make automaticly – but when you look at the details it is not that easy.

Not to many different bricks at the same time
Some steps are more critical than other, so not just the same amount of bricks per step. This can be noted in the offcial LEGO building instructions. It might look strange in some steps to only place one brick, but often there is a reason to prepare the builder in the coming steps, to speed up or down the builder.
To get the right brick in the right order, some step is not that critical as others.
Bricks can not be “built in the air”, so the building instruction steps need to prepare some building steps before putting them into the model, especially SNOT building technique.

Following are some examples of the steps to make an instruction.

STEP 1 – Making a Digital Model in Lego Digital Designer (LDD)

Using the LDD in expert mode makes it easy to locate most of the buidling bricks, but if the model is to be built in real life, the bricks must also be availabe in the color you need – that is not allways obvious.

STEP 2 – Breaking down the model into building steps

First screendump and last step of the front window instruction.
The bricks to the left of the model is the bricks needed for this step. piece by piece.
NOTE that the 1×1 stup on the side brick is not correct, that brick is not in LDD yet.

Some of the steps – screendumps from LDD that is later used in photoshop

The LDD screendump (transparent PNG) and manually (with some magic) fixed the “missing” bricks in photoshop

…three bricks but only two types of bricks to be placed on the top…

last screendump and first step of building.

STEP 3 – Creating the pages

Using Adobe Photoshop Elements and working in layers, the pages are built up step by step and page by page.

STEP 4 – Merging pages into a final document

As pages are created in Photoshop the disc is filled with individual pages that need to be merged into a document. This is done using Adobe Acrobat.

BACKGROUND

The above work and blog article is made by me, Anders Horvath. A LEGO fan since birth and an active Swebrick AFOL since 2012. Back in 1987 after engineering collegue I started at a company working as a technical illustrator making spare parts lists/3D illustrations (in 1987 3D illustrations was made by hand, not computers).
Today I am a marketing communication manager for a big corporation so the LDD and 3D modelleling is a fun work on the side in combination with the LEGO building hobby, bringing some “good old days” back into my life.

April 14, 2019May 11, 2019

TSP – The Spiral

A LEGO model of The Spiral will be build by Rocco Buttliere.

Every new piece starts with a sketch. As a trained architect, plan and section drawings always help me better visualize the dimensions and massing of the overall building. The next step is to start designing the model, which will likely be made up of numerous stacks of floor plates, each with different dimensions as the spiral pattern slowly diminishes the overall footprint. Stay tuned!

In the description of the building, BIG states:

Located at the intersection of the High Line and the newly developed Hudson Boulevard Park on Manhattan’s new western frontier, THE SPIRAL extends the green space of the former train tracks in a spiraling motion towards the sky – from High Line to the skyline. The 1,005 ft high-rise is a unique hybrid that intertwines a continuous green pathway with workspaces on every level. The chain of amenity spaces and terraces originates at THE SPIRAL’s main entrance on 34th street and Hudson Boulevard. The spiral wraps around the tower, which becomes gradually slimmer towards the top. This creates unique floor configurations that will cater to a diverse community of tenants making the building a lively place for businesses of different scales – giving tenants a stake in the buildings iconic skyline presence.

Inside, every terrace becomes a double height atrium with impressive views over Manhattan, offering a more informal setting for meetings, events and recreational activities. These spaces connect multiple levels in the building, offering an alternative to elevators to encourage physical activity and interaction amongst colleagues. THE SPIRAL sets a new standard for the contemporary workplace, where nature becomes an integrated part of the work environment while spatial features are continuously adaptable to the changing needs of the tenants and their organizations.

The stepping form of THE SPIRAL echoes the architecture of New York City’s classic stepped setback skyscrapers and is the natural evolutionary step in the Tishman Speyer portfolio. The silhouette of THE SPIRAL resonates with the iconic architecture of Rockefeller Center while its modern materials and detailing place it at the forefront of contemporary high-rise design on a path to become a future classic on the Manhattan skyline.

April 13, 2019

MTN – Preparing to build Mount Everest

All the apartments are now completed except for props (tables, plants etc.) on the terraces which will be added at the end. So when you look at the model from a very specific angle (south-east corner), it looks finished.

But I have yet to build the back side of the building, the large image of Mount Everest wrapping around the parking lot under the apartments. From the images below it would appear that the image is painted on somewhat transparent panels.

However, when you come up close it turns out that all the panels are in fact the same grey/silver color and the image appears due to the raster effect of holes in various sizes!

The image below was kindly provided by the architect and is the original image of Mount Everest used to create the panels.

How do you recreate this in LEGO? I considered many different options, including using Technic bricks with holes to mimic the actual construction. But I settled for a classic, studs-up mosaic and used a LEGO mosaic maker tool to create the image below which will serve as the building instruction. The mosaic alone contains roughly 10.000 1×1 plates!

I have chosen the colors white, very light grey (from the LEGO Mosaic sets), light bluish grey and dark bluish grey as well as transparent and dark transparent which I hope will give a little of the see-through effect of the actual wall. The plates are ligned up below, color by color.

The model has been turned 180 degrees on my table. Now it is time to start building a giant mosaic!

April 9, 2019April 14, 2019

XPO – EXPO 2010 Danish Pavilion

A LEGO model of The Danish Pavilion in Shanghai, China will be build by Helgi Toftegaard.

In the description of the building, BIG states:

The Danish Pavilion was designed to not only exhibit Danish virtues, but, through interaction, to give the visitor an experience of some of the best attractions in Copenhagen: the city bike, the harbor bath, the nature playground and an ecological picnic. The bike is a vernacular means of transportation and a national symbol common to Denmark and China. With the pavilion we relaunched the bike in Shanghai as a symbol of modern lifestyle and sustainable urban development. The pavilion’s 1500 city bikes were offered for general use to the visitors during EXPO 2010.

In the heart of the pavilion was a harbor bath, which is filled up with seawater from Copenhagen harbor. The visitors could swim in the bath and not only hear about the clean water, but actually feel and taste it. The Little Mermaid was transported to Shanghai to sit in the waterline of the pavilion’s harbor bath exactly as she is in Copenhagen harbor.

The first step for the model building was to build some tests:

The bikes are essential in this LEGO model

… and then to the challenging part: getting the model to turn around itself

April 3, 2019April 15, 2019

MAR – The Maritime Youth House

A LEGO model of The Maritime Youth House is built by Anne Mette Vestergård.

In the description of the building, BIG states:

The Maritime Youth House, located on the island of Amager, in Copenhagen, took as point of departure a technical problem related with the physical characteristics of the plot. A third of our budget was allocated to remove polluted topsoil. By covering the site with a wooden deck, we could leave the soil where it was and invest the money on the building, rather than the site’s polluted topsoil. The result is a public landscape of social functions surrounded by water on all sides, breathing new life into a former desolate harbor front.

Two very different users with conflicting requirements had to share the facilities: a sailing club and a youth center.

The youth center wanted outdoor space for the kids to play, while the sailing club required most of the site to moor their boats. The building is the result of these two contradictory demands. The deck is elevated high enough to allow for boat storage underneath while providing an undulating landscape for the kids to run and play above.

March 14, 2019

MTN – Half way up the hill

The apartments now reach almost half the way up the hill and the model is starting to resemble the real building.

The grey sides of the model are attached at an angle to each floor in a very simple and space efficient way, that allows the studs to be aligned exactly at the wanted position. This is shown on the two pictures below.

This picture shows a subset of the apartments shortly after the building was completed. The plants have yet to grow big.

In my Lego version the green plants are more visible which corresponds to the current state of the building as seen on the image below.

Finally, a view from the top.

March 14, 2019

APH – Audemars Piguet Hôtel des Horlogers

A LEGO model of APH is built by Jessica Farrell

In the description of the building, BIG states:

Neighboring the Musée Atelier Audemars Piguet, the Hôtel des Horlogers is seamlessly integrated into the smooth topography of the scenic Vallée de Joux. Five zig-zagging room slabs expand into a gently sloping exterior path, leading directly to the museum and local ski trails. On the interior, a continuous sloping corridor connects the rooms, facilitating visitor and service circulation. The amenities—two restaurants, a bar, a spa and a conference center—are tucked under the inclined slabs and oriented towards light and views to become individual destinations along the exterior path. From the main access road, the hotel’s tilting slabs frame views of the surrounding Vallée de Joux, establishing a connection between the village and the pastoral landscape.

March 14, 2019

XPO – EXPO 2010 Danish Pavilion

A LEGO model of The Danish Pavilion, built for the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai, China will be build by Helgi Toftegaard.

In the description of the building, BIG states:

In addition to promoting new modes of transportation, the Danish Pavilion was also the only naturally ventilated at the Expo. Air was cooled by the presence of the water, then, following the unique form of the building, moved through the entire space.