The most famous LEGO architect has to be Adam Reed Tucker. Originally a normal architect, Tucker has now focused his time into making scaled LEGO models of some of the world's most famous buildings. The Empire State Building, Burj Dubai, St. Louis Arch, and even the World Trade Center are all included in Tucker's LEGO portfolio. These are not small models either:
Photo credit: http://www.brickstructures.com/ArchBurjDubai.html
Tucker is now involved directly with LEGO and makes these models available for consumers. For just $89.99 Frank Lloyd Wright's Falling Water can sit on your kitchen table for everyone to admire.
With a little more searching you can find a bit more news regarding LEGO architecture. Back in April, the world's tallest LEGO structure was built in Brasil. The city of Sao Paulo banded together to build a 102'-3" tall LEGO tower. Yes.... 102 FEET! The tower used over 500,000 pieces, involved local schools and required a crane to build. The top swayed pretty substantially, but the tower stayed up long enough to break the record previously held by Chile.
Not to be outdone, a self described "toy fanatic" decided to build an entire house made out of LEGO.
Nice Door Detail
The owner, James May, used a light-timber frame to support the heavy LEGO walls. Each wall was made out of large LEGO bricks, made out of... small LEGO pieces. In fact, each large brick contained 227 smaller LEGO pieces. The two floor house used almost 3 million bricks or 817 million pieces altogether.
LEGO bricks made out of... LEGO bricks
The house even had LEGO windows and an assuredly uncomfortable LEGO bed.
The low transparency prevented thermal heat gain and views.
The LEGO Bed.
Sadly, May did not file the appropriate permits and was forced to sell his structure. LEGOland was originally interested, but the transportation costs were too much and the building was ultimate destroyed/disassembled.
Fortunately, the millions of LEGO pieces were donated to charity and may inspire another generation of LEGO homes.
I for one, would have loved to tour May's LEGO house. Growing up, I played countless hours with LEGO and tried to visit LEGOland last year in Denmark (when I was 26). Sadly, I did not have enough time. Let's hope that this fun side of architecture continues!
