Lego Architecture Slum city by Shannon Sproule

[Tech Artist]

I found this creation by Shannon Sproule called Lego Architecture Slum City:

https://www.flickr.c...06/26239766840/

I really wanted to share this here as it is one of the most unique and simplistic ideas I've seen done with Lego. It's just such a great take on the Architecture line that I have not seen before. I really hope he expands on this idea.

I was hoping he was a member here. I tried searching for a topic on it but didn't find anything. Seems he is only on Flickr. I originally came across this on The Brothers Brick.

[Samsonite]

Personally I don't think it looks very good. It just looks like random pieces stuck on a plate with a nice base...

[Mesabi]

That's pretty good. Simplistic, yet drawing focus to a real issue

[Ondra]

I will wait for Creator expert version .

[Rogue Angel]

If you've ever been to a third world slum, this is a pretty good representation.

[P3_Super_Bee]

If you've ever been to a third world slum, this is a pretty good representation.

Good representation of what? Been to quite a few third world countries. Represents nothing but a pile of Lego to me.

Is it supposed to look like a city? It doesn't, not even close.

Edited April 21, 2016 by P3_Super_Bee

[Actor Builder]

I like it. Art is art is art.

[kibosh]

Personally I don't think it looks very good. It just looks like random pieces stuck on a plate with a nice base...

Totally agree. If there was no story or explanation to go along with this, would it be recognizable to anyone?

[rodiziorobs]

I also saw this on TBB, but didn't like it. Couldn't put my finger on why not, but this quote got my mind on track:

Good representation of what? Been to quite a few third world countries. Represents nothing but a pile of Lego to me.

Is it supposed to look like a city? It doesn't, not even close.

This. For nearly two years I lived in or near slums and shanties and walked through them just about every day. The look, the sound, the feel, the smell: this evokes none of that.

Not that I don't appreciate the builder's effort, but to me this art is unsuccessful because it doesn't cause me to really come back to it on any level--not as a representation of its subject matter, not due to any inherent "artliness", and not as a particularly skillful Lego build.

That being said, I think the conceptual contrast of using an expensive, precisely manufactured first-world toy to represent an impoverished reality is clever; I just feel like this build doesn't really deliver much on that concept.

[Robert8]

Agree. It looks like a pile of LEGO pieces to me

[Junior Shark]

I think it's pretty good, but I'm more partial to Sproule's minifigure-scale representation of Anlong Pi:

Anlong Pi by Shannon Sproule, on Flickr

[Zerobricks]

IMO the point of the model is to provoke in a good way... Just imagine how many people are living in such inhumane conditions whil we the "privilged ones" play around with bricks and live our excessive lives.

[Eilif]

Fascinating.

Without the title I probably wouldn't have gotten it, but just the word "slum" and you instantly see the ubiquitous sloped corrugated metal roofs as seen in slums the world over. It's like an impressionist's painting of a slum.

My only possible gripe would be the bright yellow bits. A bit too bright, IMHO, but it's the author's prerogative to exaggerate colors for effect.

[Actor Builder]

The fact that we're all arguing over whether or not it constitutes art makes it definitively art in my opinion.

[kibosh]

Fine, it's art. There's good art, and there's bad art. This is bad art IMHO. If you showed this to someone, without any backstory as to what it is supposed to be, they would have no clue what it is. How much thought would that provoke? Not much.

[xboxtravis7992]

I also saw this on TBB, but didn't like it. Couldn't put my finger on why not, but this quote got my mind on track:

This. For nearly two years I lived in or near slums and shanties and walked through them just about every day. The look, the sound, the feel, the smell: this evokes none of that.

Not that I don't appreciate the builder's effort, but to me this art is unsuccessful because it doesn't cause me to really come back to it on any level--not as a representation of its subject matter, not due to any inherent "artliness", and not as a particularly skillful Lego build.

That being said, I think the conceptual contrast of using an expensive, precisely manufactured first-world toy to represent an impoverished reality is clever; I just feel like this build doesn't really deliver much on that concept.

I do like some of the roof materials used, but I have the same impression as you from the time I've been in places like that. It's just the build lacks cohesion that exists in many slums. There are still roads and walkways in a slum. This build looks like all the buildings are so close together that it's a communal block...

So yeah this would be greatly enhanced by roads, train tracks, etc. People still live there of course!