Real life Building render to Lego Architecture?

[jonatj]

Aloha everyone!

My company is having a new campus built in Honolulu Hawaii and we are really excited. We've seen the renders and the real life building is about half way done. I'd like to build a model of it in the Lego Architecture style, hopefully in time to celebrate the opening.  

Imhave a rough calculation of the dimensions in studs and bricks.  I have LDD, LDraw and Stud.io downloaded, but before I sink hours into the digital build, I wondered if anyone had any process or method they use to emulate real-life things. I don't know what most builders do when they want make the Eiffel Tower for instance.  Do you get the real-life dimensions and scale it to brick or stud size? How does that even work? I mostly build Technic and make vehicle MOCs, so I don't quite have the feel for Lego Architecture type creations.

Any tips or references you could point me to? 

New ASB Campus building render

Thanks in advance!

Jon

 

Edited March 11, 2018 by jonatj
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[SylvainLS]

Nice building 

Yes, build to scale.  But getting the right scale is important.  You might encounter problems with a scale (e.g. 1:100) you wouldn’t have with a slightly different one (say 1:110). So, as there are very distinctive repetitive features (especially the “holes” and texture of the first floors), I’d start with trying to make one in bricks then use that to decide which scale to use.  Once you have the scale, you can cheat here and there to make it simple in bricks but still true to life.  You don’t need to strictly adhere to the scale or to the real thing to make it look more true to life.

 

[NathanR]

The building looks fantastic!

For me, the trick is to pick out a key feature and figure out what Lego brick could best represent it.  That brick then become the seed of the model.  Even if it is the last brick you will add to the model, it defines the scale, shape, and proportions.  For example, the shield generators on the bridge of a star destroyer must be a 2x2 or 4x4 dome brick, nothing else could possibly work, and that immediately sets the size of the final build.

Looking at your new building, I see the blue-tinted glass walls on the upper stories as transparent 1x2 bricks, while the corrugated walls (windows?) between them could be represented by 1x2 bricks with grilles.  Something like this (sorry the image hasn't come out too well):

The grey pillars between the top and bottom halves of the building are already separated in a Lego-style 1x2 grid, so the proportions are a good match.  And the final size is about right for a larger architecture-set.  Hope this helps!

[jonatj]

Thank you SylvainSL & NathanR! 

I think you’re both correct. The Lego scale and key features of the building are going to be what makes work. The parking levels look like stacks of beige plates. Nathan your mock up with the 1x2grille bricks is wonderful. I’m definitely going to use it. I’ll get to work on the dimensions using the ideas and let you know how it goes.

Mahalo,

Jonathan