Anyone doing true Modular buildings

[Eilif]

Isanyone building stulff in a "true modular" building fashion? I've seem alot of stuff marked as "moudular" but alot of it is more Cafe Corner styled, or market street sized, but not the Market street stackable modular.

I built one house to this standard previously ( http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=3076819 ), but now that I am expanding my train club section for Brickworld to include a marina-side urban strip, I have space for 4-6 Modular buildings. Even though I probably won't mix the modules around too much, but, I think it would be a neat excercise to build them all to the 16x16 stackable Market street standard, minus the center mounted stairways.

I look at the LDD designs at LEGO.com, and occasionally surf Brickshelf, but does anyone else have notable "true modular" designs I should see for inspiriation.

Edited June 6, 2008 by Eilif

[Ralph_S]

  Eilif said:

Isanyone building stulff in a "true modular" building fashion? I've seem alot of stuff marked as "moudular" but alot of it is more Cafe Corner styled, or market street sized, but not the Market street stackable modular.

I built one house to this standard previously ( http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=3076819 ), but now that I am expanding my train club section for Brickworld to include a marina-side urban strip, I have space for 4-6 Modular buildings. Even though I probably won't mix the modules around, I think it would be a neat excercise to build them all to the 16x16 stackable Market street standard, minus the center mounted stairways.

I look at the LDD designs at LEGO.com, and occasionally surf Brickshelf, but does anyone else have notable "true modular" designs I should see for inspiriation.

Indeed. Mine are cafe-corner compatible. The 16x16 stackable module standard doesn't appeal to me. I think it is much too restrictive -certainly with the centrally mounted staircases that leave virtually no room for an interior. I'm afraid I don't have any designs that would be suitable either.

Cheers,

Ralph

Edited June 6, 2008 by Ralph_S

[LegoFranks]

I agree, I don't think "modular" should be restricted to 16x16, given Cafe Corner and the Green Grocer are modular by style, ie, they can be separated by floors. Mind you, buildings in a street are very rarely the same colour, hence I'd never be swapping modules around! Imagine a yellow and tan modern style modular floor in the middle of Market Street!?

I see "modular" as a style, with closed backs and more detailed buildings than that of normal city and town lego with their open backs, and that to gain entrance, you have to lift off the *modules*...

M.

[Ralph_S]

  LegoFranks said:

I agree, I don't think "modular" should be restricted to 16x16, given Cafe Corner and the Green Grocer are modular by style, ie, they can be separated by floors. Mind you, buildings in a street are very rarely the same colour, hence I'd never be swapping modules around! Imagine a yellow and tan modern style modular floor in the middle of Market Street!?

I see "modular" as a style, with closed backs and more detailed buildings than that of normal city and town lego with their open backs, and that to gain entrance, you have to lift off the *modules*...

M.

Here is the modular building page from LEGO. The main 'modularity' seems to lie in that if everybody follows the guidelines the buildings can be connected to form a street or city layout. We've done this in the Brickish Association for Christmas, and built a rather long and very nice street.

The 16x16 standard goes a bit further, but I honestly don't see the point in being able to stack modules in a different configuration unless I were building either an apartment block with a large number of identical modules (but perhaps wth different interiors) or a large residential area, allowing you to build different houses using only a small number of module designs. I guess that's what Eilif is going for.

Actually, Eilif, have you tried searching for 'modular' here on eurobricks?

Perhaps this thread contains something useful.

Cheers,

Ralph

[LegoFranks]

Were you the guy who built that Scrooge & Marley modular offices on display at Bluewater's Lego Store? If so, very cool!

M.

[Ralph_S]

  LegoFranks said:

Were you the guy who built that Scrooge & Marley modular offices on display at Bluewater's Lego Store? If so, very cool!

M.

No. That was built by Ed Diment a.k.a. Lego Monster, who is a friend of mine. I've had some MOCs on display in the Brighton LEGO store. I've so far built a curry house and a chip shop, and I expect those will go to Brighton sometime in the future.

Cheers,

Ralph

[VBBN]

  Eilif said:

Isanyone building stulff in a "true modular" building fashion? I've seem alot of stuff marked as "moudular" but alot of it is more Cafe Corner styled, or market street sized, but not the Market street stackable modular.

I built one house to this standard previously ( http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=3076819 ), but now that I am expanding my train club section for Brickworld to include a marina-side urban strip, I have space for 4-6 Modular buildings. Even though I probably won't mix the modules around, I think it would be a neat excercise to build them all to the 16x16 stackable Market street standard, minus the center mounted stairways.

I look at the LDD designs at LEGO.com, and occasionally surf Brickshelf, but does anyone else have notable "true modular" designs I should see for inspiriation.

My city is Modular city, so yes.

[Eilif]

Thanks for the replies everyone, there's some really neat buildings you all posted up. Definately inspriational stuff, especially the Eurobricks thumbnail page which I refer to often for inspiration! However, as I mentioned above, I'm looking for stuff built in the official LEGO 16x16 Modular style . As in buildings made up of single floor 16x16 "modules" that can be switched and swapped which I think is different from the "Cafe Corner Compatible" that alot of folks think of as modular. I realize that it's a bit limiting but that's what intrigues me about it. I like the challenge of seeing what can be done within certain parameters. Also I'd like to have a Brickworld display that can be switched about from day to day.

Modular style has taken on alot of different meanings among AFOLs, so I was hoping that you all would have some links to "Modular" examples because searches for "modular" reveals alot of stuff outside of the LEGO Modular standard.

Anyone have some?

Edited June 6, 2008 by Eilif

[Ralph_S]

  Eilif said:

Thanks for the replies everyone, there's some really neat buildings you all posted up. Definately inspriational stuff, especially the Eurobricks thumbnail page which I refer to often for inspiration! However, as I mentioned above, I'm looking for stuff built in the official LEGO 16x16 Modular style . As in buildings made up of single floor 16x16 "modules" that can be switched and swapped which I think is different from the "Cafe Corner Compatible" that alot of folks think of as modular. I realize that it's a bit limiting but that's what intrigues me about it. I like the challenge of seeing what can be done within certain parameters. Also I'd like to have a Brickworld display that can be switched about from day to day.

Modular style has taken on alot of different meanings among AFOLs, so I was hoping that you all would have some links to "Modular" examples because searches for "modular" reveals alot of stuff outside of the LEGO Modular standard.

Anyone have some?

The LEGO modular building page mainlt talks about Cafe corner compatible buildings and separately about 'market street modules'. Perhaps that's what you should be looking for.

Perhaps ~VBBN~ can post a link to pictures of some of his buildings.

Cheers,

Ralph

[F0NIX]

What do you put in the expression "true modular" vs "modular"?

I always try to make houses so you can lift up each floor of the building, mostly because I love to make an detailed interior and when the building are modular you have easy access to show the inside.

But I have also taken this a step forward and made small houses where the middle floor and roof can be stackable. You can then stack it with whatever height and colormix you want. Is that true modular? :)

These small houses was inspired of buildings made by aj-ml.

[Eilif]

Fonix,

Great little stackable houses you have there. That's precisely the size and concept I'm going with. I'm not doing a residential section, but there's alot of transferable ideas. I'm hoping to make the buildings different enough to be a viable commercial district, but simlar enough that they can be stacked like yours. Very Cool.

Ralph,

Thanks for that, I'll do some searches for "market street modules."

I've only got two modules built of the 12 or so that I will need, but I'm getting very excited about this project!

[tedbeard]

  Eilif said:

Modular style has taken on alot of different meanings among AFOLs

Well, I think you will find that most AFOLs have a very clearly definition that agrees with the LEGO definition of Modular Houses and that is buildings designed to fit together on a street. I recently wrote the Modular Houses article on BrickWiki and I think you will find that if you read the guidelines carefully you will see that they encompass how buildings join together (technic brick and pin placement) how wide they may be (multiples of 16-wide paseplates), and how much area must be left at front and back (sidewalks/alleys).

The internal modularity of a building such as Market Street is cool but irrelevant to the MH standard. Build away, but please stop complaining that other people are doing it wrong if they choose not build 16x16 segments.

[Eilif]

  tedbeard said:

I recently wrote the Modular Houses article on BrickWiki

Nice article, it clearly shows the tie-ins between the LEGO modular standards, and the AFOL standards which are more inclusive, and definatley more usefull for colaborative displays with more architectural variation.

  tedbeard said:

The internal modularity of a building such as Market Street is cool but irrelevant to the MH standard. Build away, but please stop complaining that other people are doing it wrong if they choose not build 16x16 segments.

Please understand, I'm niether complaining, nor suggesting that folks are doing it wrong, just trying to clarify the issue in order to find inspirational examples of the specific style I am working with. I've enjoyed seeing all the works noted here, even the ones that aren't what I was looking for.