[MOC] Corner Bakery

[ExeSandbox]

It's been a while since I've built a MOC worthy of posting here, but I'm back with something special!

This is my third modular building MOC, which is a three storey building with a "Bakery" on the ground floor and an apartment on the upper floors. It's a very generic premise as per the usual with my modulars. But hopefully it's design can make up for that.

 

This MOC was originally copied inspired by a painting by Carole Spandau:

When I came across this painting, I thought it almost looked like the perfect design to translate into LEGO form, the simplicity in it's shape and colors was too convincing. However, what ensued was a year long ordeal of futility and learning just how inexperienced I was. (ie. I didn't know how 45 degree walls are supposed be built or what a 3-4-5 triangle is, no joke.) I remember deeming the project impossible and giving up a few times, but my stubbornness saw it through and now we're here!

I stole borrowed building techniques from 10264 Corner Garage and 71741 Ninjago City Gardens for the 45 degree walls in this building, which ended up being very simple and I didn't have to resort to the convoluted 2x2 turntable method. 

A noteworthy aspect about this middle apartment floor is the stairway. I've made it so that the stairway would join seamlessly if you stack multiples of the same floor, which would be the first time I made an actual "modular" building. (Official LEGO modulars always does this and I only learned about it not very long ago...)

This roof module ripped off  was very much inspired by 10270 Bookshop. The back of the roof is separable from the front to access the interior. Due to the larger space I was able to add more furniture. However, this part of the building was the real troublemaker throughout the designing process. I was searching every possible legal method of building angles and was making some wild calculations that got very out of hand. In the end, a simple 3-4-5 triangle did the job, and the corner of the roof is just held with hinge bricks. 

As a bonus, a toilet is included at the separate back portion of the roof since there was extra space to spare. (Toilet bowl obscured by walls.) I added a window to prevent a claustrophobic experience. I would also like to mention the (rather ineffective) skylight, it is made with 2x6x2 Train Windows and I think it looks pretty cool. 

Overall building this model was one heck of a ride, and I learned the most lessons out of it. Though I wish I could say to myself that completing this model proves that nothing is impossible, I'm sure some project in the future will swing a spiked mace to my face. 

Number of pieces: 2,685 (I promise to myself I will achieve a sub 2,500 parts modular someday, if the Downtown Diner was able to, so will I!! )

More pics on Flickr

ps: Instructions are available too: https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-104807/ExeSandbox/corner-bakery/#comments (Did I mention I only used available part colors? )

[Follows Closely]

Lovely color usage. The white roof is a bold choice, and it works well.

[gotoAndLego]

Looks great. The Aqua light blue looks very nice with he dark red. 

[brickhead_07]

This looks so beautiful! The interior is really nice too!

[gotoAndLego]

The white hearts were a great way to complete the triangle.

[noahtheb]

This is beautiful! Not overly detailed, but just the right amount of it in every corner.

[JopieK]

Very nicely built indeed @Exe Sandbox, like @noahtheb said, just the right level of detail for a modular.

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

Very nice modular building and wise choice of colors. 

This building remind me the house of Lady Bug! 

 

[BrickMatit]

I have to thank your stubbornness 

It's a really lovely building. Interiors are very nice.

[Maple]

Everything about the building is great. The building the textures and colors, the shapes. The quilted bed. Perfect.
I don't like the trees though.

[Redhead1982]

So beautiful. Having a picture model as a tool to help choose colors and define shapes might be helpful, but also challenging to stay true to the model. You did a great job recreating the corner building. My favourite detail are the yellow "umbrellas" in front of the building, really a unique detail. Congratulations.

[ExeSandbox]

On 3/14/2022 at 10:33 PM, Follows Closely said:

Lovely color usage. The white roof is a bold choice, and it works well.

Thank you. During the building process, I was trying out studded plates, flat tiles, and regular slope bricks for the roof, and was worried it might look like a winter village building. Luckily I found a way to create some texture to make it looks more like painted concrete. 

On 3/15/2022 at 12:12 AM, gotoAndLego said:

Looks great. The Aqua light blue looks very nice with he dark red. 

Thanks. Seeing that color combination from the painting was the reason I had to make this model. 

On 3/15/2022 at 1:17 AM, brickhead_07 said:

This looks so beautiful! The interior is really nice too!

Thanks a lot, happy to hear you liked the interior as well!

On 3/15/2022 at 3:07 AM, gotoAndLego said:

The white hearts were a great way to complete the triangle.

Hehe was originally going to use this part just to cap it off but then I stumbled across the heart pieces.

On 3/15/2022 at 3:52 AM, noahtheb said:

This is beautiful! Not overly detailed, but just the right amount of it in every corner.

Thanks! I tend to keep my designs simple, my skills can't quite keep up with the indulgent facades of Victorian era architecture. 

On 3/15/2022 at 3:48 PM, JopieK said:

Very nicely built indeed @Exe Sandbox, like @noahtheb said, just the right level of detail for a modular.

Thank you very much! 

23 hours ago, LEGO Train 12 Volts said:

Very nice modular building and wise choice of colors. 

This building remind me the house of Lady Bug! 

 

Thank you! It was lucky LEGO produced just enough parts in those colors to make it work. 

Is Lady Bug a fantasy character or is it this lady?  

20 hours ago, BrickMatit said:

I have to thank your stubbornness 

It's a really lovely building. Interiors are very nice.

Me too hahaha 

Thanks you very much as well!

16 hours ago, Maple said:

Everything about the building is great. The building the textures and colors, the shapes. The quilted bed. Perfect.
I don't like the trees though.

Thanks! (I got the inspiration for the bed from the Medieval Blacksmith set)

Indeed, I've had several comments on the weird trees, and they seem to be the weakest part of the model (though I was convinced they worked well when building). Someone thought they were giant baguettes which I didn't see coming. 

3 hours ago, Redhead1982 said:

So beautiful. Having a picture model as a tool to help choose colors and define shapes might be helpful, but also challenging to stay true to the model. You did a great job recreating the corner building. My favourite detail are the yellow "umbrellas" in front of the building, really a unique detail. Congratulations.

Thank you very much! Relying on a reference image heavily also sacrifices originality, but I'm not an expert at architecture by any means so if I were to do my own thing the result is surely going to look odd.  Copying from a good reference helps keep the model grounded. 

The tall yellow thingies are intended to be some type of columnar trees, but then this wasn't the first time someone thought they were umbrellas, so it may as well be that. 

[gotoAndLego]

With the 2x2 inverted corner slopes over the second floor windows, the standard method of integrating them into the dark red wall would be by using a dark red 1x2 slope brick lowered one plate. Why did you end up using the 1x2 plate with a slope? Did it reduce the gap or was there another parts related reason?

Edited March 16, 2022 by gotoAndLego

[Captain Braunsfeld]

Fine creation. Thanks for sharing the painting that was the inspiration behind the MOC.

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

12 hours ago, ExeSandbox said:

Is Lady Bug a fantasy character or is it this lady?  

 

Miracolus Ladybug ...is a children's cartoon series broadcast by Disney 

[ExeSandbox]

14 hours ago, gotoAndLego said:

With the 2x2 inverted corner slopes over the second floor windows, the standard method of integrating them into the dark red wall would be by using a dark red 1x2 slope brick lowered one plate. Why did you end up using the 1x2 plate with a slope? Did it reduce the gap or was there another parts related reason?

The dark red 1x2 slope bricks would have been more ideal as it is more common, but I picked the 1x2 plate with slope as I wanted to be able to place a layer of bricks above it, though I don't think that makes any difference to the structural integrity either ways, it was just my weird preference 

8 hours ago, Captain Braunsfeld said:

Fine creation. Thanks for sharing the painting that was the inspiration behind the MOC.

Thanks, and you're welcome!

6 hours ago, LEGO Train 12 Volts said:

Miracolus Ladybug ...is a children's cartoon series broadcast by Disney 

Ah I see, I've just looked it up and the house in the show does have similar vibes!

[_TLG_]

Very nice I like the roof technique and the furniture too!

[jelletv]

It's a really great creator expert building I love the parts use in it.
A question do all parts exist in real life so that I can probably put it in the modulation street.

[gotoAndLego]

9 hours ago, ExeSandbox said:

The dark red 1x2 slope bricks would have been more ideal as it is more common, but I picked the 1x2 plate with slope as I wanted to be able to place a layer of bricks above it, though I don't think that makes any difference to the structural integrity either ways, it was just my weird preference 

No problem, always curious about the decisions behind uncommon parts usage.

[ExeSandbox]

18 hours ago, _TLG_ said:

Very nice I like the roof technique and the furniture too!

Thanks! Figuring out the roof was H̵̛̭͚̦͚͙͍̭̰͔̞͇̉̈́̽̀̈̓̓̅̓́̒́̏̕ ̸̧͇̳̘̭̗̖̞̳̤͍̋́͗̃̈́̊̕A̵͇͓̭̟͉͚̱̼̘̳̾̿͊͂̐̓͑͆̿ ̸̡̧̳̘͓̰̭̠̋̑͂̾͘R̸̞͓̝̜̦̻͈͚̻̘͈̩̐̈́̃̉̚ ̸̨̜̻̰͎̭͇͙̿̈̕D̸̺̝͐͐̄̎̈́̾̓͗͊̌̈́̀̎͠͠

13 hours ago, jelletv said:

It's a really great creator expert building I love the parts use in it.
A question do all parts exist in real life so that I can probably put it in the modulation street.

Thank you :) Yes, all the parts exist in real life, I've submitted this model to rebrickable as well, so you can check out the full inventory there. 

[Maple]

On 3/16/2022 at 5:00 AM, ExeSandbox said:

Indeed, I've had several comments on the weird trees, and they seem to be the weakest part of the model (though I was convinced they worked well when building). Someone thought they were giant baguettes which I didn't see coming. 

Look like popsicles to me. 

[hoppa]

I genuinely thought them to be large umbrellas covering a terrace in summer and thought they were awesome 😎

[peedeejay]

Another great and very clean build from you! The colors are great and the white roof works surprisingly well.

[Withacee]

Smashing MOC!
I love the façade and the colour combinations (especially the ground floor).
The interior details are great, on all floors, with the actual bakery on the ground floor as an absolute highlight.

Bright light orange for the cypress trees does not work at all for me, but that can easily be changed to lime, bright green, green or dark green, or a combination thereof :-)

Keep clicking those bricks together!

[ReplicaOfLife]

Cool building! Love the interior, it all feels very warm and cozy.

Making a 'true' modular (with repeatable floors) always is a bit harder than just building them floor by floor, but it's oddly satisfying, even if the possibility is never exploited.