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Fine dine and get some pictures taken at the Florentine Palazzo!

How am I so bad at keeping myself promises. Last time out, with the release of Octan Avenue, I thought that a full year between modulars was long enough. Well... this one took two years :wacko:. Anyway, I think it was worth the wait. The Florentine Palazzo is my twelfth modular building and my fourth corner modular.

Free Instructions for this model available at Rebrickable!

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This model went through a gigantic number of changes. It started as two separate projects that I joined into one. On one side, I had project code name "Worcester" (yes, I give my projects code names :monkey:), a new modular building on two 16x32 baseplates (à la Pet Shop or Bookshop) with a distinctly English architecture. Base inspiration was this pair of building in the town of (you guessed it) Worcester. I still might pick up this idea sometime, but it wasn't quite working out then. The other project was a redesign of my second modular, the Italian Villa (my first EB topic I believe) to make instructions. My techniques then were not the most elaborate and the builds weren't exactly designed for stability. Upgrading the Italian Villa would have meant a whole lot of changes probably, so I scrapped that too. But then I thought about doing a brand new modular in a similar vein, which is the Florentine Palazzo! Since it was going to get instructions, I thought about what I really would like to have in modular town. A companion to the Parisian Restaurant came to mind immediately. None of the subsequent buildings match its elegance in shapes and overall refined look. In terms of overall size and details, I tried to get close to the restaurant's greatness.

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As of late, I prefer looking at drawings rather than real buildings for inspiration. They leave more to the imagination and make me feel less like a plageriser. Anyway, the main inspiration for the palazzo was a building in the Alsatian town of Colmar (drawing · real building). It is not really a building that through one of my usual Google Maps trips I would pick out as inspiration, but the drawing made the creative juices start flowing. Initially, I tried to recreate the building faithfully, but I soon found that joining the upper "towers" closer together made for a more cohesive and interesting façade, so I went down that route.

These days I rarely do a full 32x32 baseplate as a single building and the space next to the staircase led perfectly to a completely different kind of architecture next door. One of the styles of architecture that I had been wanting to put in modular form for a while is the architecture of Malta. To me it just feels like the architecture one would find in Sicily but with delightfully colourful timber balconies dotted about to give it interest. As some of you may know, restrain in colour choices really isn't my thing ( *cough *cough Baseplate Alley anyone? :snicker:) so this was an interesting exercise in exactly that. Anyway, I had so much fun "carving" details in the plain tan façade to the point that I might prefer this bit over the entire model. I particularly like how the façade keeps sloping back as it goes up. The buuilding was inspired by the Palazzo Ferreria in Valetta.

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Interiors:

Interiors have never been my biggest strength and probably will never be at this rate. Still, I've tried my best to make them quite interesting. Have I succeeded? Hopefully :def_shrug:

 

1. Ground floor:

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Initially, I wanted to build a post office, but before doing any of the interiors, I showed the building to a friend of mine and he told me something along the lines of "Are you crazy? You should definitely be building a restaurant there!". To be fair, it does look like a prime spot for a restaurant, plus it matches the Parisian Restaurant, so restaurant it was. On top of that, the alleyway I had built under the Maltese house could theoretically be used for bringing stock to the restaurant, so that too makes sense. I think it turned out rather nice honestly.

2. Middle floor:

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Part of the problem of doing the exterior before the interior is that sometimes one has to mould the interior concept to what is already there. Ideally, the restaurant would have taken up two floors, but the exterior stairs with the fountain underneath was way too cute to remove. And having waiters go up and down exterior stairs didn't quite feel right. That's when the idea of a photography studio came, mostly because there was a dark room on the attic which would be pretty much be perfect for a developing room. The middle floor includes the cameras on sale plus a studio for studio portraiture.

3. Attic:

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The developing room was fun to build. An enlarger, three trays for developer, stop and fixer mixtures, a cupboard full of chemicals and a sink. I also had a photo drying string, but, honestly, Studio (where I make the instructions) is so crap at dealing with flexible parts that I deleted it after much frustration :pirate-sad

 

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To see everything that I haven’t been able to explain in words, feel free to take a look at the model yourselves, many of the “how was this/that made” are visible!

3D MODEL

And, of course, the free instructions that you can use to build this model for yourselves!

FREE INSTRUCTIONS

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Thanks for reading through and hope you like the model!

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Edited by paupadros

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It’s definitely been worth the wait, I love this so much Pau! :wub: The two buildings complement each other very nicely color wise and architecturally speaking. The different types of vegetation throughout add a charm to the whole build as well as the detailed interior! 

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19 hours ago, LegoModularFan said:

It’s definitely been worth the wait, I love this so much Pau! :wub: The two buildings complement each other very nicely color wise and architecturally speaking. The different types of vegetation throughout add a charm to the whole build as well as the detailed interior! 

Thank you so much Bartu! Getting two buildings to work together can be a bit of a challenge. This time, the colours don't really clash that much, so it was more a matter of making them seem proportionate with one another and that they had a similar level of detail so neither would look out of place. In the past, I've been told a few times that my builds can look a bit too overly clean and not lived-in. Vegetation is a great way to tie the various elements together and to give that extra colour that might otherwise be missing. Thanks for the comment:pir-thumb:

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So good to see another Modular Building from you! (Can't imagine it's been two years. :laugh:) The choice of composition is quite inspired! Mixing the Parisian Restaurant layout into a corner building is certainly something I haven't seen before, and it works well! (With the staircase, it almost looks like the tan building trying to hug the front one. :head_back: I think that helps blend the two buildings together.) The color blocking is thoughtful as well, they both accentuate or mask details appropriately. 

Man, you've also got a knack for building in all four directions, those windows looked like a technical challenge to fit into the building (not to mention the whole chunk at the top built upside down), although maybe at the cost of the interior in some places. 

As well, can definitely agree with preferring drawings over photos :wink:, perhaps there's also something with them being more vibrant and colorful compared to real life, which is easier to picture with the bright colors of LEGO bricks. 

But overall, it's been very cool to see how your modular designs continue to evolve over time!

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On 9/6/2022 at 3:50 PM, ExeSandbox said:

So good to see another Modular Building from you! (Can't imagine it's been two years. :laugh:) The choice of composition is quite inspired! Mixing the Parisian Restaurant layout into a corner building is certainly something I haven't seen before, and it works well! (With the staircase, it almost looks like the tan building trying to hug the front one. :head_back: I think that helps blend the two buildings together.) The color blocking is thoughtful as well, they both accentuate or mask details appropriately. 

Man, you've also got a knack for building in all four directions, those windows looked like a technical challenge to fit into the building (not to mention the whole chunk at the top built upside down), although maybe at the cost of the interior in some places. 

As well, can definitely agree with preferring drawings over photos :wink:, perhaps there's also something with them being more vibrant and colorful compared to real life, which is easier to picture with the bright colors of LEGO bricks. 

But overall, it's been very cool to see how your modular designs continue to evolve over time!

Thank you for the detailled response @ExeSandbox! To be honest, the composition being similar to the Parisian Restaurant but on a corner was a bit of an accident. On the one hand, I had the stair + fountain combo in tan which I had really wanted to incorporate into a corner modular for a while. It's pretty much lifted from @Giacinto Consiglio. Back in 2017 or 2018, we started doing a collab modular which never really got past a few bricks laid. In that model, he wanted to incorporate a sort of arched gallery with a walkway on top, accessible from a few steps located on the corner, with a fountain beneath. He has used that idea/motif prenty of times before and I just wanted to do it myself in a modular too. And on the other hand, the Parisian Restaurant shapes I was working on. It was definitely not planned ;)

The windows were a bit challenging to fit and do take up quite a bit of room and make the piece count and price rise. In fact, I began the model from the top with the whole upside down bits at the top. It was so SNOT heavy up there that it was easier to make larger assemblies that also included the windows rather than fitting one of the window moulds, as counterintuitive as that may sound. So then, at the rest of the building, I had to design windows in a similar vein, which do indeed end up being quite chunky. Honestlhy, though, I'm more than fine with that because usually interiors really aren't my thing and having less space for them isn't an issue.

The thing you say about vibrancy and colourfulness is a very interesting point. I really hadn't thought about it that way, but it certainly is easier to picture drawings as Lego models over pictures of real life. Funnily though, I already had plenty of drawings on the backlog to use for inspiration in the design, but only truly embraced the drawing as a "legitimate" source of inspiration when I saw that your latest model (Corner Bakery I think it was called) was inspired by a drawing.

Just curious what are you working on?

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On 9/8/2022 at 11:20 PM, paupadros said:

Thank you for the detailled response @ExeSandbox! To be honest, the composition being similar to the Parisian Restaurant but on a corner was a bit of an accident. On the one hand, I had the stair + fountain combo in tan which I had really wanted to incorporate into a corner modular for a while. It's pretty much lifted from @Giacinto Consiglio. Back in 2017 or 2018, we started doing a collab modular which never really got past a few bricks laid. In that model, he wanted to incorporate a sort of arched gallery with a walkway on top, accessible from a few steps located on the corner, with a fountain beneath. He has used that idea/motif prenty of times before and I just wanted to do it myself in a modular too. And on the other hand, the Parisian Restaurant shapes I was working on. It was definitely not planned ;)

The windows were a bit challenging to fit and do take up quite a bit of room and make the piece count and price rise. In fact, I began the model from the top with the whole upside down bits at the top. It was so SNOT heavy up there that it was easier to make larger assemblies that also included the windows rather than fitting one of the window moulds, as counterintuitive as that may sound. So then, at the rest of the building, I had to design windows in a similar vein, which do indeed end up being quite chunky. Honestlhy, though, I'm more than fine with that because usually interiors really aren't my thing and having less space for them isn't an issue.

The thing you say about vibrancy and colourfulness is a very interesting point. I really hadn't thought about it that way, but it certainly is easier to picture drawings as Lego models over pictures of real life. Funnily though, I already had plenty of drawings on the backlog to use for inspiration in the design, but only truly embraced the drawing as a "legitimate" source of inspiration when I saw that your latest model (Corner Bakery I think it was called) was inspired by a drawing.

Just curious what are you working on?

Ah I see, no wonder this one has some Giacinto Consiglio vibes to it! Thanks for sharing some additional background on your model, interesting to know that the similar composition to PR wasn't planned. 

It was cool seeing the building techniques that went into those windows from the instructions (big props for making them free), although they may be chunky, the whole is definitely greater than the sum of it's parts. 

Yeah it's nice that drawings tend to simplify things too. I love seeing photos of real buildings as well, but in real life there's different materials used with different textures which are often essential in it's design, while all we have to work with are shiny plastic bricks. :head_back: On the other hand there are also super detailed paintings and sketches. As a result, I have to depend on colors and shape as a crutch when looking for references to work with, and drawings do stick out more in that aspect.

I'm currently working on a couple of MOC commissions, haven't had the time to work on personal projects as a result. Though with a full year almost passing already, I hope I can start cooking up designs for my next modular soon. :laugh:

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On 9/12/2022 at 6:49 AM, ExeSandbox said:

Ah I see, no wonder this one has some Giacinto Consiglio vibes to it! Thanks for sharing some additional background on your model, interesting to know that the similar composition to PR wasn't planned. 

It was cool seeing the building techniques that went into those windows from the instructions (big props for making them free), although they may be chunky, the whole is definitely greater than the sum of it's parts. 

Yeah it's nice that drawings tend to simplify things too. I love seeing photos of real buildings as well, but in real life there's different materials used with different textures which are often essential in it's design, while all we have to work with are shiny plastic bricks. :head_back: On the other hand there are also super detailed paintings and sketches. As a result, I have to depend on colors and shape as a crutch when looking for references to work with, and drawings do stick out more in that aspect.

I'm currently working on a couple of MOC commissions, haven't had the time to work on personal projects as a result. Though with a full year almost passing already, I hope I can start cooking up designs for my next modular soon. :laugh:

There's not many of us in the modular MOC frenzie so it's kind of inevitable that we take a peek at what the others are doing! Honestly, I think that it's easy to overintellectualise one's intentions with a model when, most often, things happen organically. Raising my hands and just saying "I stumbled upon that on accident" is just as valid I'd say.

I agree that the windows are definitely chunky, that said, as you may well know, interiors have never been my biggest strength, so losing interior space isn't a big deal at all. The techniques get a bit wacky (and maybe even sketchy) in a few areas of the model, the windows being one of those areas. Anyway, I think it's worth it for the grand façade that results from it.

Great to see you are getting some commissions. Admittedly it's not something I've ever done or I think I'd be too keen to do, but you never know. After a while of not having designed a modular don't you get a million ideas of things you'd like to do with your next? It happens to me all the time!

 

On 9/13/2022 at 10:20 PM, LEGO Train 12 Volts said:

Your style of recreating architecture is gorgeous! :excited:

This is another wonderful work :wub:

The quality of the photos is the icing on the cake! :thumbup:

Thank you so much! I'm really glad you like the model and the presentation!

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Hi!

I recently got the chance to write an article for Brickset about desinging custom modular buildings. In the article, I talk about the whole design process of this model. It encompasses from inspirational images, moodboards, to rouch digital sketches, to failed attempts, to a look into what my digital workflow usually looks like. I hope you will find it interesting and that you can go "oh I don't do this!" or "how come he doesn't do this? It's so useful!". Here's the article!

About 2 years ago I also did another article for Brickset about the composition of modular buildings wihich might be of interest to you too ;)

 

Pau

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Hello folks!

I'm very proud to announce that I've submitted the Florentine Palazzo to the Bricklink Designer Program Series 1!

Out of the 375 models submitted, 5 will be selected. Part of the decision will be based on which models get more votes. So, if you'd like to own the Florentine Palazzo, go give it some love!

https://www.bricklink.com/v3/designer-program/series-1/229/Florentine-Palazzo

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