Space-saving Condos

My urge to build virtual apartment buildings in Lego Digital Designer continues. Here, I went for high-tech condos in a crowded urban environment. I like this building a lot. Sure, a minifig wouldn’t have much room for more than a futon, toilet, chair, and a flat-screen TV, (dinner out every night!) but that is what I was going for.

I’m not so sure this is recognizable as a condominium building – at least, by itself. If I had actually put a chair and futon inside, maybe it would be more apparent. Or, if it were surrounded by other buildings, perhaps. Still, I am very satisfied with this.

Neighborhood Church

Here is yet another building created in Lego Digital Designer. This time, I built a church based loosely on the church I attended for several years. The challenge I gave myself was to make it look like a church without using any obvious religious symbols. I think I met that challenge very well. In hindsight, I wish I had built a little more detail into it. I like it, but it is not one of my favorite architectural creations.

A Cozy Home

I have decided that Lego Digital Designer is especially well built for architecture. There are a lot of bricks available, and with architecture, there (usually) isn’t a lot of need for placing pieces at odd angles (which I find difficult to control in LDD). This time, I set out to build a house typical of the ones I see in Seattle, with a front porch, chimney, and Asian influences. The trickiest part of the house was the roof. I wanted to make an upper window on the side, like on the front and back, but could never match up  the angles. Eventually,  I had the house done to my satisfaction, and began building a yard. I haven’t yet learned how to build a tree that looks like a tree, so I added bamboo – a lot of houses in Seattle have bamboo in their yards (because of that Asian influence). Lastly, I added the stone wall in front, because a lot of houses in Seattle have them.

There’s something about that stone wall, though – and I haven’t figured out what, exactly – which, combined with the tropical plants, makes this house look rather South American to me. And, if it’s in South America, the fireplace is a bit of an anomaly. That’s OK with me, though – I like this cozy home.

Busy Apartment Block

I am really getting into constructing buildings in Lego Digital Designer. It’s not as much fun as the feeling of feeling the bricks coming together, but I like having the endless box of bricks that LDD offers me. With this apartment building, I wanted to build on a grand scale, with lots of details, and I succeeded. (It even has a dumpster!) On the other hand, in real life, this would be a smallish apartment building – either several small studio apartments, or a few one-bedroom apartments. On the other hand, this thing would cost  $580.19 (according to LDD) if I were to build it with actual Lego bricks.

Overall, I am very happy with this creation.

Modern Apartment Tower

What I meant to write in the previous post is that Lego Digital Designer gives me Lego pieces in quantities I don’t physically own. There were no pieces in the small apartment building that I don’t have – or, at least, pieces similar to them. It’s just having enough of the pieces in the same color that becomes the issue. LDD has a limited number of styles of pieces, but unlimited quantities of them (I think). That was my motive for creating this ten-story 1960s apartment tower – that and the idea that Lego apartment buildings tend to be turn-of-the-last-century brick structures. I couldn’t have done this with my 18 pounds of Lego. (I’m not complaining.)

I’m liking LDD for architecture. The “Clone” tool makes repeated elements easier. The “Paint” tool makes it easier to try out various color options without rebuilding. (At first, the glass walls were black – for some reason, the light blue looks more like glass to me.) I was a little concerned that the white elements against the white screenshot background was going to be a problem without some Photoshop work – but I think it turned out OK.

Anyway, I like the way this modern apartment tower turned out. Of course, since it is the Space Age, it has a heliport.

You can see the front door at the end of the walkway