Thursday, April 8, 2010

Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater in 1:40 scale

Name of Model: Fallingwater
Created by: Matija Grguric
Found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/matijagrguric/sets/72157623778661188/
Details:
A while back (we didn't mention it because we don't feel comfortable recommending it due to the extremely high price per part ratio), LEGO released an official Fallingwater kit that is very faithful to the original structure designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. The trouble with the official sets in the Architecture theme and other kits that build landmarks (such as the Taj Mahal, which is currently $50 off) is that the limits of currently available parts and acceptable pricing ensure that no matter what the LEGO company can sell in a kit, it'll be possible for a fan to do a better job with the same source material. In this case, we see Fallingwater rendered at a 1:40 scale (roughly minifig scale, although minifig dimensions are blurry enough to not really fit any scale exactly) instead of the microscale of the original kit. Also interesting about this model is that this one is clearly in a wintery season - note the spindly, leafless trees and the dark icy water.

In the interest of being thorough and giving you all of the display and construction details, I'm stealing the description of this model that appears with most of the photos:

Building info:

Fallingwater, also known as the Edgar J. Kaufmann Sr. Residence, is a house designed by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1934 in rural southwestern Pennsylvania, 50 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. The house was built partly over a waterfall in Bear Run at Rural Route 1 in the Mill Run section of Stewart Township, Fayette County, Pennsylvania, in the Laurel Highlands of the Allegheny Mountains. For the rest of the information regarding the house please visit Wikipedia.

Project:

I've had thoughts about this project since I've built Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye. I finally made up my mind in September 2009. when I began planning and working on some early designs. Scale of the building is minifig, or approximate 1:40. One of the issues was how to make the stone walls of the building. The result here is made out of 4 different shades of grey (old grey and bley). Other was the terrain and vegetation. In the end I decided to make it in winter atmosphere. Snow is something I always enjoy, and I was always more of a winter type of person, so here it is - my first snowy MOC. :)

Building process spread over total of almost 7 months, and the structure is made out of more than 15000 bricks (just an approximate guess). It is placed on 6 48*48 baseplates, and measures 115 x 80 x 50 cm. It weights more than 20 kg. This MOC will be displayed in Technical Museum in Zagreb on "Kockice EXPO 2010", in May and June this year.

I would like to thank dear Klementina for her help and support during the rough times - multiple structure collapses. ;)
Check it out at the links above and/or at the museum in Zagreb in the coming months - this is an excellent model.

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