Visitors to Titanic Belfast this summer can go on a miniature around-the-world trip with the arrival of Brick City, an exhibition showcasing the most iconic architectural buildings in the world made entirely from Lego bricks.
Jenny Lee finds out more from Lego master builder Warren Elsmore
BARCELONA'S Sagrada Familia, Shanghai's Pearl Tower, Rome's Colosseum, the Reichstag in Berlin, London's Olympic Park and Westminster Abbey are just some of the buildings meticulously recreated in Lego for the touring exhibition Brick City.
While children have been enthralled by the endless possibilities of the plastic interlocking bricks for years, Edinbugh-based Lego artist Warren Elsmore has made a career from it. When he fell in love with Lego again in his 20s - ironically through a gift from his then girlfriend - Elsmore's creations got bigger and bigger and more intricate.
His 'hobby' was taking up so much time he gave up his 15-year career in IT to become a full-time independent artist in Lego bricks - though, since the launch of the Lego Movie he prefers to calls himself a "Lego master builder". "I decided that Lego was more fun," laughs Elsmore. "I started in the same way as everyone else, when I was three or four, getting Lego sets for Christmas. I put it aside for a bit when I was a teenager but being given a model of the Statue of Liberty as a birthday present, I discovered my passion was stronger than ever. "While to many, Lego bricks are 'just a toy', to an ever-growing army of fans they provide a challenging and enjoyable modelling medium."
With more confidence, and disposable income, Elsmore set about building the Lego city he had always wanted to build as a child. Next he built a scale model copy of his own house, complete with mini figures inside.
A three-foot-long model of the Forth Bridge in Scotland followed and yet Elsmore wanted "something more ambitious". "Eighteen months and 120,000 bricks later, I unveiled my model of London's St Pancras railways station at the Lego Show in Denmark," he says.
The huge model, which is detailed to the extent it has commuters going down escalators and a guest in a hotel bath, is the centrepiece of his Brick City show.
At almost 1.5 metres wide and 3.5 metres long, it demonstrates the engineering quality of Lego bricks. "The arched roof in this model uses the same structural technique as the real building, with the walls being able to support the huge weight of the arch as tie beams attach them to the floor," he explains.
A must-see for Lego enthusiasts of all ages, the Brick City exhibition features 72 architectural scale models, made in Lego, all of which appear in Warren's accompanying book Brick City. "Brick City is the result of my lifelong love affair with Lego. It is both a celebration of amazing global architecture and my love of the possibilities of Lego bricks," he says.
The exhibition also features models by his wife Teresa Elsmore and fellow Lego artist Alistair
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*A MODEL STORY:The Brick City exhibition features 72 architectural scale models which are all made from Lego
* Olympic-Stadium,
London
*St Basil's Cathedral, Moscow
* Taj Mahal, India
* St Pancras Station, London