How To Become A LEGO Architect

Admit it: you have a secret LEGO stash somewhere. Before you had even considered becoming an architect, you had already built cities, developed housing and mastered the art of using every last brick, no matter the size.

You may think you've outgrown your favorite toy now, but we have the perfect book to turn your childhood LEGO collection into a legitimate (and seriously fun) adult pastime. The LEGO Architect by Tom Alphin brings the best of playtime to the forefront of design through a visual story of the history of building, infused by models made entirely of LEGO. 

Find out how to build your own neoclassical dome, or Frank Lloyd Wright's trademark Prairie House, or even the iconic Lever House by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, using the simplest of LEGO components. Enter the world of The LEGO Architect, where little white bricks can do anything with a little ingenuity and some architectural know-how. 

Broken into categories by architectural period, Alphin explains how to build everything from art deco towers to brutalist libraries with LEGO bricks. With the help of a team of LEGO building artists, Alphin collected some of the most impressive (and realistic) tiny buildings, producing a beautiful compendium of miniature architecture expressed using plain white bricks.

As educational as it is fun, The LEGO Architect is full of bite-sized portions of architectural history, beginning with the first use of columns in ancient Egypt, back when they weren't tiny and plastic. The book draws a LEGO-infused timeline from neoclassical through prairie style, art deco, modernism, brutalism, and postmodernism, leading into present day. Alphin dubs the current style "high tech," referring to works by futurists like Daniel Libeskind,Santiago Calatrava, and I.M. Pei.

Finally, the building section: Alphin has incorporated a seriously awesome, in-depth chapter on how to go about constructing the LEGO masterworks included in the book, and many more. The Builders Guide covers all of the necessities, ranging from generating ideas, to building in the correct scale, to a detailed examination of every single type of LEGO building component. Get ready to build your own tiny Burj Khalifa, Chrysler Building, or Fallingwater. If this doesn't bring out your inner child, we don't know what will. As a teaser, check out Alphin's step-by-step guide to building SOM's Lever House below.