All Miniature Models

Every once in a while, a LEGO announcement lands directly in the overlap between several of my obsessions. Architecture. Miniatures. Complicated construction. Tiny pieces being asked to perform jobs their designers probably never imagined. Then LEGO announced Sagrada Família 21065. I was doomed immediately...

Anker (Anchor) stones began life in the late 19th century with the Lilienthal brothers—yes, the glider-flying Lilienthals—who experimented with stone building blocks to teach structure and form. Businessman Friedrich A. Richter saw the potential, refined the material into a durable, precisely molded composite, and launched the Anker Steinbaukasten system from Rudolstadt, Germany. The magic was (and still is) the module: pieces follow an exact grid so arches, lintels...