Frank Lloyd Wright: Martin House

Based in Buffalo New York, The Martin House is one of the jewels in the crown of renowned Modernist architect, Frank Lloyd Wright. Like The Robie House from the same era, it is considered one of the most important examples of Wright's Prairie School style. The main house and surrounding estate were built for businessman Darwin D. Martin between 1903 and 1905, having been commissioned by Martin's elder brother William the year prior, in 1902. It is now open to the public as a historic house museum.

Throughout his career, Wright would refer to the Martin House complex as his opus and "a near-perfect composition"; it's clear the architect held this creation in the highest esteem. As with Robie House, Martin House emphasizes long, horizontal lines, flat or hipped roofs with large overhanging eaves, windows grouped in horizontal bands and minimal ornamentation. Guided by the ideals of the Arts and Crafts movement in terms of its focus on authentic craftsmanship as a reaction to the burgeoning age of mass production, the Prairie School sought to re-work the aesthetics of earlier European classical architecture into a new vernacular indigenous to North America.

I'm a fan of many LEGO themes, but none more so than the Architecture line. While I appreciate modular buildings, it's the emphasis on display and scaled-down accuracy that comes with Architecture that appeals to me the most. For my own sensibilities, I'm particularly drawn to the clean lines, sharp geometries and awe-inspiring scale of Modernist and Brutalist buildings, the former of which Frank Lloyd Wright is a key figure in the history of. LEGO have previously released FLW-themed sets including The Robie House, The Guggenheim, The Imperial Hotel and Fallingwater, all of which I've owned and assembled at some point and found to be among the most enjoyable builds and striking finished products from the whole line.

I think the straight lines and angular style of The Martin House lends itself particularly well to small-scale representation in LEGO and I chose colours I believed to be closest to the real-life source: Medium Nougat for the brick-work, Light Bluish Gray for the concrete detailing and Sand Red for the roof tiles. It is smaller than Minifig scale and there are no moving parts or detachable elements with this build because it's intended purely as a display piece, not a play set; an architectural model to inspect from any angle and soak in all the little exterior details, such as the covered pagoda and terrace, the numerous plant pots atop pillars, overhanging sills, small flights of steps leading to covered walkways and the balcony above the terrace. I worked from various photographic references as well as some digital 3D models of the building, and have tried to be as accurate as possible, though as always, a little artistic license is necessary!

This is definitely my most ambitious project to date in terms of size and scale, though it still comes in well under the new 5000 piece limit.

Part count: 3547

Approx Dimensions: W 60cm L 82cm H 16cm

I enjoyed creating this build so much that I'm sure I'll be doing more architecture in future! If you're also a fan of the works of Frank Lloyd Wright, or just architectural sets in general, I hope for your support, and please do leave a comment if you feel so inclined - it's interesting to read your feedback and also makes it easier for me to check out your projects :)