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There’s only about 5 weeks left ‘til Brickworld ‘08! Hopefully you’ve all
started working on your MOCs by now, but for those that haven’t, or those that
want to add something else to their plate, we’ve got a new collaborative display
that we’ve put together for the show.
The LEGO Mansion is a house building collaboration. Each standard module
represent a room within the mansion. These rooms can be representative of
anything you like from something as simple as a dining room or bedroom to a
gymnasium or pool or beyond.
We have created a set of standards for designing modules so that they will all
combine together for a nice singular display. Along with a list of all the
standards, I have included a link to a Flickr album showing images of a standard
module, in order to give you something to base yours off of.
For this particular show, our exterior wall standard will be TAN. Our door
height standard will be 6-bricks tall, which matches up with the newer door
styles found in sets like the Green Grocer, Town Plan, or Beach House.
Photos of our module standard can be found
here:
Standards are as follows:
Standards:
Purpose
Each module consists of a ‘room’ within the entire LEGO Mansion. That room can
be anything someone desires to build: a kitchen, a bathroom, a one-hole golf
course, a disco dance floor, a sandy beach...whatever one’s heart desires that
the pocketbook can afford.
Width/Depth
These rooms can be built to six(6) standard sizes, in terms of width and depth.
Sizes are listed in terms of studs. The depth from front to back is always 16
studs. Width-wise, it can be any multiple of 8 up to 48 (width of a green
baseplate). So our six sizes are 8, 16, 24, 32, 40 or 48 studs wide, and 16
studs deep. To put these in perspective, the 8 wide rooms would be ideal for
broom closets or a small bathroom, perhaps. 16 wide would do for a simple dining
room or small bedroom/den. Our hallways will most likely be this width. 24
wide would work for a larger sized bedroom, kitchen, or boxing ring. The 32
wides and beyond I imagine would work best for things like a home theater,
ballroom, basketball court, swimming pool...things like that.
Height
Total module height differs from the room height itself. Module height from top
to bottom is 14 bricks tall. Room height is 12 bricks.
Section Breakdown
Foundation
On the very bottom, we have a base one(1) brick high. This is the foundation.
This base will connect onto the top of the module below it, or simply rest on
the table, if it’s a first-floor model.
Flooring
Just above that, we have the flooring. This is one(1) plate thick and covers
the entire foundation. Good uses for this are to put down a proper tile floor
or something that will fit the floor of your room. Most likely you’ll need to
leave the edge as studs, because the walls will be placed down on top of this
section.
Walls
The walls of the room start atop the Flooring, and extend upward 12 full bricks.
Walls are 1 stud wide on either side of the room, and 2 studs wide on the back
wall. The back wall should be built with your room’s interior colors on the
inside, and the collaborative exterior color on the outside (for Brickworld ‘08,
the exterior color is tan). The color of the side walls will not matter, as the
walls for the rooms/hallways on either side of yours will cover this up. As a
caveat, if you intend to build more than one module and have them placed side by
side, you could add in something unique like a half wall between them.
Doors/Windows
In order to connect all the rooms together, we are setting all doors/doorways
back 2 studs from the front of the module. A door should be placed on either one
or both side walls to accommodate connections with other rooms. Doors placed in
the rear wall for things like patios or balconies can be placed anywhere along
the back wall. Windows should, in almost all instances, only be placed in the
rear wall, as the side walls will be connecting into other rooms, and any
windows there would look out of place. The door height standard for this show
is 6 bricks tall. All the newer style doors adhere to this height standard.
Ceilings
The ceiling section is a single plate thick, and should be placed atop the
walls, and cover the entire expanse of your module. I suggest 8x16 wide plates
for this, but you are free to design it however you like. If you need more than
one plate’s thickness for your ceiling, you should reduce the wall height of
your room to accommodate this. For example, if you needed to use a full
brick’s height for your ceiling, you would reduce your room height by 2 plates
to compensate. This can provide structure for archways or ways to design
something more elaborate than a flat ceiling. Note: if you intend to have your
ceiling plates exposed on the rear exterior wall, try to keep it the same color
as the rest of the exterior wall, or contain the exposure to a single plate’s
height.
Roof Tiles
On top of the ceiling, we have the roof tiles. This is a single plate’s
thickness. This section is essentially just a single layer of tiles covering
the top of the module, save for the corners. Each of the four corners of your
module should have a 2x2 corner plate (an ‘L’ plate) to connect to the room(s)
above. Again, try to keep the rear edge tiles a tan color to keep with the rest
of the collaborative display. You need not completely cover the roof in tiles;
there simply need to be enough there to prevent the module above from
over-connecting wth the room below. We only want the four corners as connection
points.
These are all the sections needed to complete a module for our Mansion.
Other Notes
Hallways/Stairwells
We plan on providing a number of sections of hallways and stairwells for the
display this year, and we will figure out a public standard for them some time
in the future. Hallways and stairwells stack on top of one another,
respectively, and will not be placed above or below other types of rooms.
Hallways and Stairwells will be either 8x16 or 16x16 modules with open door
frames leading to the rooms.
Rooms will be combined into the different ‘wings’ of the mansion. Each wing
will be separated by a section of stairs/halls on either side. A wing will be
either 32 or 48 studs wide. Therefore, when planning your builds, make note of
the combinations available for a single floor within a wing. For 32-wide wings,
it’s possible to have 4 rooms at 8 studs wide each, two 16-wide rooms, one
8-wide and one 24-wide side-by-side, or a single 32-wide room. Another
possibility would be two 8-wides and a 16-wide. 48-wide wings offer a few more
possible combinations. This may not have any real direct influence on how you
build your modules, it’s more just something to keep in mind while designing.
That’s it for now. A basic module can take as little as an hour or two to
build, so there’s definitely plenty of time left to get something made for this
display. Can’t wait to see what everyone comes up with!
Feel free to direct any questions you may have to my email
here.
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