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Honey, we shrank the monuments: Lego artists build replicas of Singapore landmarks

Lego artists build and transport replicas of S'pore landmarks for a heritage roadshow

Ms Xylvie Wong building part of the National Museum facade. There are 107 windows in this model. She designed the windows to protrude out by half a stud, which made building them very tedious. Although it is quite repetitive, she sometimes forgot how
Ms Xylvie Wong building part of the National Museum facade. There are 107 windows in this model. She designed the windows to protrude out by half a stud, which made building them very tedious. Although it is quite repetitive, she sometimes forgot how a section was built. She then had to refer to those she had just finished assembling. “It is just sucking up my soul to keep repeating, but yet forgetting and having to refer to the already built ones,” she says. ST PHOTOS: GAVIN FOO
Ms Xylvie Wong building part of the National Museum facade. There are 107 windows in this model. She designed the windows to protrude out by half a stud, which made building them very tedious. Although it is quite repetitive, she sometimes forgot how
Ms Xylvie Wong (front) and Mr Andy Goh (back) support one of the models in the lift. The length of the model just fits into the lift with inches to spare. There is not enough standing room. Part of planning for a large model is also to build it such that it is logistically sound during the transportation process. “We have to make sure that it can be broken apart to fit into lifts, tight corridors, doorways and most importantly vehicles, and yet they should not too much trouble to piece back together into one model again on site,” says Ms Wong. ST PHOTOS: GAVIN FOO
Ms Xylvie Wong building part of the National Museum facade. There are 107 windows in this model. She designed the windows to protrude out by half a stud, which made building them very tedious. Although it is quite repetitive, she sometimes forgot how
Different types of Lego bricks are pre-sorted into small pullout drawers, so that when a particular type of brick is needed, it can be retrieved easily. This system saves a lot of time. ST PHOTOS: GAVIN FOO
Ms Xylvie Wong building part of the National Museum facade. There are 107 windows in this model. She designed the windows to protrude out by half a stud, which made building them very tedious. Although it is quite repetitive, she sometimes forgot how
A pair of snakes represent the dragons and a geared wheel represents the central sun on one of Thian Hock Keng’s Temple’s rooftop. Many of the temple’s ornaments were carefully studied to see how different Lego elements could be best used to represent them. ST PHOTOS: GAVIN FOO
Ms Xylvie Wong building part of the National Museum facade. There are 107 windows in this model. She designed the windows to protrude out by half a stud, which made building them very tedious. Although it is quite repetitive, she sometimes forgot how
Mr Eugene Tan places an old Keretapi Tanah Melayu (KTM) train model onto the tracks of the old Tanjong Pagar Railway Station replica. The building is scaled to the size of the train model. The platform pillars are represented by small rods that are more commonly used to hold pieces together. ST PHOTOS: GAVIN FOO
Ms Xylvie Wong building part of the National Museum facade. There are 107 windows in this model. She designed the windows to protrude out by half a stud, which made building them very tedious. Although it is quite repetitive, she sometimes forgot how
The artists assemble the 1.4m-long National Museum model. It was first created in 3D on the computer. This colonial-era building is symmetrical on all four sides, which makes assembling the structure more difficult. They wasted almost one hour after finding out there was a mismatch on one side of the model. They had to disassemble the bricks and reassemble them again. ST PHOTOS: GAVIN FOO
Ms Xylvie Wong building part of the National Museum facade. There are 107 windows in this model. She designed the windows to protrude out by half a stud, which made building them very tedious. Although it is quite repetitive, she sometimes forgot how
Mr Eugene Tan uses an electric drill to secure the Thian Hock Keng temple model onto a wooden plinth with screws. The models are then covered with transparent acrylic cases. This is to prevent the models from moving around in the case during transportation. ST PHOTOS: GAVIN FOO
Ms Xylvie Wong building part of the National Museum facade. There are 107 windows in this model. She designed the windows to protrude out by half a stud, which made building them very tedious. Although it is quite repetitive, she sometimes forgot how
Ms Xylvie Wong, the smallest of the trio, gets into a transparent acrylic case to install a section of the St Andrew’s Cathedral at the warehouse. Some of the larger models had to be transported in parts and assembled on location. ST PHOTOS: GAVIN FOO
Ms Xylvie Wong building part of the National Museum facade. There are 107 windows in this model. She designed the windows to protrude out by half a stud, which made building them very tedious. Although it is quite repetitive, she sometimes forgot how
The trio discuss how to arrange the models in the van and a car. They do not want to make two trips. It takes them almost an hour to fit all the models into the two vehicles. “It’s like playing Tetris, except this is more tiring, and ends with backaches and scratches,” says Mr Tan, referring to a computer brick game. ST PHOTOS: GAVIN FOO
Ms Xylvie Wong building part of the National Museum facade. There are 107 windows in this model. She designed the windows to protrude out by half a stud, which made building them very tedious. Although it is quite repetitive, she sometimes forgot how
Mr Tan and Ms Wong carry the National Museum from the vehicle on a plinth in the warehouse. On the left is a model of the former Nanyang University Library and Administration Building. Each model needs to be carefully handled and placed into position. A misstep would have cost them much more wasted time. ST PHOTOS: GAVIN FOO
Gavin Foo Photojournalist
Updated
May 28, 2018, 07:15 AM
Published
May 28, 2018, 05:00 AM
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By the end of the operation, they were sweaty, their backs were aching and they had scratches on their arms and legs.

Brick artists Xylvie Wong, 34, Eugene Tan, 41, and Andy Goh, 35, were transporting eight Lego models from their homes to a warehouse in northern Singapore earlier this month.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on May 28, 2018, with the headline Honey, we shrank the monuments: Lego artists build replicas of Singapore landmarks. Subscribe

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