A Reader's Eichler Lego Model Reproduces Claude Oakland

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Let it never be said that readers of The Eichler Network lack for imagination and drive. In our coverage of Lego's new Architecture Studio set, we asked to see your own Lego versions of Eichler houses, and reader Mark Papamarcos, of Sunnyvale, delivered with aplomb. "My son and I are big Lego fans," Papamarcos said, so the project of reproducing their family home, above, was a natural task for them. Check it out:

Papamarcos sent in this fantastic reproduction of his Claude Oakland-designed home, built in 1969 as part of the Primewood neighborhood, in which he and his family have lived since 1997 as the second owners. He and his son make a passtime of constructing elaborate structures in the back of the Lego store whenever they get a chance to stop by. And there are plenty of bricks lying around the house for at-home improvising. Papamarcos said it took about an hour and a half from the initial sketch on drawing paper to the completed build, for which they used the Lego Architecture Studio set, augmented with a few extra pieces from the home collection.

What makes it so cool? Well, for one thing it's a scale model, with each lego brick representing about four feet in the real world. For another, this representation includes details specific to Papamarcos's house, which he and his son gleaned by walking around the house and making tweaks to represent the true aesthetics.

"Some things had to be abstracted, so on one side of the real house there are two large windows but there's just one in the model. It would have been too busy if I tried to put everything in there." The four-foot scale means the structure's walls are relatively thick, and the interior was impossible, but the atrium is accurate, Papamarcos said.

Lego models of mid-century modern homes grace the web with some frequency, often on sites such as Dwell, where we've even seen an Eichler reproduction. But compared to the others, the Papamarcoses' model excels in its accuracy and attention to detail. Here's to them, and to all those obsessed by their awesome Eichlers. Keep building!