LDD: Minifig-Scale MOD/MOC of Farnsworth House Set #21009

[Locutis]

After reading a review posted on here about the Farnsworth House, I liked the set alot. The only thing that bothered me was the scale it was designed in.

This weekend I was a bit bored, so I decided to create a mock-up of this set in minifig scale, using Lego Digital Designer.

It's not perfect, and there's no interior, I was simply testing the scale and proportions of it.

Please let me know what you think.

[edit: revisions follow in my replies below - please be sure to see all messages showing the progression]

Locutis

Edited October 14, 2011 by Locutis

[tafkatb]

It's certainly a good start! I think some of the elements are a little bulky in the original scale, so you might consider playing with the proportions more instead of doubling everything up - the columns could stay at 1x1 and you could double the number of stairs rather than the size of them to make this look closer to the actual house. Hope to see more pics as you flesh out he interior too!

[Locutis]

How's this?

Edit: deleted photo - see below for updated photos

Locutis

Edited October 14, 2011 by Locutis

[tafkatb]

Nice! I would also recommend thinning the roof and floor slabs as much as possible. And here are some images of the interior you can use for reference for more furniture.

[Locutis]

Nice! I would also recommend thinning the roof and floor slabs as much as possible. And here are some images of the interior you can use for reference for more furniture.

I have rebuilt the entire building from scratch. This model represents a near perfect 1:48 scale of the real Farnsworth House, although it seems like the windows aren't tall enough, according to my calculations the height is correct.

Would you improve on this design at all?

Locutis

[tafkatb]

That looks awesome! As close to a perfect minifig-scale model as you can get until TLG starts producing wide-flange beam pieces Very nice work.

[Splat]

Nice work Locutis

I bought the Lego Farnsworth House set recently, and my first thought was the same as yours - "redesign it for minifig scale". Given that it was just designed as a weekend retreat, it isn't a huge house, so it works well at minifig scale, and doesn't end up too large.

Some things that you might want to pay attention to:

• The thinner roof supports definitely look more realistic. One thing to note is that roof isn't completely flat - it drains water down towards the middle (link a sink), but this angle is probably negligible at this scale.
  
• There is a air conditioner unit on the roof, above the 'utility core'. Most photos are taken from ground level, so the top of the roof is normally obscured (which is why it was designed this way). There are very few photos that show the top of the roof of this house, but you can sort of see the air conditioner unit in this photo:
  
  
• There is supposed to be a utility pipe that goes under the house from the 'utility core' to the ground (which was not in the official Lego model either). In the above photo, you can see it as a thicker black pipe under the house in addition to the other supports. Again, this has been designed to 'disappear' so the house looks like it is floating.
  
• The house is 5 feet 3 inches (1.6m) off the ground, so a minifig should almost be able to walk underneath it. I think yours looks pretty close
  
• The stairs should be 'floating' - in your design there is a solid support under the bottom stairs that shouldn't be there.
  
  
• At the moment you have two supports between the deck and the house - one that supports the deck, and one that supports the house. There should only be a single support going all the way up.
  
• As you mentioned, the windows do look a bit short, but that might just be an optical illusion.
  
• How are you designing the doors?
  

When designing some of the interior details, you could get some inspiration from this Flickr set by Brixe63

I also came across this Lego version of the Farnsworth House too:

I'll be following your progress on this...

Edited February 15, 2016 by Splat

[sharky]

Wonderful! I think I'm starting to get inspired to build my own for my very first AFOL MOC project.

@Locutis: If the ceiling height is not working out when you precisely scaled it down, perhaps you can cheat a little and raise the ceiling height to give the minifigures more room inside. Or even scale the whole thing up slightly so that the ceiling height is more aesthetically pleasing to the eye. No reason why you can't. Looking forward to seeing the interior.