Something Holy comes this way....

[Scnicker]

Greetings fellow C-C members,

Nobody dared to build something like the thing you're about to see... Nobody did... Nah, I don't like this introduction

I was sitting on my bed, trying to find ideas for what to build next. Suddenly, I heard the prayer from the nearby mosque and all of a sudden I found it. I was going to build a mosque. First of all, I did some web research on mosques, looking at architectures and so forth. Luckily, that day I had to go to Sultanahmet(Where Hagia Sophia is located). Anyways, I decided to sit on a bench and look at Hagia Sophia for some inspiration and after 15 minutes of viewing, I decided what my color scheme would be; grey and red. Also if you know a bit about Hagia Sophia, you would know that the Ottomans turned it into a mosque after they conquered Constantinople so basically Hagia Sophia used to be a big cathedral. I decided that I would first build it as a cathedral then add the minarets. And it worked great for me. I spent 24h on this building. It's built on 64x64 studs and I used more than 4000 bricks on it. It consumed all my grey pieces and all my red plates. Anyways, enough with the background, I present you my Mosque:




Deeplinks:
The front of the mosque(pic taken with Flash):

http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/Scnic ... e_002v.jpg

An Angled View From the Top:

http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/Scnic ... e_003v.jpg

The Dome and the 2 Minarets:

http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/Scnic ... e_016v.jpg

And two citizens that are waiting for the prayer:

http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/Scnic ... e_009v.jpg

The pictures go up to 018

And the folder when Public:

http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=151953

Please do comment on this for the sake of the hard work put into it. Also any criticism is welcome. And btw, this may be a CCCIII entry.

Regards,

Yankı

[Recluce]

Well... I like it! Only got a few gripes with it, and it may be a moot point depending on what your original source looked like (I've never seen the Hagia Sophia).

1. It's boxy. Very. Even a little bit of contour and ornamentation on the outside walls would be nice. Statues? Fixtures? Anything?

2. Colors. I like the grey and red, but it still needs more... I've seen tons of mosques... and they all were very colorful. Red, blue, yellow, green, gold, and usually with a tan brick base. I'd like to see at least one more color in this MOC.

And that's it. Otherwise, its a nice MOC that could be a great MOC with another week of working on improvements and details.

[Scnicker]

Well, as you'll see, Hagia Sophia is not a colorful mosque at all
The mosques you've seen are probably Arabian mosques, but the architecture of them is way different in Turkey. A few examples:

Hagia Sophia:
http://crusades.boisestate.edu/pics/Con ... 20view.jpg
Sultanahmet Mosqye:
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/tsa/tr-pict/sultanahmet.jpg
Fatih Mosque:
http://www.deviajes.net/turquia/img/fatih.jpg
Selimiye Mosque:
http://i1.trekearth.com/photos/14326/3e ... sque03.jpg

Satisfied with the examples I hope I know it's a bit dull, but making statues were forbidden for a long time

[Lord Mikal]

Ohh... It's big...

The dome and minarets look good, and I really like the front doors, but the rest of it is extremely plain. I havent' seen the source either, but most places of worship are much more decorated than this. I don't think that the boxiness is really a bad thing, but more, well, greebles would do a lot for breaking up the Big Grey Wall. i know, your wall isn't all grey, but it's still just a big wall.

I like the shape, and I like the details you have.

[Recluce]

Scnicker, you are quite correct, the ones I had seen were in Iraq, and most were small and heaving decorated. The larger ones I saw were also nicely decoreted, usually on the done and minarets, but the rest was a bit more dull, like your examples.

Seeing those reference images, it does make a bit more sense. Although.... now I have some new reccomendations!

1. Try adding some mottling. Maybe some tan or even sand red in with the light grey. It'll give it a worn feeling, and will add color that lends a bit.

2. While not having a lot of decoration, there is still some deviation from the flat walls... even a small lip or ledge in a darker color would add a lot to the feel of the MOC.

[Scnicker]

I was thinking of adding leaves together to make it look old. Also some green wouldn't hurt the eyes and an example of what I'm talking about: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=705590

[Recluce]

That would be good..... and you know this piece might be good for a little bit of change and texture. I'm thinking a row of these with the grooves in the horizontal position, going all around the top of the mosque, maybe 1 or 2 bricks below the roof. Does that make any sense to you?

[Scnicker]

Yeah it does, and it's a really good idea Recluce, but there is one,little, slight problem; I don't have that many Of course if I can convince my dad to make some bricklink purchases, I might do it

[Recluce]

Yeah it does, and it's a really good idea Recluce, but there is one,little, slight problem; I don't have that many Of course if I can convince my dad to make some bricklink purchases, I might do it

Ahh, and there lies the sticky problem....


Hehehe, or you could always trade for them. Or, perhaps someone here has extras. And, wow, if they made that piece in sand red, that would rock!

[Bruce N H]

Hey Scnickr,

I like the dome and the minarets a lot. As others said, the rest is kind of boxy, but so is the original. I'm not sure why you said "no one dared" to build something like this, though--I've certainly seen other LEGO mosques, including ones by Freak and Lenny, and if you're talking scale there are other buildings (no mosques but several cathedrals) built on the same scale. Anyway, great to see people drawing on different architectural styles.

Bruce

[Scnicker]

I was just kidding Bruce, yes I meant a mosque this big My father agreed on making a huge purchase, but I must ask him again a dozen times to really believe it