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Singapore’s Unesco World Heritage Site replicated using 12,000 Lego pieces

SINGAPORE – The nation’s first Unesco World Heritage Site, the Botanic Gardens, will be among the 43 Unesco World Heritage Sites from 32 countries that will be featured in a Lego exhibition here.

SINGAPORE – The nation’s first Unesco World Heritage Site, the Botanic Gardens, will be among the 43 Unesco World Heritage Sites from 32 countries that will be featured in a Lego exhibition here.

The Piece of Peace World Heritage exhibition has travelled from Japan to Hong Kong and Taiwan, and has attracted over 2.9 million visitors worldwide.

Singapore’s Botanic Gardens was built by Wong Jun Heng, 38, and it took him two weeks and 12,000 Lego pieces to build the site’s replica.

Although the piece of work stands at only 115cm by 76cm, the Botanic Gardens model features the famed gazebo – an iconic landmark in the gardens – along with details such as the flower archway connecting to the gazebo and heritage Flame of the Forest and Tembusu trees.

The Gardens is the biggest piece Wong has built so far. The freelance writer-producer, who has built other projects like a SBS bus model from the 1980s and the heritage Tiong Bahru flats, was commissioned by the Piece of Peace executive committee secretariat here to create the Botanic Gardens work.

In order to ensure he incorporated as much detail as possible into the work, Wong made multiple trips to the Gardens at different times of the day to get different perspectives. “It helped with the architecture (of the project) because you can see it up close (and) can translate what is designed there and translate it into Lego bricks,” Wong said.

“There’s a lot of interlace and criss-cross (in the design of the) structure inside of the gazebo,” said the Lego enthusiast. “I take these photos to take note that these are the characteristics of the building, characteristics of the plant,” he explained.

His main challenge, Wong said, was to translate something that is “organic-looking” such as plants out of a square or rectangular brick. He used a technique called stitching to build the canopy of the Flame of the Forest, which involves joining the bricks such that it forms a “weave” to create the whole canopy, said Wong, who has been doing Lego landscaping for five years.

“Basically, it’s (similar to) a huge ‘cloth’ that you lay over the tree and that’s how you get the curves and the shape and roundness.”

Besides the Singapore Botanic Gardens, six other Asean monuments will be featured to commemorate Asean’s 50th anniversary. The others are: Myanmar’s Pyu Ancient Cities, Philippines’ Historic City of Vigan, Ilocos Sur, Indonesia’s Borobudur Temple Compounds, Lao’s Town of Luang Prabang, Malaysia’s Kinabalu Park (represented by the Slipper Orchid that can be found in the park), and Thailand’s Historic Town of Sukhothai and Associated Historic Towns.

Other Unesco World Heritage Sites on show are Greece’s Acropolis of Athens, Australia’s Sydney Opera House and Japan’s Itsukushima Shinto Shrine, among others.

 

The seven Asean monuments will be a permanent fixture in the exhibition and will continue to be displayed at future Piece of Peace tours around the World.

The Piece of Peace executive committee secretariat’s director, Vicente Tai, said the exhibition is “like embarking on a world tour. “(Visitors) will be amazed by the lifelike replicas that are carefully built to reflect their finest details.”

Piece of Peace World Heritage Exhibition runs from July 27 to Sep 3 Fort Canning Arts Centre. Visit LEGO.build/amazingsg for more information.

 

 

 

 

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