Since 2019, builder Hoang Dang—known in the LEGO community as Know Your Pieces—has been working on an amazing collection of Vietnamese facades: Hanoi nº1, Grandpa’s Store nº2, and Hue Citadel nº4. His latest creation named nº5 Downtown Temple Facade is practically a “Where’s Waldo” of spectacular nice-part-usage (NPU). It is so stunning, that it deserves a massive brick-built frame (two-thirds of the 10,000 pieces for the entire build) to protect it from dust… and cats as you will see… *meow*

2/3 of the pieces Are Used For the Black brick built frame

This beautiful piece of 3-foot-wide art/architecture actually hangs on a wall and has an incredible amount of detail that will fill your soul: from left to right starting on the floor variation to the entrance of the tea shop to the stunning roofline of crowbars to the stands of goods and even a fun fridge.

the tiles from the entrance are from BrickHeadz Olaf’s Mouth

Being a fan of highly detailed MOCs, especially from the Oriental part of the world, I must say that the more you look at this one the more you will find. Keep an eye out for the amazing amount of printed 1x4 tiles with Gold Dragon in Green Frame with Scales on the entrance (from 80105 New Year Temple), the Duplo Red Fire Hydrant on the left, and the blue plastic table made with the Duplo Animal Accessory Cratch on the right.

I got the chance to chat with Hoang a little bit about his inspirations, ideas, process and Vietnamese Architecture:

“My original inspiration actually came from a series of photos by a European Photographer. He went around, including Portugal, to take pictures of doors. I go out and get inspiration from real places too. Take pictures, be at the moment to get a feel for it first. Here in Vietnam we have messy yet interesting houses. After having the most important things down, I usually just free build them.”

“For this series in general, I start with something that defines the scale to see if it would work or not. In this case I started with the doors but in general I try not to plan things out too much. I think that would kill the fun because at the end of the day, this is a hobby.”

Knowing almost nothing about Vietnam, this was a nice way to get to learn a little bit more about the architecture and the culture of the country.

Here at BrickNerd we can’t wait to see the missing Nº3 in the series knocking at the door… Maybe a cat destroyed it!