Denis Donoghue started making buildings out of Lego he was about five or six: castles, police stations, houses. But it was as a grown up, when he had children of his own, that he started to realise the full potential of the colourful blocks.
Denis has an interest in the built environment – he studied Town Planning at University. He began making models of Glasgow landmarks and sharing them on Twitter.
Can you tell us a bit about how you started building with Lego when you were younger and then how that continued when you were a grown-up?
Like most people, I loved playing with Lego as a kid. We inherited a big bag of Lego from a neighbour whose kids had grown out of it.
I remember getting a couple of Lego sets for Christmas including a police boat which I loved. But mostly we just played with the random bricks in the bag and made up stuff.
When me and my brother got a bit older the Lego went up to the loft and when I went off to University to study Town Planning it got left behind.
When my oldest son was about five he started getting Lego sets for birthday and Christmas presents. Soon we had accumulated quite a collection of Lego pieces.
Like me, my sons liked to free build their own creations. They set me challenges to build out of the bricks: a pick-up truck, dinosaurs, steam train, space shuttle and castle.
I remembered how much fun you could have being creative with Lego.
Why did you then decide to start making Glasgow buildings?
I was inspired after visiting Warren Elsmore’s Brick World exhibition at Paisley Museum. There were lots of iconic buildings from across the world like the Colosseum and the Arc de Triumphe. I wondered if anyone had made models of some of Glasgow’s iconic buildings in Lego.
When I realised there were none I decided to put that right.
How did you approach your first Glasgow Lego model?
My first Glasgow Lego model was the Barrowland Ballroom.
I figured it would be fairly easy to build out of Lego; as it’s quite a basic structure. I took some pictures of the frontage and made a couple of basic sketches to work out what pieces to use.
There was a lot of trial and error to get it right, it took me almost a year to build it in my spare time.
I also dropped it a couple of times part way through the build; requiring some jigsaw puzzle skills to put it back together.
What are some of your favourite buildings in the city?
I love Art Deco buildings like The Beresford Hotel on Sauchiehall Street and the Variety Bar across the road from it.
I also love Alexander “Greek” Thomson’s Churches and townhouses.
Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s Glasgow School of Art is another of my favourites.
What kind of a reaction have you had after posting the models?
I have had a great response after posting pictures of my models on social media.
The Barrowland used a picture of my model on its Twitter account, and the model was liked and retweeted by several well-known musicians including Tim Burgess of The Charlatans. I’ve had a lot of great feedback on my models.
Do you have particular favourites of the ones you have made?
My favourite is probably the Glasgow Film Theatre, because it was quite a challenge to make, and I managed to make the GFT lettering out of Lego, which I was very pleased with. I also like the Queens Café model because it had a few tricky problems to solve but turned out really well in the end.
When you are not building Lego, where do you like to spend time in Glasgow?
I live in the Southside and love the Parks: Pollok, Queens and Bellahouston. I like the Merchant City for eating and drinking.
If you were able to change some of the buildings or rearrange parts of Glasgow, what would you do?
As a planner I’d make quite a few changes. I’d move most of the traffic out of the town centre and turn George Square into a proper European Civic Space with pedestrianised connections to Royal Exchange Square and Buchanan Street. I’d like to see some more imaginative architecture in the city too.
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