Visitors to this cafe in Barcelona by architect Barbara Appolloni are led up this concrete staircase to the upper storey and a terrace beyond. Called Federal Cafe, the project involved opening the interior to the street with retractable steel shutters on the ground floor and the addition of a bench clad in black ceramic tiles marking the boundary. Photographs are by Lucía Carretero. Here are some more details from Appolloni: The client brief for this existing two-floor building and terrace, located on a corner street in the neighborhood of San Antonio, in Barcelona, was a cozy and informal cafe/bistro/lunch spot restaurant. While the facing of the facade has been restored with minimal intervention, to remain in keeping with the neighboring buildings, the woodwork has been designed so that the ground floor remains completely open to the street by retractable steel windows and the existing wooden windows of the top floor, which have been opened to the outside, allowing a continuous visual connection with the street.
On the ground floor, two work benches, coated with black 10x10 ceramic tiles, mark the boundary between the inner and outer space and are a comfortable place to sit and look out onto the street. Radical interventions have been made to the interior space, which has been meticulously renovated. Upon entering, the eye is guided to the upper floor by the double height and the concrete steps made in situ, and then up again to the garden-terrace. On the ground floor the sight is extended to the small patio, which is an element of separation between the public and service space, suggesting the idea of an open space and providing cross ventilation. On the ground floor, originally set against the wall, is the bar, which has been custom designed, like the dessert table, strategically placed in the center of the sliding window and the axis of symmetry of the courtyard. Both elements are in plywood, coated in plastic laminate of different colors. Location: Carrer Parlament 39, Barcelona
Client: Nigel Chouri, Christopher King Floors: 2 floors + terrace Total area: 115 mq. If you look for Lego’s most expensive models, you won’t be able to find them on the shelves even in the finest toy stores. The highest valued Lego sets are collector’s items, which are usually retired sets and thus very scarce. Collectors and Lego enthusiasts around the world are willing to pay good pennies for them, take a look! The “Market Street” Lego set was the company’s second set of their modular building series for adults. The set contains 1248 pieces and features curved staircases and interchangeable floors. It’s currently valued at around €1,400. Lego’s “Café Corner” set features 2,056 pieces and you can find it for around €1,500. The building has three floors, a mosaic and a bicycle is featured in the set! This Lego set is the tallest one to this day – the amazing 1,06 meters. The French flag on top of it is also made of Lego bricks. The number of parts is 3,428 and you’d have to pay around €1,500 if you want your very own Lego Eiffel Tower set.
At number 7 the “Imperial Star Destroyer” Lego sets costs around €1,600 and you’ll find 1,359 in the box. This set is a model of the Imperial Star Destroyer ship from Star Wars and includes a Lego minifigure of Darth Vader, a hologram of Emperor Palpatine and eight synchronized cannons! 6. Death Star II Currently this Lego set’s value goes up to €1,600. The model includes a laser and is built to scale with the original Death Star II from Star Wars. It has 3,447 pieces. Only 5,000 Mr. Gold Lego minifigures were manufactured in honor of Lego’s 10-year anniversary of their Minifigures series. You can have a Mr. Gold in your hands for around €1,700! This Lego set contains 2,882 parts and all of them are sand-green bricks. The price for this set can go up to €1,900. This Lego set is electricity powered and has 3,263 pieces! When assembled and powered up, the Grand Carousel spins and plays melodies. You would need about €2,500 to get your hands on one of those!
The “Taj Mahal” Lego set is the largest Lego set ever made. It was produced in 2008 and contains the incredible amount of 5,922. Better save some money and patience for this one. These sets are currently valued at around €2,500. 1. Ultimate Collector’s Millennium Falcon Perhaps every Lego collector’s dream, this model is the largest Star Wars set ever made and second largest set after the “Taj Mahal”. In the box you will also find Lego minifigures of Obi-Wan Kenobi, Chewbacca, Princess Leia, Luke Skywalker and Han Solo. The number of pieces is 5,174 and the price is €4,500. Better start saving up! Here at Catawiki you can find weekly Lego auctions! A few lucky people have already bought Lego sets from this list on Catawiki, maybe you're the next lucky one!Posted on May 3, 2016 in Blog, Lego My New Deli MOC My LEGO fans are starting to wonder what I’ve been up to? Have I entered those “Dark Ages” where the unfinished sets and random pieces lie scattered across the floor, gathering dust while my attention turns to video games?
Fear not, for Little Brick Township remains “the place where dreams are built”! In fact, I recently finished a new deli, except for a few interior touches like an espresso maker for the deli and furniture for the upstairs duplex apartment. The deli has found a home next door to City Hall, even though the master plan had City Hall in its own central space surrounded by streets and parks. I had originally intended to build my first MOC (My Own Creation) on a half-size plate, 16 by 32 studs instead of the full-size 32 x 32. However, I got carried away with the interior of the Radio Station, so my debut project was a particularly ambitious one. But if I wanted to place a building next to City Hall and keep the park, I only had room for the 16 x 32. So, quality instead of quantity. Little Brick Township doesn’t need another eatery — we already have the Corner Cafe, the Parisian Restaurant, and a variety of food carts. But eateries are also gathering places, which explains why in any town or city, bars and restaurants outnumber most other enterprises.
My design began with the Corner Deli released by LEGO earlier this year, but when I bought the set, I intended to mine it for pieces, particularly the decorative sandwich which I attached in a different way to my building, which has a solid front and like the other buildings in the Modular series, opens by lifting off each floor. My interior used some of the pieces for the Corner Cafe, but most were pieces I’ve collected over the years from the Pick-a-Brick Wall at the LEGO Store. That’s where I’ve found my chairs and tables, doors, staircases, window details. The matching 1 x n bricks have come mostly from last year’s bulk order made available to members of LEGO User Groups. Especially valuable for this building were the gray 1 x 2 profile bricks for the window columns. The navy sloped bricks for the roof came from the Creator Apple Tree House, a long out-of-production set that I found for a surprisingly reasonable price at a toy store in Vermont. I agonized over cutting up this set, thereby destroying its collectible value, but I realize that LEGO bricks are meant to be used, not bought and sold as investments.