About Brick Architect

Brick Architect explores a wide range of topics related to LEGO architecture, technical aspects of the LEGO hobby, and other architecture topics.

Suggestions? Ideas? Want to join us?

We are always listening! If you find an error in one of our articles, please leave a comment and we will fix it as soon as we can. Likewise, If you have a suggestion for a future article, please email tom@tomalphin.com with your suggestion, and we’ll look into it!

Writing for Brick Architect? Until recently, all of the stories were written by Tom Alphin… Thankfully, we have gathered a small group of writers who share an interest in telling in-depth stories about a growing range of LEGO topics.

If you want to join the team, email tom@tomalphin.com to learn more.

About Tom Alphin

Our Writing Team

It is a great pleasure to have these talented writers contributing great content to the Brick Architect website.
33 posts
An avid traveler, Koen likes to explore how different ages and cultures result in different architectural styles, with preferences for historic European and Japanese architecture. He was drawn to LEGO as a way to explore his interests in medieval architecture and fantasy, so it's no surprise that some of his favorite themes are Castle, Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. As a fan of architecture new and old he also really enjoys the Modular Building Series. A software engineer by day, he finds LEGO relaxing and it gives him a creative outlet outside of the office.
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7 posts
Amy is a former elementary school teacher who has built the occasional LEGO set over the years, and kept a large bag of LEGO bricks in her classroom to help her students survive rainy day recess (which can be common in Seattle). She loves to travel to see natural beauty and visit historic landmarks, and is slowly learning to appreciate architecture too.
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7 posts
Jeannie is a lifelong Lego devotee, joining us from Portland, Oregon. In addition to a lifetime collecting and building LEGO, Jeannie has collected a diverse set of skills and interests which include degrees in Architecture and a degree in Culinary Arts from Le Cordon Bleu. She is involved in a local LEGO User’s Group, and organizes the Architecture theme at Bricks Cascade, Portland’s annual LEGO convention which takes place in March.
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2 posts
Stephani came out of the Dark Ages in 2016 when she found LEGO bricks scattered around her newly purchased home. With the addition of a bag of bricks from a thrift store, Stephani used these LEGO bricks to build her own version of the classic LEGO Architecture Sears Tower (no, she’s not calling the skyscraper that new name!). Since then, she has scattered a number of mini- and micro-sized LEGO models around the Minneapolis house she shares with her wife.
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Journalistic Integrity

Occasionally, Brick Architect receives complimentary merchandise to review such as official LEGO Sets, LEGO Storage products, unofficial LEGO Sets, or other accessories.

In these cases, we will clearly disclose that the merchandise was provided for review, and we will review the item fairly based on the assumption that we had purchased it at retail price. (Sending merchandise for us to review may increase the chance of having a review posted to the site, but does not guarantee a positive review.)

Ratings and Reviews

Artificial Intelligence Policy

Here at Brick Architect, we take pride in creating in-depth LEGO content that is written by humans, for humans. We also recognize that a number of Artifical Intelligence (AI) technologies can help us create better content.

Our Goal: Even with the introduction of advanced generative AI built on neural network architectures (such as ChatGPT), we will continue to write our own stories and complement them with great photography. If we decide to include AI-generated images or text in future articles, they will be clearly marked.

A few examples where we currently use AI technologies:

  • Image Editing – Most of the photos that accompany our reviews and articles have been edited for screen, with the goal of accurately reflecting how it looks in real life. AI editing techniques include background detection, content-aware fill, and healing tools.
  • Text Editing – We do not use AI to generate article text, but we do use AI (such as ChatGPT) to help us write better articles. This involves asking for suggestions to improve the text which we wrote ourselves. To ensure our human voice is not lost in the process, we use the AI-generated suggestions as a starting point and make changes to the text manually.
  • Summarization – Generative AI like ChatGPT is extremely good at summarizing text. It is used for ideas when writing excerpts for our own articles or summaries of the articles/reviews featured in our Monthly LEGO News Roundups.
  • Translation – The ability to translate any website to your preferred language is powered by AI. We use it when reading articles from around the world, and occasionally feature non-English content in our Monthly LEGO News Roundups.
  • Transcription – Transcribing audio is incredibly time consuming. AI-based transcription tools turn audio from interviews into text we can proofread and include in our articles.

Lastly, as more and more content from around the web is replaced with AI generated content, we aim to continue offering rigorously researched articles written by humans. We have always tried to include links to source material when appropriate, but we will make a greater effort to include more citations to reputable sources which helped us write the best content possible. (This could take the form of more inline links or increased use of footnotes.)

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Privacy Policy

If you like the content at Brick Architect, please sign-up for our newsletter at http://brickarchitect.com/subscribe/.

By subscribing, you agree to the following privacy policy:

  • Brick Architect will send periodic emails about new articles, preview content, updates to exclusive content like the LEGO Brick Labels and LEGO Storage Guide, and other content we think will be interesting to fans of LEGO and Architecture.
  • Brick Architect will do everything we can to protect your email address and your privacy.
  • Brick Architect may target emails based on information about you such as your region or interests.
  • Brick Architect will not share your email address with other companies.
  • You can unsubscribe at any time using the link at the bottom of every email we send.

If you have any questions about the newsletter or our privacy policy, please email tom@tomalphin.com for more info.