How to Build a LEGO City: Step-by-Step Guide

Finding the right space for your LEGO city matters if you want a result that is satisfying, convincing and, above all, one that you like, as the creative minds behind these LEGO builds!

Of course, the ideal is to find the biggest space you can afford (or are allowed to use). The first concern when you build your LEGO city in a small space is... space! Obvious, you might say! 🧠

One of the key design principles when building a small brick city or diorama is to maximize space and use it efficiently.

Finding the right space for your LEGO city is important to get a satisfying and convincing result.

Of course, the ideal is to find the largest space you can use without having to take apart what you have already started.

The size and shape of the space available to you depend on your house or apartment, your office, or wherever you build your model or diorama.

You can even have several different spots at home to hold different sections of your brick city.

There is no reason why your city made of building blocks has to sit in one single place. To make building and laying things out easier, a long, straight space is better than a wide, square one.

You also need a spot where you can place your model without any bends or right angles.

But if the only space you have includes a turn, like the corner of a room, you will have to adapt. Or rather, get creative: that is the whole point of the famous Danish toy brand! 🧱

I) How to Build a LEGO City?

1) How to Build a LEGO City in a Small Space? Choosing the Right Spot for Your Diorama!

Let's start with the basics: when you choose and/or set up your space, measure it based on the dimensions of a LEGO baseplate. The standard baseplate size is 32 x 32 studs, which is 25.6 cm x 25.6 cm (about 10 x 10 inches).

These baseplates are available on the LEGO Shop:

• The blue #11025 and green #11023 baseplates (which replaced the older #10714 and #10700 in 2022) both cost $7.99.
• The large gray #11024 baseplate (48 x 48 studs) costs $14.99.

The standard half baseplate measures 16 x 32 studs, which is 12.8 cm x 25.6 cm (about 5 x 10 inches). There is also a larger 48 x 48 stud baseplate, measuring 38.4 cm x 38.4 cm (about 15 x 15 inches).

We strongly recommend choosing and dividing up your space based on these standard baseplate dimensions.

This keeps your city modular and makes it easier to move buildings around. 🏢

A building space with an odd size and irregular shape will make changes to your city more difficult.

If your space lets you create a layout that gives you room to maneuver and to reach in and change some elements when needed, even better!

It can also be more efficient to place your city against a wall to maximize the space you will dedicate to your realistic city models and dioramas made of little Danish bricks!

The surface your LEGO city is built on is just as important as the LEGO sets that make up the city, especially if you want to build a city in a small area.

So don't overlook how important the support you use is. There are two things to consider when choosing it: form and function.

Form refers to the look of the support, while function is how it is used. Function is, of course, more important.

The furniture must be suitable and keep your LEGO city level, whether it is small, medium or large. Your diorama will most likely grow over time. 📈

Finally, the base your diorama rests on must be stable to avoid any nasty surprises.

For the main layout, the most common support is a table.

As for size, pick one or more sizes that match your space and your needs.

Once again, the goal is to maximize the space available, so choose the largest table and the one that best fits the space you have.

You may not find a size that fits your space perfectly (or simply suits you), so you might need to get two smaller tables instead of one big one and arrange them to fit the area dedicated to your building toys.

IKEA is a great source of affordable furniture, and sizes are fairly standard from one model to the next and over the years.

2) LEGO City Layout Plans: Putting Your Brick City Down on Paper

One way to visualize your plan and fine-tune it efficiently is to cut out squares or rectangles from pieces of paper or cardboard to represent the scenes of your city. 🌆

Cut the pieces to scale, based on their length and width. Write the name of the scene on each piece of paper or cardboard, along with its dimensions (height, length, width).

Next, draw (to scale) the outline of the space you will give to your future LEGO city on a large sheet of paper.

You can now place the different pieces of paper or cardboard representing the sets you want and position them on your city map.

Try different layouts and move the pieces around to see what works best. ⚙️

Once you have settled on a few layouts, draw the roads and any other elements you want to add on the "map". 🗺

This will help you visualize your city as well as possible, check that it is well designed and that its layout works for you.

Once you have worked out how your city should be laid out and how the different sets fit together, you can start getting the sets and pieces you need.

3) How to Build a LEGO City on a Budget: Choosing the Right Sets!

• Note ⚠️: This section is mainly for small budgets, for anyone who wants to get their hands on LEGO sets, boxes and kits they could customize (or not) to create their own dioramas.

Every city needs, and every kid or adult wants to give their miniature city, a police station, a fire station and a hospital. At their original US retail prices, the fire station and police station sets below came to about $170.

It is up to you to use the bricks you buy to build the LEGO set and add it to your model, or to use them to fill your city with tiny details, special features or particular minifigures.

Building kit #60215 "Fire Station" (509 pieces, $69.99 at launch) was retired at the end of 2021, so today you will find it on the secondhand market (BrickLink, eBay, ...) rather than on the LEGO Shop or in LEGO Stores. 🚒

Brick set #60246 "Police Station" retailed for $99.99 in LEGO Stores and on the online shop until it was retired at the end of 2021.

The great thing about this set is that it includes 7 minifigures (+ 2 animals) and 3 vehicles (the motorcycle and 2 cars). 🚓

If there is one more set worth owning to brighten up and bring your miniature city to life, it is set #31105, "Townhouse Toy Store".

This set belongs to the LEGO Creator 3in1 line, so it is modular, depending on what you need.

That is a real plus, since the set can be rebuilt to suit your city's needs (flower shop, toy store or café).

The second plus is the price: with 2 minifigures and 554 pieces, the set retailed for $39.99 (it was retired at the end of 2021, so look for it secondhand).

The next two sets are vehicles, but they go a long way toward decorating your diorama and making it feel more alive, thanks to the minifigures and details that make life in a miniature city more believable.

• The first of these two vehicles is set #60253, "Ice-Cream Truck". This small box contains 2 minifigures and 200 pieces and bricks. A nice addition to any city, especially near a beach 🏝 (or right downtown, your call 😉)! The set retailed for $19.99 on the LEGO Shop, in LEGO Stores and in toy stores until it was retired at the end of 2023.

• The second vehicle on this list is set #60220, "Garbage Truck". Like the previous vehicle, it contains 2 minifigures but fewer pieces and bricks, with a total of 90. Still, if you want your city to stay clean, we encourage you to get this set (we waited too long, and now our streets are full of trash 🚛)! Like the previous set, it retailed for $19.99 when it came out in 2019.

The next set came out on January 1, 2021 and was retired at the end of that year, but we wanted to include it in this list for the building possibilities it offers. 🏗

Set #60306, "Shopping Street", contains 533 pieces and bricks, along with 3 buildings, 2 vehicles and 6 minifigures.

The main strengths of this set are:

• The characters and minifigures included
• The 2 vehicles
• The modular street that connects with the new LEGO City sets (adding details that baseplates did not offer).

Its US retail price was $79.99, so today you will mostly find it secondhand.

Also released on January 1, 2021, and still sold on the LEGO Shop in 2026, here are the LEGO roads: set #60304, "Road Plates".🚦

Like most new LEGO building kits, these roads are modular.

This LEGO set contains 112 pieces. It costs $19.99.

There is also one set worth adding to this list: set #40305, "Microscale LEGO Brand Store".

This building kit contains 362 pieces and bricks, plus 2 minifigures.

The building is modular, so you can adapt it to your needs and to the way you want to display it in your diorama.

Its price was also attractive at $24.99, but it was retired at the end of 2021. Here is the link to this set, because it is not easy to track down today! 🔍

A quick calculation shows that all the sets in this section add up to about $375 at their original US retail prices.

That may seem like a lot, but nothing forces you to buy all of these sets at once. It makes more sense to think long term and buy them little by little.

We also recommend getting a box of bricks from the LEGO Classic line, in particular set #11717, "Bricks Bricks Plates" (retired at the end of 2022, but easy to find secondhand). 🧱

This big box contains 1,504 small LEGO pieces and bricks, which is handy for building your own buildings or houses to fill out your city or diorama.

This set is especially appealing when you look at the price per piece. The kit retailed for $69.99, so each piece cost less than 5 cents. Enough to delight most brick fans!

II) How to Build a LEGO City With Modular Buildings?

1) LEGO Creator Expert Modular Buildings: The Go-To Option for a Detailed Diorama

As mentioned in the previous section, you have two options:

• The first is to design a LEGO city on a limited budget and build it right away or very quickly.
• The second is to design a LEGO city on a limited budget but build it over time, in the long run.

LEGO Creator Expert brick sets are more expensive, but they are true gems for experienced builders. Why?

Because the Danish designers really go all out when creating these building sets. They are mainly designed for display and dioramas.

So yes, these sets are a bit more expensive than regular LEGO sets and LEGO toys, but you get your money's worth.

Special elements, small parts and other features are common in these sets and, on top of being fun, they boost the realistic, immersive feel you can give your miniature city. 🌆

Here is a short list of these sets. They have all been retired since, so you will now find them from secondhand sellers (BrickLink, eBay, ...):

• The first one is set #10255, "Assembly Square". It contains 4,002 small pieces and bricks and 9 minifigures. What makes this set interesting is that it offers a real glimpse into everyday life in the LEGO world. It includes 3 buildings, each with its own features (a restaurant, a flower shop, a dentist, ...). Ideal if you want to add some "life" to your dioramas! This set retailed for $299.99 until it was retired at the end of 2023.

• The second set is #10264, "Corner Garage". It contains 2,569 pieces and small bricks and 6 minifigures. The set also comes with a tow truck (not the dream sports car, admittedly) and a scooter. It has a workshop on the first floor, decorated with a barrel, wheel rims and repair tools. In front of the facade stands a charming gas pump that recalls the old American gas stations of the '50s and '60s. A vet's office sits above the garage, with an apartment on top of that. The set is full of charm and, like the previous LEGO Creator Expert set, would add a lively touch to your dioramas. It retailed for $199.99 on the LEGO Shop until the end of 2021.

• The third and final LEGO Creator Expert set is #10270, simply called "Bookshop". It contains 2,504 bricks and 5 minifigures. It is more modest than the others but still lets you add 2 buildings (a bookshop with an apartment above it, and a house) to your dioramas. That is also its strength, since it was more affordable than Assembly Square. This set retailed for $199.99 until the end of 2023.

As mentioned earlier, one of the advantages of the LEGO Creator Expert line is that these builds are modular. 🧩

You can connect them to each other and create the building combinations you like to lay out your own LEGO city!

Good news: the collection is still going. Since 2022, these sets have been sold under the LEGO Icons name, and the 2026 modular building is set #11371 "Shopping Street" (3,456 pieces, $249.99).

Finally, there is one last set we could recommend in this section, which we already covered in our article "What Is the Most Expensive LEGO Set in the World?"

However, it is far from affordable. The main problem is that it is no longer available in LEGO Stores or on the LEGO Shop. It is LEGO Ninjago set #70620, "Ninjago City".

Like the LEGO Creator Expert sets, it is modular, so you can configure it however you like, depending on your needs. The set contains 4,867 LEGO pieces and bricks and 19 minifigures.

It originally retailed for $299.99. Today, Brickset estimates its value on the secondary market at around $710 new and $520 used.

It is not for every budget, but if you manage to get your hands on this exceptional set, your city will look all the better for it! ✨

2) LEGO MOC Cars: Vehicles Scaled to Your Dioramas

We have already covered this in a few articles (How to Build a Car With LEGO Bricks? / LEGO 007 Aston Martin), but it is worth repeating: you can design your own vehicles from small LEGO bricks that look much closer to the real thing.

More so than the ones found in LEGO Classic, LEGO City or LEGO Creator Expert sets.

This section is especially for anyone who wants to push realism to the "max" by adding cars with recognizable designs.

Whether it is the Ford Mustang, the Jeep Wrangler, the famous New York taxis or iconic cult police cars (like the Ford LTD Crown Victoria).

To keep it simple, here are links to YouTube channels that show you how to build realistic cars from simple LEGO bricks:

• Custom Bricks & Models by Ren (YouTube channel)
• Jerry Builds Bricks (YouTube channel)
• Hachiroku24 (YouTube channel)

That wraps up this article, which was on the long side, we admit, and we'll see you in the next one! See you soon, LEGO brick fans!