The Chimes of Westminster - Minecraft Showcase

Описание: Video inspiration:    • The chimes of Big Ben  

2:1 scale, Total Build Time: ~219 Hours

The Palace of Westminster was completed in 1876, in response to a huge fire that destroyed a large majority of the previous land apart from Westminster Hall in 1834. The building has over 1,000 rooms and over 3,000 windows, and stretches about 300 meters in length. There are three prominent towers, the most notable being Big Ben, which is ~96 meters tall. There is also the Victoria tower on the far right which is ~98.5 meters tall. Lastly there is the Central tower, which is ~91 meters tall. The two designers of the Palace and its interior were Augustus Pugin and Charles Barry, who both did an excellent job on their Neo-Gothic design.

It is almost common knowledge that the far left tower, Big Ben, actually gets its name from the large bell at the top, but a lot of people don’t know that Augustus Pugin, one of the lead Architects for the Palace, was institutionalized in his later years of life, and died as a result of a mental breakdown. Spencer Perceval is also the only person to be assassinated in the palace, specifically Westminster Hall. Westminster Hall has also been the laying spot for many notable figures such as Winston Churchill, King George VI, and Queen Elizabeth. Also, if you are interested in learning more about this building, I recommend watching Britain's Best Buildings - The Palace of Westminster, hosted by Dan Cruickshank. I do not watch documentaries often, but I found that one quite enjoyable.

I started building this late December and I am barely finished (early June at the time of writing this) nearly half a year later. While I could blame the large gap between start and completion on the sheer complexity of this build, as a 200+ hour build is expected to take some time, in actuality, my mental health was preventing me from progressing as quickly as I would have liked. Despite the hardships I still definitely enjoyed building this, and I am pretty satisfied with the final result. I honestly cannot even remember the hardest part, but I did have to redo the entire Cloister Court because I did not like it, and about 10 hours in I restarted everything because I thought my layout looked off. I also had to rotate Westminster Hall a few degrees because it was not slanted enough. One of the things I really enjoy about this build that separates it from the rest of the Minecraft Westminster Palace recreations (apart from detail) is that not all of the build is one color. Majority of the build is primarily stripped oak, but for instance, the house of commons is stripped Birch, while some other parts are stripped Jungle. The roof in some parts is more of a grey color, while it is black in others. I might do some of the notable interiors such as the Robing Room, Royal Gallery and what not in the future, but even though I mostly enjoyed building this, I am really glad it is over, and I cannot wait to work on something else. Also another thing to note, this video really did not do the build justice in regards to scale. The plot size of this build is ~700 meters by ~450 meters, the Palace taking up the majority of that space. Things that look small up close in the video, such as the Statue of Richard of England, are massive in person.