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	Designing Market Street (10190) By Eric Brok
	Market Street is a great example of the design-it-yourself vision of LEGO Factory. Designing it gave me the chance, as a huge LEGO fan, to create something that I really liked. My task was to design a set that would be a fun addition to Café Corner (10182), and I was given a lot of freedom to come up with exciting ideas. Modular style so you can design your own I wanted to concentrate on modularity within a single LEGO set – with parts that were easy to assemble and could be arranged in countless ways. I chose a simple 16x16 footprint for each floor so you can turn the floors around, or stack them differently. After I sketched out the main building, I wanted to add a simple side structure to it, perhaps for a second base and roof. This way, floor modules from the main building can be rearranged over two bases. To stay within budget, I chose simple arcades with a flat roof. I hope that the modularity of the model will also inspire you to design your own floor modules (or furniture sets) using LEGO Factory, without needing to build an entire house.
	Choice of roof style An interesting feature of the building is the stepped top roof. I’ve used this style before, and not just because it’s common in old Dutch cities. I never liked the look of a classic LEGO roof building where the sloped bricks produce a roof with a jagged underside. So I used the stepped front to hide the roof bricks from sight. However, I didn't want the model to look exclusively Dutch, so I created a second roof in an international style with slopes at the front – like in Café Corner. Later, I realized people could turn the roof around to suit their own town. And the back still has the original jagged roof style. I also added another option – the entire roof module can be swapped for the flat roof of the side structure, resulting in a classic American building!
	Easy rearrangement I added a balcony for variety. When rearranging floor modules, it’s possible for the balconies to end up in odd places, such as the ground floor. That’s why I designed the balconies for easy removal. Also, there are several fixtures sticking out from the front, such as lampposts and flag poles, that can be moved. I consider the headlight bricks spread over the front as an independent system: at each point, you can place a fixture or a pneumatic t-part as a filler. Modifications to the initial design I spent a week working on the set at the LEGO Group in Billund, Denmark. But I couldn’t be present to work on any modifications after that. Jamie Berard, a designer from the LEGO Group, took care of this and did a great job, discussing any changes with me through e-mail. There were only two significant changes. The light-blue walls originally matched the wall color of Café Corner. But we changed the color so the two sets weren’t too similar. Also, a certain ornamental piece had to be taken out because it is going out of production. When I started designing Market Street I was careful to only use parts that were in production. Get building The set is ready for you to play with. So start building! And don’t forget to visit LEGO Factory if you want to design your own houses.