Louvre craft

Pack your bags, buy your tickets, hop on the plane and leave your outdated stereotypes at the gate please – we're off to France! To eat tons of amazing cheese and plot to steal the Eiffel Tower? No time for that now, perhaps later - we're off to the Louvre!

Originally a fortress built all they way back in the 12th century, the Louvre museum is massive. It covers over 650,000 feet and holds over 70,000 pieces of art, including exhibits like Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa (though personally, I prefer this Minecraft version).

So you'd have to be pretty cray-cray to so much as dare to think about possibly even considering rebuilding such an epic structure in Minecraft. Or you'd just have to be a member of the perfectly-sane-thank-you-very-much build team, NewHeaven! After a spot of fishing and a trip to Wonderland, NewHeaven have delivered the Louvre in Minecraft, quite possibly their most ambitious build yet.

“We had the opportunity to collaborate in Paris with LISAA, one of the biggest art institutes in France,” explains NewHeaven builder, Boorizz. “We decided to recreate the Louvre so that the students there could recognize it and identify to it. Our main intention was to show them all the possibilities that the game offers. Moreover, we wanted to revive interest in art and museums using a playful platform such as Minecraft.

“Even though we were given the choice to build anything as long as it was in Paris, the Louvre quickly sprang to mind as it is an emblem of France and Culture. From a more personal point of view, recreating it was really enjoyable as we love the architectural style of this museum.”

With their decision made, NewHeaven had to start researching and planning how to bring The Louvre to blocky life. This involved several trips to the actual museum. “We were lucky to have a few members living close to it in real life,” says Boorizz. “There, they took pictures of small details that we could not really find online. This was also a really good way of getting an idea of what we were about to undertake.”

Research had to be done fast, however, as time was of the essence.

“Knowing that it had to be done before the collaboration [with LISAA], we set a deadline which resulted in us being quite efficient,” explains NewHeaven member, Elgringau. “It eventually took us around 40 days of regular work.”

Such a feat was only possible thanks to the size of NewHeaven, and careful planning. “We had more than one project going at the time so some members did not get to work on the Louvre,” says Elgringau. “Still, 11 people managed to participate. So thanks to Arch_NH, Ariah, Boorizz, Bulix, Frankenstein25mc, HalfBreath, Iskilia, JeanTi, ThomasEsc, and xflash_yers."

Sometimes it doesn't matter how many people you have on a project – it's knowing how to use a team efficiently and effectively that gets results. Some builders were assigned specific parts of the museum, like xflash_yers, who constructed the Pyramid De Louvre.

“I started off by laying the base of the pyramid in accord to the scale we had chosen,” says xflash_yers. “Once that was done, I looked up the angles of inclination and place the corners accordingly. When the skeleton was done, I filled the rest with glass. Finally, I placed the steel beams in such a way so that the result would look good in Minecraft.”

“One tricky aspect of the Louvre is that the two main wings are not parallels,” explains Arch_NH and Frankenstein, of the more challenging parts of the build. “Knowing that Minecraft only allows us to interact with perpendicular lines, reproducing it as honestly as possible was perhaps a bit more complex.”

Nonetheless, they pulled it off! We asked what they'd suggest if we were to take on something so ambitious in scope. “First off, make sure you choose a structure that you love, that has a certain meaning to you, otherwise you may get tired of it,” advises NewHeaven member, Bulix.

“Then make some research and figure out what you are about to undertake. Once you are ready, you’ll have to choose a scale. But be wise, because this will define the amount of details you’ll be able to put on it and the overall size of the reproduction. If you made sure you had enough pictures of your structure and you are happy with your palette, you are ready to go. You’ll most likely be forced to improvise a few times, but that’s part of the challenge.”

A challenge you accept? We'd love to see more of these real-world builds from you lot. If you need more inspiration, check out our coverage of previous NewHeaven projects here and here!

Renders by Iskillia, ThomasEsc, TheMrPinguin, Speedrus, Killerack and Antrelial