For my first designer programme submission I was looking for something that chimed with some common Lego themes, specifically medieval history, but avoiding castles, piracy and military themes.

Originally I planned to design a Trappist Brewery having visited some monasteries in europe over the last couple of summers and envisaged a grand underground beer cellar, but as I began the build i began to like the idea of an overground and underground aspect to the design.

Underground being dark, and secretive and holding true to the images I had in my head of huge casks and the passage of time and an overground aspect that would give a nod to the process of medieval brewing, through the growing of crops and the use, for example of Honey.

The 4000 part limit meant a significant monesterial structure above ground wasn't plausible and so i settled on the idea of a barn/brewery structure with the image in my head of the sun beating down on orange pan tiles as crops grew in the fields an travellers eating and drinking on trestle tables.

The roof was originally upwards of 800 pieces in itself so i has to pair back the use of the smaller pin hole plates (11458) but in the end i thought the less uniform look and feel to the surface worked much better.

I have used the full allocation of minifigures which might seem excessive but I wanted to give the impression of revelry and industry and although the monastery idea had fallen by he wayside, the attire of the workforce is still in keeping with the habits.

My approach in general is to start building, the model was scaled back in size after i had completed one version of the basement and realised i was pushing 3000 parts already but I think that worked in my favour when filling the space with activity.

Finally, this was my first crack at providing instructions and this allowed me to find the parts that were not quite right but was a challenge and in hindsight I might have decided on a smaller build for my first instructions experiment.

Anyway, hope you like it. Cheers!