Designer interview: 10350 Tudor Corner with François Zapf and Ashwin Visser

Just revealed, the 2025 LEGO® Icons Modular Buildings Collection set is 10350 Tudor Corner! Our review is coming tomorrow, but first we have a rather special introduction with exclusive photos.

At Fan Media Days in Denmark in September 2024, I joined Andrew Becraft from The Brothers Brick to have the lead designer François Zapf (above right) and graphic designer Ashwin Visser (above left) talk us through the new Modular's features and development.

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10350 Tudor Corner

• Release date: LEGO® Insiders from 1 January 2025 and available for all from 4 January
• Pieces: 3,266

Price:

• US$ 229.99 on LEGO.com US
• CA$ 299.99 on LEGO.com Canada
• GB£ 199.99 on LEGO.com UK
• AU$ 349.99 on LEGO.com Australia
• NZ$ 399.99 on LEGO.com New Zealand
• DE€ 229,99 on LEGO.com Deutschland
• NL€ 229,99 on LEGO.com Nederland
• FR€ 229,99 on LEGO.com France
• PLN 999.99 on LEGO.com Polska
• NOK 2799,90 on LEGO.com Norge
• DKK 1799.95 on LEGO.com Danmark

Other countries click here

 

About the designers

François Zapf

My first job was as a UX Designer in France, but specifically speaking about LEGO® experience, I had been really into MOC building during the lockdown, designing a lot of stuff. Then there was this open position as model designer at The LEGO Group, I applied, and they liked my portfolio, obviously, because here I am!

This is the second model I've designed that will be released. The first one will be the gift with purchase for Black Friday. 

Ashwin Visser

At my previous job, I was an art director for a video company. I've been at The LEGO Group since 2019, always in graphic design. I started in LEGO® Hidden Side, then I went through LEGO® Super Heroes before I made the switch to LEGO® Icons and I've been there ever since. Me and my colleagues are covering the entire Adults portfolio, so we are also doing LEGO® Ideas and LEGO® Architecture and LEGO® Botanicals. 

I've always been a huge toy fan in general, I loved LEGO® bricks since I was a kid. But also action figures, that other stuff. So it always interested me, the toy industry, and especially the American toys. The action figures were printed on these beautiful illustrated cards, and that's where my passion for designing and drawing came from. 

Introduction to the model and its decorations 

Ashwin Visser:

"We have an inn with a small restaurant inside and on the ground floor there is also a haberdashery. 

©2025 The LEGO Group

"We have a haberdashery store owner, a food critic that slightly resembles the one that is actually used in the LEGO® City products, a character that is very obsessed with cats and other animals, the inn owner, the chef, the clockmaker, and the chimney sweep up on the top floor. 

"Several new prints are actually making their introduction and are exclusive to this set. We have a beautiful haberdashery logo, we have the menus, and the special menu for the inn that resembles chalk board writings. 

"We named the inn The Old Guarded Inn, which is a reference for LEGO® fans to the old medieval set, and a beautiful new clock face that is actually printed for the first time on the 3x3 round tile. And there is another print on the top floor.

"From very early on, the team were amazed by the techniques, especially the black-and-white chequered techniques that Francois did. We were all like, wow, when he first showed it. We have not seen this before in any Modular Buildings, or actually any other LEGO® sets for that matter. So it's super fresh that it's in here. For us it's very recognisable in Europe, with these old city centres in Germany, Denmark, even Great Britain."

Tour of the model

François Zapf:

"This is called Tudor Corner; referencing the specific British architecture style, and it this time, it's an old-timey corner. We wanted to to give this cozy vibe after the the Natural History Museum, because the museum was massive, and we wanted to break a little bit with that and have a different atmosphere.

"On the ground floor, you have the restaurant with a counter here at a nice angle, serving bacon and egg.

 

"Here under the stairs you also have the bathroom, the mandatory toilets... but this time, you can remove a chunk of the stairs, so you can have a look at it.

"You may noticed on the menu that there's fish, because at first it was designed as a fish and chips restaurant. We moved away from that idea, and instead we integrated this to the storyline. "Oh no, what if the fish was actually rotten?" Because we added kittens, it's still funny, because you can put the kitten next to it.

"At the back, you have the kitchen with the chef, and over here you have the haberdashery. 

"Haberdashery means two different things. If you're from the US, it is definitely a hat shop, but in Great Britain, haberdashery refers to sewing; things like threads and so on. So that's why we combined the two concepts into one.

"Here in the sidewalk there's a coat of arms, because the inn is called The Old Guarded Inn, and we found it really funny to suggest that this is the same place as the medieval guarded inn, but a few centuries later! It adds some history to that corner.

"The woman on the sidewalk... she is passing by... she can be pretty much anything, we don't talk too much about her background. I think she's connecting all the stories. She's holding an umbrella and has a hat; maybe she bought them from the haberdashery? Maybe she's a food critic in disguise? She went out to eat some fish, and now she's disappointed. Maybe she's just going to the clockmaker to have her watch repaired, maybe she is visiting a friend? Or maybe she's just going to meet the chimney sweep, to dance on the rooftops!

"Next floor up, here you can find the clockmaker's workshop. You have a lot of grandfather clocks, small cuckoo clocks, tiny alarm clocks, carriage clocks and so on.

"It's fun because, you know with Modulars, sometimes they are pretty empty inside? Here, with all these clock designs, you can actually grab them and put them anywhere you want, so you have some nice little furniture for your MOCs or whatever you want to build.

"That door [above, bottom right] is a closet, with a surprise:

"This a workshop, you know, you have to keep it clean.

"Top floor, here you can find this tiny studio where a lady is living. So you have a little bedsit with an insect collection and furniture and a sink. And cats, it's normal to like cats.

"I started with the roof design because it's the most challenging part of the building, with crazy techniques and angles. The wall is at least two modules thick.

"Tudor architecture is well known for their cross gable roofs, and steep roofs. So that was the first thing we were trying to achieve. To summarise? It's a lot of trial and error, because there were so many collision issues, especially when you have those weird overlaps and things like that, but we made it. 

"Also to build it strong enough, because that was also a challenge. You can press really hard and it won't break. That was a design challenge because with the roof being so steep, inside you need to have structural support for everything, especially when you're pressing on it real hard. 

"We had already, at The LEGO Group, designed a lot of half-timber walls for medieval buildings, and we wanted to add a novel technique with angled wooden beams. It was a challenge to design, but I can assure you, when you're building this, it's super satisfying. That's partly so it looks like it's difficult, but it's super satisfying to build."

Our thanks to François Zapf, Ashwin Visser, Andrew Becraft and the AFOLET team. Come back tomorrow for our official review of this gorgeous 2025 set!

View the LEGO Tudor Corner on LEGO.com

  

READ MORE: Review: LEGO Leonardo Da Vinci's Flying Machine

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