Quebec City father and son create North America’s largest miniature cities exhibition

A father and son’s love for building blocks has turned into North America’s largest exposition of miniature cities. From New York to London to Dubai – the duo takes Quebec City visitors on a trip around the world, sized to scale.

Many fathers and sons can probably relate to playing with mini blocks, but few of them have ever envisioned creating the whole world out of them.

WATCH: The World in Mega Bloks at the Grévin Museum

“We began this project when I was 16 years old,” explained Steven Maheux.

Steven’s dad, Gilles, was an architectural designer by trade. He used his skills acquired on the job and his passion for Mega Bloks to create – with his son – a miniature version of their hometown, Quebec City.

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After that, it was New York: “We like skyscrapers,” Steven said.

Then, this father and son, who have barely travelled, took on the world.

“It used to take us a month to create one building,” Gilles explained.

Now they can do it in three to five days. A whole city will take them between 30 to 40 days.

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They have similar exhibits around the world, but this one is by far the largest with 7 million blocks. They hope to make it permanent. With careful attention to detail, Gilles and Steven hope visitors will see many landmarks they recognize, and also some they don’t.

When we discover new things, that changes our perception on life,” Steven said.

“It’s an amazing exposition,” said Jonathan Trudel, co-owner of the Fleur de Lys shopping centre, where the miniature cities are displayed.

The exhibit officially opened on July 21, but Trudel only saw the exhibit for the first time on Wednesday.

“I felt like a little boy and I was thinking about when I was young and would (make things) with Legos, and build things – not like this, though,” he said.