In an era of bigger is better, Joshua Smith is sculpting hyper-realistic buildings small enough to convince you otherwise.

The Adelaide miniaturist has been recreating iconic city buildings at one-twentieth of the scale for the past three years.

The intricate designs feature cigarette butts and disposed slushie cups, often just millimetres in length, with the hope of bringing attention towards the grime and beauty of urban decay.

"The more decrepit and decayed the building is, the more I want to build it.

"I see the sense of beauty in the decay and the history and the story that it tells, and I want to tell the untold stories, more than the ones that are prominent."

Commissioned by the Australian Design Centre, Mr Smith's latest project depicts three of Sydney's forgotten buildings — the Olympia Milk Bar in Stanmore, the Karim building on Wentworth Street and the Ginseng Shop in Haymarket.

A dropped slushie just millimetres in length can be seen on the Olympia Milk Bar miniature. ( Supplied: Joshua Smith )

Many of the components are small. ( Supplied: Joshua Smith )

The real Olympic Milk Bar in Stanmore. ( Supplied: Joshua Smith )

Creating art since age three

While he was a stencil artist for 17 years, Mr Smith said he sought a change and turned to miniature art.

Despite it being a relatively rare artform, he said there was no surprise this medium would be his next venture.

"I remember my mother keeping the cardboard cereal boxes and I'd be making miniatures of buildings, funnily enough, when I was three or four years old.

"She still does the same thing for now," he laughed.

Interestingly, Mr Smith has often never seen the buildings he creates and relies on submitted photographs.

"Most of the buildings I create I don't see them until after I've built them; it makes it weird for when I see the building afterwards in the flesh."

Joshua Smith's work has been exhibited in London, Paris, Berlin, New York, Hong Kong and currently in Sydney. ( ABC Arts: Teresa Tan )

The recreation of the Olympia Milk Bar in Stanmore features broken windows, grit and grime. ( Supplied: Joshua Smith )

The beauty in decay

Mr Smith said depending on size, the architectural miniatures could take anywhere from a week to three months to create.

"There's a mixture of different scales, but the predominant scales that I work in are 1:20, 1:24 and 1:30, depending on the overall size of the finished building that I want."

The buildings themselves are made from a combination of materials, which Mr Smith said relied on trial and error.

"A mixture of MDF, which is multi-density fibre, carboard, paper, plastic and styrene plastic and a few little bits of odds and ends as well."

The 1:24 version of the Chinese Ginsengs & Herbs Co shop in Haymarket. ( Supplied: Joshua Smith )

To recreate the Karim Building, Mr Smith used a drill to make indents into the wood to resemble bricks. ( Supplied: Joshua Smith )

While the finished product is around one metre in height, it includes some components that are just millimetres in width.

"Cigarette rollies — they're probably one of the smallest ones," Mr Smith said.

"That's rolled-up paper that I light and very carefully blow out and then put it into the paper."

By focusing on decaying buildings, Mr Smith said he often had to contact the graffiti artists who had already used the space to display their work.

"I get in touch with the graffiti artist personally and get their permission to recreate it exactly, and then I use spray paint to replicate the work."

And while the buildings often look dusty and dirty, Mr Smith said it was not as simple as rubbing the artwork with some dirt from the ground.

"I use weathering pigment," he said.

"If I'm using actual dirt, it can't pass though quarantine when I'm trying to get it into other countries, especially if I'm trying to get it back into Australia just because it's raw, organic materials."

Mr Smith's miniatures are for sale for around $8,000 each.

The Urban Decay Exhibition will run at the Australian Design Centre in Sydney until September 25.