Danish toymaker the LEGO Group has revealed new photographs, renderings and an aerial drone video of its forthcoming Bjarke Ingels-designed brand museum in the city of Billund, where the company was founded 85 years ago.
The visitor attraction – built to resemble a giant stack of Lego bricks – is rapidly taking shape, and an opening date of 28 September has been announced.
Consisting of 21 huge multi-coloured blocks built on top of one another, the 12,000sq m (129,000sq ft) project has been described by Ingels’ studio BIG as “a three-dimensional village of interlocking buildings and spaces.”
The public will be able to access the ground floor – containing a café, a restaurant and a LEGO store – and can climb up to the roof via stairs and terraces leading over and across the house. Paying visitors will be able to access four specially-designed play zones and galleries inside the house.
“I love that you sandwich the gallery and the brand museum in between these two public spaces,” BIG partner Kai-Uwe Bergmann told
CLAD. “Literally we’re doing something in the heart of the city, that any inhabitant of Billund will be able to come and access.
“It’s a little bit like our Danish Maritime Museum where we left the dry dock as a 24/7 accessible space for everybody that lives there. It’s a very Danish concept – caring and generous.
“LEGO let us run loose in imagining how to encapsulate their dreams and their product into a building.”
After the images and videos were published, LEGO House general manager Jesper Vilstrup said: “This project is a manifestation of the very essence of the LEGO idea. This will be an amazing place where LEGO fans, their families and friends can experience – or re-experience – the playfulness of the LEGO universe.
“All activities are related to our philosophy that creative play promotes innovation. LEGO House will enable us to offer both adult and young guests the chance of stimulating both creativity and learning.”
Tickets for the LEGO House are due to go on sale in June.
In a separate development, the company has broken ground on a new office complex in the city, called the 'LEGO Campus'. The project, designed by Danish architects C.F. Møller, features 52,000sq m of LEGO brick-inspired offices and a public park. Up to 2,000 LEGO employees will work there when it opens in 2019.
