BIG's LEGO House Breaks Ground

John Hill

20. August 2014

Rooftop rendering. Image: BIG

The "LEGO House" experience center broke ground in Billund, Denmark, yesterday as three generations of the LEGO Group family laid foundation stones for the Bjarke Ingels-designed building set to open in 2016.

BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group's design for the 12,000sm (130,000sf) museum, which was unveiled in June 2013, treats the building as if it were made from supersized LEGO bricks, culminating in a skylight with a grid of round openings over the 2,000sm (21,500sf) covered square. In a statement on the occasion of the groundbreaking, Bjarke Ingels says this of the museum:

"For us the LEGO brick embodies the notion of systematic creativity – the rigor and rationality of the LEGO brick allows children of all ages infinite possibilities to create their own worlds and to inhabit them through play. We have been inspired by the modularity of the LEGO brick to create a house of all things LEGO. The LEGO House will appear like a cloud of interlocking LEGO bricks that form spaces for exploration and exhibition for its visitors within. On the outside the pile of bricks form the roof of a new square as well as a mountain of interconnected terraces and playgrounds for the citizens of Billund. For both the locals and the pilgrims LEGO House will form the vibrant center of the new heart of Billund."