BILLUND, Denmark—The LEGO House is complete and ready to delight fans young and old of the iconic building blocks with its vast exhibition and play spaces that embody the culture at the heart of LEGO.
The colorful stepped LEGO temple is complete with a shark-infested rooftop, diggity dog dinos and a LEGO waterfall, that overlook a stretch of forest surrounding the city. Designed by BIG, the firm led by young Danish architect Bjarke Ingels, the project brings the scale of the classic LEGO brick toy to the architectural scale with LEGO House.
“LEGO house is a literal manifestation of the infinite possibilities of the LEGO brick – one that embodies the notion of systematic creativity and allows children of all ages countless opportunities to create their own worlds and to inhabit them through play. At its finest – that is what architecture – and LEGO play – is all about: empowering people to imagine new worlds that are more exciting and expressive than the status quo – and to provide them with the tools and the skills to make them reality. This is what children do every day with LEGO bricks – and this is what we have done today at LEGO House with actual bricks, taking Billund a step closer towards becoming the Capital for Children.”
The building features 13 immersive and interactive galleries, the Guardian writes, including literally bucket-loads of LEGO bricks for fanboys and fangirls to investigate and explore; and even build a city with a digital population of LEGO mini-figures adapting to new offices, housing, parks—whatever they can imagine.
Mountains of them are everywhere, with buckets built into every bench and huge troughs filled by gushing brick waterfalls, along with galleries dedicated to impossibly detailed fantasy worlds full of amusing scenes, many submitted by Lego fans themselves.
Ingels adds his firm has “graduated as Danish architects” having finally made a brick building, a cornerstone of Danish architecture.
Ingels is referring to the rule, particularly observed by meticulous Danes, that you should never cut a brick to fit with your design, but configure the design to fit the brick instead.
He earlier described the proportions of the LEGO brick embodying the golden ratio of architecture, and we couldn’t agree more especially since the bricks aren’t even made of brick at all, but rather are comprised of ceramic tiles clipped onto a steel frame (gasp!).
This staggered pile of shiny white blocks, built just metres from the redbrick house and workshop where the family-owned company began in 1932, is the ultimate embodiment of the Lego brand. At two of its corners, the big blocks appear to melt, plunging down to form cascading steps, encouraging you to clamber up on to the colourful terraces that spiral up to the summit for views across the town.
Related Articles:
NewsFile | Koons Case, LEGO House, Brexit Pots and More!
Collectable, Kitschy Ceramic Toys for Fangirls and Fanboys
Do you love or loathe this architecture from the worlds of contemporary ceramic art and contemporary ceramics? Share your thoughts in the comments.
Add your valued opinion to this post.