Hello APlusD family!
A few days ago on my last contribution to the AplusD community I had the pleasure to introduce to the Fjordenhus a gem of Modern Scandinavian Architecture by Olafur Eliasson and owned by the Kirk Johansen family.
The Kirk Johansen family founded the most famous Danish institution: LEGO ® and today I will take you a few Km away from Vejle in the town of Billund famously known for LEGOLAND. This town also hosts a magnificent modern building: The LEGO a House.
Danish Architect Snorre Nash from the Bjarke Ingels Group designed this new building in 2017 as a temple dedicated to the famous brick. The house 23 meter tall is built to look like a stack of 21 giant LEGO bricks placed like individual buildings balance each other and the facade is covered with tiles that look like the classic 2x4 LEGO bricks. There are plenty of quirky details to discover around the house for both small and grown up children.
When you arrive in the front of the building you are welcomed by a sculpture of 3 oversized LEGO bricks but before you go inside you should wonder around exploring the outside of the building. The white façade will reminded me a bit of the Oslo Opera House, you you can also climb part of it but the resemblance stops here. This façade is made to look like the classic Lego Bricks but also acts like an outdoor amphitheater and you can seat anywhere and enjoy the views.
Once you cross the main doors you arrive into a giant indoors plaza illuminated through the cracks & gaps between the 21 giant blocks. This square appears like an urban cave and the fact that there isn’t any visible columns or supporting structures makes it really impressive.
Open to the public you will find a LEGO store, café, restaurant and also conference facilities. The place is filled with sculptures made entirely with LEGO pieces including a Model of the LEGO House itself so you can explore the house from above and from every angle.
My favorite sculpture though is a giant Tree in the middle of the rotonda beside the stairs that take you to the different exhibition rooms.
Photo Credit: Bjarke Ingels Group
The exhibition area on the second and 3rd floors is only accessible by purchasing a ticket. Formed by a cluster of galleries overlapping each other to create a continuous sequence of exhibitions. Each gallery is colour coded in LEGO’s primary colours.
Most of the exhibition rooms are in fact giant playrooms. Although kid oriented the experience is definitely enjoyable by adults and it will take you back to your fondest childhood memories. Without realizing it I found myself playing with LEGO again. According to LEGO House official website there is more than 25 million LEGO bricks inside the building!
If you’re interested I recommend you visit the official website here. You will find a lot of different pictures and also a couple of videos about this kids Mecca. I will end this post with 2 more exterior pictures I found on Bjarke Ingels Group website as my camera didn’t have a wide angle length big enough to capture the magnitude of the structure. As a side note all pictures are mine unless stated otherwise as a photo Credit on the bottom of each picture.
Photo Credit: Bjarke Ingels Group
Photo Credit: Bjarke Ingels Group
For those of you that want to know more about the architectural features I recommend you visit their website here.
Looking forward to reading your comments and impressions, have a great weekend!