Did you know that six two-by-four LEGO bricks can be combined in nearly 1 billion different ways? 915,103,765, to be precise. It's a fact that's hard to fathom, a number calculated by Danish mathematician Søren Eilers in 2004, and one found on a display that greets you shortly after entering LEGO House – the "Home of the Brick" in Billund, Denmark.
In 2024, as in the year before it, LEGO remains the most valuable toy company in the world, five times larger than its closest rival in second place. In between its collaborations with Pharrell Williams, licensing deals with Star Wars and Nintendo, and a recently announced upcoming partnership with Nike, LEGO is able to tap into the cultural zeitgeist in a way no other company can. It could be argued that some of the world's greatest feats of engineering were made possible in part thanks to LEGO. From houses to whole towns, ornate custom builds with over a million pieces to outer space and beyond, the colorful, iconic, interlocking plastic bricks and their seemingly infinite combinations have inspired creativity and the fed the imaginations of kids (and adults alike) since 1949. But in Billund, the small town in southern Denmark that The LEGO Group calls home, there is only one house that really matters – indeed, it is the only house of its kind anywhere in the world, an experiential museum-cum-gallery that stands alone as the spiritual home for LEGO enthusiasts worldwide. It is LEGO House.
Since opening in 2017, LEGO House has welcomed the curious and the creatively inclined into its 23-meters (75.5-feet) high, 12,000-square-meters (129,000-square-feet) space. It is home to over 25 million LEGO bricks found across four immersive experience zones – with most of these bricks being fair game for guests to play with. Located in the center of Billund, LEGO House is just a stone's throw from The LEGO Group's global headquarters, itself just a couple minutes walk from the LEGOLAND Billund Resort, the very first LEGOLAND which opened its doors in 1968. If LEGO House was the company's beating heart – a place where passion for the brick is both palpable and proudly on display from the staff and guests alike – then its nearby offices would probably be its brain, a network of office buildings where business gets done. And it is big business. Really big business. In its latest fiscal report, LEGO showed that in the first half of 2024 its revenue was up 13% and operating profit up 26% compared to same period last year. Its annual revenue for the last financial year totalled 65.9 billion Danish kroner (approximately $9.7 billion USD), with a net profit of 13.11 billion Danish kroner (approximately $1.94 billion USD). And, it is worth noting, all of this comes in the face of both the cost of living crisis, as well as while the global toy industry is at its "most negative in more than 15 years," according to LEGO's CEO, Niels B. Christiansen.
As a structure, LEGO House is as intricately built and architecturally intriguing as you would imagine the "Home of the Brick" to be. Designed by the Bjarke Ingels Group – a Danish firm started by its eponymous founder Bjarke Ingels, an architect who The Wall Street Journal named its "Innovator of the Year" in 2011, and Time one of its "100 Most Influential People" in 2016 – LEGO House consists of 21 overlapping blocks reminiscent of a stack of LEGO bricks that have been put together. On one side of the building is a staircase that straddles larger platforms to its side, each of which is equal in height to that of three steps, and arranged in equal spacing all the way to the top. It is a formation that is geometrically designed to give a sense of infinity, the kind LEGO subscribes to when it comes to the infinite possibilities its bricks can provide. According to Ingels' firm, "LEGO House can be conceived as a three dimensional village of interlocking and overlapping buildings and spaces", one that can be "visited as a curated flow – from one building to the next – in a continuous movement" or indeed "as parallel worlds of complete autonomy."
"Each space can be designed and used independently. Each box can have a unique light setting, a unique dimension and still be part of a flexible totality. Multiple spaces have access to an outdoor space that can be used to expand the LEGO experience to the outside. The LEGO House will be both expressive and rational. Innovative and systematic – like a Guggenheim of white cubes, combining the functionality of the modular space with the iconic character of a sculptural building."
Of the many things to do and see within LEGO House, the core experience is in its four immersive zones located on the first and second floors. These color-coded zones are specifically curated to tap into and help guests explore different parts of their minds. The red zone, for example, is designed to inspire creativity and invites guests to make their own "unique masterpiece" with an "endless amount of LEGO bricks" available to use. Like red, the other zones (green, yellow and blue) are grounded in the idea of learning through play – a key tenet that drives The LEGO Group – and each taps into guests social, emotional, cognitive, physical or creative skills in its own way. The yellow zone explores our emotional creativity where guests can build a LEGO sea animal to release into a virtual aquarium, or build and plant a LEGO flower in the meadow. In the blue zone guests can experiment with different bricks to build their own car and then race it against other guests on ready-made tracks; or, they can take control of a beekeeping robot that moves by code input and go head-to-head to see who can collect the most honey.
On the top floor of LEGO House is the Masterpiece Gallery, a collection of frankly extraordinary LEGO structures that photographs barely do justice to. Much of the collection is fan-built and displayed on loan from the most ardent and technically gifted builders in the brand's global community. It's on regular rotation, too, with LEGO keeping its curation of the space fresh so that guests always have something new to see. Just last week the brand unveiled the latest line up of contributors to the Masterpiece Gallery, with 15 fans from nine countries selected to have their creations on display. One of these, Donny Chen, is an Australian piano teacher who started building LEGO as an adult 13 years ago – he's an "adult fan of LEGO", or, as they're known, an "AFOL". Amongst Chen's creations newly on show at LEGO House (he has three) is a 7,000-piece golden dragon he built to commemorate the Lunar Year of the Dragon, honoring his Chinese heritage that inspires much of his work. Another is Roldan Grace, a 19-year-old from the United States, who has played with LEGO since age four and is showcasing his 11,000-piece Knight on Horseback model.
Planted in the very middle of LEGO House you'll find the Tree of Creativity – one of the most iconic LEGO builds in the world. Standing at over 15-meters (almost 50-feet) high, it scales several floors of the building and, from a distance, might be mistaken for a real tree. It's a marvel of LEGO engineering, constructed with of over six million LEGO bricks, and an appropriate centerpiece that grounds everything around it.
If you're still pondering the fact shared in the opening line above, we don't blame you. That just six bricks can open up so many possibilities, in a way, speaks to the core of what the LEGO brand stands for. From a tiny town in Denmark to becoming one of the world's most recognizable brands, LEGO's appeal seems to transcend time. LEGO House brings together all of the tenets the brand stands for – play, design, creativity, possibility, fun – and is an experience every fan of LEGO should have. You can find more information on LEGO House via its website.
Click here to view full gallery at Hypebeast
