On the roof of Lego House, nine storeys into the sky, you can just make out the apex of a bright orange crescent. You’ll hear the innocent cries of joy before you realise what you’re actually looking at: the top of a giant swing – one of the oldest, simplest playground staples taken to another level.
And that’s what Lego House is all about: elevating the thrill of a childhood toy to an entirely new plane.
The sense of scale begins well before you arrive here. In fact, it hits you the moment you land at Billund in Denmark. You know a company’s become big when it essentially has its own airport. Collect your luggage, and you’re greeted by a life-sized Lego velociraptor – one wearing a woollen jumper with the words ‘Home of the brick’ on it.
It’s been 93 years since Ole Kirk Kristiansen set up shop in Billund. A carpenter forced by the Great Depression to turn his hand to toy making, he became one of the industry’s greatest innovators.
There’s something about visiting Lego House that feels full circle. For me at least, my first memory of building something out of Lego was a simple red house with white windows and a yellow door. You know the one – you probably made it, too.
And now Lego has made a giant house not quite from Lego bricks, but not far off…
House rules
The 12,000 sq m Lego House is shaped like a pile of 21 oversized blocks, stacked playfully in varying directions – each topped with a different coloured roof.
While the façade is clad entirely in white ceramic tiles proportioned like classic 2×4 Lego bricks, circular skylights on the central section replicate the brand’s iconic studs. It’s like a life-size Lego playset, which all becomes very meta when inside you can buy a Lego playset of the very building you’re standing in.
Don’t get me wrong: this is no dressed-up retail store; it is a cathedral to creativity.
The first thing you’ll see is a giant tree: a towering Lego sculpture twisting up through the central atrium right to the ceiling – where instead of a final flourish of foliage, a model crane ‘continues’ the tree’s build.
The tree’s actual construction took a team of experts 24,000 hours and no fewer than 6.3 million bricks to complete. On each branch, a mini world has been created – from Ninjago temples to jungle escapes, pirates’ coves to knights’ castles. It’s a suitably grand and creative structure for what lies beyond.
There are four main zones to explore: Red for creative building; Green for social storytelling and stop-motion; Blue for logical play and robotic challenges; and Yellow for emotional play and digital character creation. On the top floor, the Masterpiece Gallery showcases awe-inspiring creations by adult Lego fans; and in the basement, The Lego Museum and History Collection chronicles the brand’s evolution, with displays containing some of the earliest sets in Lego history.
To give you an idea of the true depth and scale of the place, my family and I spent a full eight hours here – an entire working day – and left knowing there was still plenty of fun to be had.
My son geeked out in the Blue zone most, especially building and racing his own car against grown men(!) in the Test Driver area. My daughter loved the Critter Creator in the yellow zone, bringing her character to life on the digital dance stage.
Once challenge we enjoyed most collectively as a family was hunting for six individual Batmen hidden among the World Explorer islands to win the Lego trophy, giving us all the opportunity to properly appreciate the detail and effort that went into building them. (A personal favourite was Darth Vader skiing using two light sabres as ski poles.)
Even the restaurant experience here gets the Lego treatment. The ‘Mini Chef’ restaurant uses Lego-brick coded menus and a series of conveyor belts to deliver meals via a pair of robotic servers. ‘Robert’ and ‘Roberta’ hand you your Lego boxes much to the glee of the little ones. (Remember to book in advance for this.)
Needless to say, everything from the flower displays to the chandeliers is made from Lego.
Wherever you go, there’s never a bench far away with containers brimming with red blocks where you can build your own creations or add to those of others left behind.
There are chill-out areas with white bricks and sensory headphones to calm down and decompress – or you know, just escape your own kids for a minute.
Perhaps the most impressive sculpture there is a life-size waterfall of Lego bricks. Made from 1,968,753 bricks, and weighing more than 5.3 tonnes, it took a team of professional builders 29 weeks to complete. The waterfall crashes into a plunge pool of multicoloured bricks for visitors to add their own flourishes to the structure.
As you leave Lego House, there’s one final build for you to undertake – of a meagre six bricks. In 2004, a Danish mathematics professor called Soren Eilers calculated that the number of unique ways you can combine six 2x4 Lego bricks of the same colour is 915,103,765.
You get to create your own version, as well as being assigned a unique guest number and Lego House card. A simple souvenir, yet proof that the possibilities of play are virtually infinite.
Legoland ahoy
Of course, people have been coming to Billund long before Lego House’s construction in 2017. A quick stroll down the Playline Walk – a playful, sculpture‑filled stroll – will bring you to the OG Legoland, positioned next door to the original Lego factory. Legoland Billund dates back to 1968, and is now the largest tourist attraction in the whole of Denmark with around 1.9 million visitors attending annually.
Naturally, the park has much in common with its nine Legoland stablemates around the world, but there’s something extra special about this one. (Sorry, Windsor.)
You’re welcomed by Miniland – the heart of the park, showcasing both a miniature Denmark alongside iconic global landmarks all built in Lego at a 1:20 scale. Alongside the 25 million bricks used in its construction, the surrounding topiary is so impressive it’s worthy of a Chelsea Flower Show Gold Medal in its own right.
For bigger kids, there are four rollercoasters with varying scream factors from a rye smile up to ‘I shouldn’t have had that extra helping of eggs at breakfast’. In the latter class, you’ll find the Polar X-plorer which includes a (spoiler alert) surprise five-metre vertical drop and speeds of up to 65 km/h.
Emmet's Flying Adventure is one of the most impressive simulators in the world – and one of its kind, with a 180-degree domed screen and a drop of 8m beneath your dangling legs.
And naturally, don’t forget to exit through the gift shop where you can digitally design a Lego version of yourself, which is then built and printed before your very eyes.
By all means, come for LegoLand, but stay for Lego House. Not just a building, it’s an architectural and spiritual homage to the pure joy of Lego bricks.
From the meticulous design to its endless opportunities for creativity, it is built to spark wonder – for kids and adults alike.
At home my daughter has a Lego typewriter. On the ‘paper’ it says: “Every big idea starts small”. And standing inside Lego House, it’s hard not to believe that from the smallest of bricks, the biggest of ideas really do take shape. Everything here really is awesome.
Learn more about Lego house here.
