LEGO Campus: Where Creativity, Sustainability and Fun Merge
After four years of construction, the LEGO Group has inaugurated its new and avant-garde Campus at its headquarters in Billund (Denmark). Designed by CF Moller Architects, the campus occupies 54.000 square meters and houses more than 2.000 employees.
The new LEGO Campus consists of eight buildings, merged to create a single continuous work and play space for its employees, based on the Group's values and innovative culture: imagination, creativity, fun, learning, care and quality.
Where does the idea come from?
The inspiration for the new building came from a painting in the office of the owner of the LEGO Group, Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen. In it, a boy proudly holds his creation of a building made with lego bricks. This gave the architects at CF Møller Architects license to take a more playful approach to their design, something that is evident in the details of the structure. Among them, the use of LEGO bricks on the exterior walls, the placement of two gigantic yellow bricks on the roof and an entrance made of bricks.
The game of sustainability
La sustainability is a basic principle of the LEGO Group, known as the “Planet Promise”. To fulfill this promise, the builders covered the roof of the nearby car park with 4.150 solar to produce more than 1 million kWh that supply half of the energy of the Campus. The exterior of the garage is decorated with a design inspired by the lego road mats, in a nod to the company's iconic products.
The roofs of the new buildings are covered with succulents and succulent plants, which absorb water and CO2. In turn, rainwater is used to irrigate the green parks from the campus area. In the interior, for example, the consultants chose a special material of gypsum fiber panels instead of standard materials because this stronger material requires less steel framing, which has saved 22 tons of steel and 650 tons of CO2 emissions.
the entrance atrium
Located in the central axis of the complex, the spectacular lobby entrance is full of nods to LEGO pieces. A steel structure-staircase in yellow (iconic color of the firm) it borders the three floors with the bright flexible work spaces around it.
The different parts of the building are played with the scale surrounding facilities, resulting in a set that deliberately avoids uniformity in favor of diversity and playful twists, to reflect the multitude of options that the LEGO game represents.
The House of the People
On the ground floor there is the “People House” or the People's House, a kind of cultural center, developed in close collaboration with the workers and the company's anthropologist, Anneke Beerkens, which provides a space for all employees to interact and play during and after work hours.
recreational areas
Created as a place for relaxation, inspiration and recharge, the Town house It has facilities that include: a gym state-of-the-art, a space for Creative workshops, un "hotel" LEGO for visiting employees, a cinema, outdoor park and an activity area, more community and networking and a clinic of health. Families of employees can also make use of the facilities. In the image, to the right on the brick wall, the famous picture of the child with his LEGO building, that inspired the whole project.
collaborative spaces
Collaborative spaces create an atmosphere informal and inspiring throughout the campus. The upper floors include spaces for various work and play activities that encourage creativity and innovation.
La facade is designed to maximize the daylight interior and minimize air conditioning needs. This creates a playful and beautiful façade that contains big lego bricks as one of the motifs of the building.
From the inside, the visitor is surrounded by vegetation everywhere, in the form of a park, patios, small gardens and green roofs that include a greenhouse and a mini golf course.
Two giant lego bricks they form gathering spaces at the top of the building. The integration of the building in the park, with public access, creates outdoor gathering spaces, routes to walk and talk and play areas. These elements break down the barriers between inside and outside, stimulating innovation.
The integration of the corporate image
While we recently discussed how companies use their own corporate image as an aesthetic and decorative resource in office interior design projects, in lego campus the intention passes into absolute action and crosses all imaginable borders. Not only with specific references, such as the use of colors o lego pieces resized images placed everywhere, but in more technical elements, such as the signage, ceiling lights, with the shape of the notches of the pieces; waves brick walls, simulating a LEGO wall. So much so, that they have created their own game of the LEGO CAMPUS!
Sustainability: the most important piece of the game
But let us not forget that sustainability has been the fundamental approach in the design of the Campus, thanks to which a LEED certification Gold level. The Campus is a high-quality, low-energy office building powered in part by solar panels installed on the roof of a nearby parking building. In addition to this, the Campus has:
• Special gypsum fiber boards, which allowed the saving of 650,000 kg of CO2 emissions during construction. In addition, 1.000 tons of construction waste was recycled during the entire construction process.
• sedum plants (a genus of succulent plants) on roof surfaces that collect rainwater for irrigation of surrounding green spaces.
• Waste sorting of workplaces in 10 different categories.
• Flexible and open workspaces with "green" partitions (which integrate plants and planters).
• Outdoor furniture made from scrap LEGO bricks. 5.000 kg of waste LEGO blocks were recycled.
• A focus on biodiversity with a large number of native plants, trees and natural settings planted to support wildlife.
In the words of Niels B Christiansen, LEGO Group CEO: “Our mission is to inspire children, so it is important that we provide a vibrant and fun workplace that allows employees to deliver inspiring experiences for children.”
