The LEGO Group breaks ground on Innovation Campus – new home for product designers

CEO Niels B Christiansen and Chief Product and Marketing Officer (CPMO) Julia Goldin today broke ground on a 50,000 sqm Innovation Campus in the LEGO Group global headquarters in Billund, Denmark. NIRAS participated as LEGO’s partners in building engineering and construction management.  

The new building will house 1,700 creative LEGO colleagues from across product marketing and development, gaming, product and quality teams including the company’s 600+ designers in one space to create the LEGO experiences that inspire children and adults across the globe. The building will also be home to the world’s largest library of LEGO elements covering a collection of around 20,000 different LEGO elements in 70 different colours. 

The new Campus is part of the LEGO Group’s commitment to building and creating a world class headquarters in Billund where more than 5,900 employees from around 90 countries work.

Niels B Christiansen, CEO, said: “I am thrilled to mark the beginning of construction of another new campus as we continue to invest in attractive workplaces for our colleagues around the world. Not only is the building design creative at its core – it is also true to our sustainability ambitions,

LEGO bricks played a pivotal role in the building’s design. CEBRA Architects invited colleagues who will work in the building to provide input to their future workspaces at different stages of the design and frequently used LEGO bricks to capture and evolve ideas. Consultations were held over 18 months during the design process to ensure the building provided the right environment to inspire creativity and idea-building while reflecting the company’s values and commitment to sustainability.

The result is an innovative building in six overlapping modules with up to four floors featuring play zones and atriums and a bustling PlayWay that moves through neighbourhoods and connects people and functions. There will be lots of green spaces and maximised daylight to spark creativity, in a structure made entirely from wood.

Resilient in both design and construction 

The building’s innovative wooden structure will feature a core and walls of FSC certified timber. This helps achieve a significant reduction in upfront emissions. The building aims to meet LEED Platinum standards by enhancing energy efficiency, materials, biodiversity, and water conservation. This is achieved through deliberate choices made throughout the design, like overall building geometry, building heights, or façade design.

Business Unit Director at NIRAS, Andrew Ferguson Dunn describes the project as a frontrunner on several levels:

“LEGO & KIRKBI are truly inspiring when it comes to investing in future-proof projects in the building sector. The solid focus on minimising negative environmental impact, whilst creating new and fantastic indoor workspaces is very real, and I believe that the Innovation Campus will serve as an inspiration for the sector in many years to come. Additionally, we are experiencing a very constructive open process and collaboration with all the partners involved, which I believe significantly strengthens the project and its goals. I wish all the involved partners huge congratulations on today’s milestone and look forward to following, and actively being part of, this meaningful project and process as it moves toward realisation.”  

The new Innovation Campus is set to open in 2027 and will be covering four hectares (about eight football fields), located in Billund, Denmark on a greenfield site owned by KIRKBI A/S. This is the third LEGO Campus that forms part of the LEGO Group’s Billund Headquarters. At NIRAS we are proud to contribute to two of these campuses. The project is built and financed by KIRKBI A/S.