Project
LEGO Innovation Campus – a building with creativity and collaboration at its core
©2024 LEGO Group
A building site covering 4 hectares (around 8 football fields) located in Billund will in the future house no less than 1,700 creative LEGO colleagues from product marketing & development, quality & product and their gaming team.
March 5, 2025
- SECTORS: Building
- COUNTRIES: Denmark
- CLIENT: KIRKBI A/S
- Architects: CEBRA
- Engineers: NIRAS
- Construction Managers: NIRAS
NIRAS is a proud contributor to this exciting project, where we assist as engineering consultants and construction managers. The project is formed with creativity and sustainability at its core, which is brought to life through a remarkably good and strong collaboration between the involved parties.
Sustainability in both design and construction
As a central part of the project, sustainability strategies are implemented in both the early stages of the building design process and as an important part of the construction. The building’s wooden structure will feature both a core and inner walls of FSC and PEFC certified timber, which helps lower the building’s up-front emissions of CO2. The use of wood and other biogenic materials is prominent throughout the building, not only serving as carbon storage but also enhancing the aesthetic appeal.
The structural framework features a column-beam system in glued laminated timber, complemented by elements in Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) and facades of wooden cassettes. This approach reduces the need for concrete and steel whilst aligning with future biophilic trends, celebrating the beauty and quality of wooden materials. The remaining materials are chosen with a high degree of recycling content and from manufacturers with a carbon-efficient production, documented by environmental declarations (EPD), which altogether creates a strong sustainability profile for the project.
"Not only is the building design creative at its core – it is also true to our sustainability ambitions, including our commitment to reducing carbon emissions.”
CEO at LEGO group Niels B. Christiansen, October 21, 2024
Facts:
- Site covering 4 hectares – about 8 football fields.
- Building size: 50,000 m2
- Located at Kløvermarken 31, Billund, Denmark on a greenfield site owned by KIRKBI A/S.
- Third LEGO Campus that forms part of the LEGO Group’s Billund Headquarters.
The preliminary estimate of the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) indicate that the building structure itself is expected to store more carbon dioxide than that which has been emitted during production of the materials used for construction.
The high ambitions are being recognised by many different parties, and NIRAS Regional Director, Andrew Ferguson Dunn, also praises the project:
“The ambitions of this project are remarkable, and I think LEGO & KIRKBI are inspiring in their way of investing in future proof building projects. Their determination on minimising negative environmental footprints whilst creating fantastic indoor work environments is very real. Therefore, I truly believe, that this new Innovation Campus will serve as an inspiration for many years to come.”
As part of this ambitious sustainability strategy, the building is also advancing towards the highest LEED certification score, LEED Platinum.
Progressing a trust-based and unique collaboration model
“Complex, ambitious, and innovative projects like the new LEGO Innovation Campus create healthy challenges that push us into rethinking our ways of collaborating. One concrete example is how the use of timber construction opens us to collaborate with international manufacturers and rethink our traditional methods and workflows. This, I believe, is a good challenge for the project team and the building industry in general,” says Senior Project Director Nikolaj Holst Hvitved.
He underlines how working together in the project team is inspiring in this context. The challenges are embraced with the utmost level of trust and transparency. This creates an environment for good ideas to flourish, where innovative approaches create better solutions for both the environment and the future users of the building.
Securing the most qualified solutions
As an important part of the collaboration, NIRAS contributes to the project as construction managers led by Chief Construction Manager Anders Skov Weidemann. According to him, NIRAS’s role as construction managers brings unique opportunities to involve the suppliers at a very early stage.
“We work in close dialogue with the market and have been talking to suppliers and contractors from the beginning, which gives us all a much more holistic approach and a broader understanding of the project. I see this as an advantage in securing the most qualified solutions, where input from the executing parties enriches us with early clarification and a much less time-consuming process in the end,” he says.
Anders Skov Weidemann then explains how early involvement of the suppliers and contractors provides an opportunity to receive the technical expertise needed from those who know the most about a specific material or solution. For instance, it has been particularly relevant to the new Innovation Campus’s timber construction and solutions, where NIRAS has been deeply involved with wood suppliers from the project’s earliest stages.
“There is no doubt that our strong and trust-based relationship with this client has reinforced this collaboration model to work well. Still, I do believe, that we should try to implement similar solutions in other projects as well,” says Anders Skov Weidemann.
NIRAS has provided all engineering services, including project management, sustainability management, health and safety consultancy, civil works, rainwater management, fire safety including BK4 certification, acoustics, structural engineering including KK3 certification, plumbing, ventilation, electrical systems, security, BMS (Building Management System), and commissioning.
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