After four years of planning and construction, Danish toy manufacturer Lego (Billund; www.lego.com) has opened the first phase of a new campus at its headquarters. Inspired by a painting in the office of Lego owner Kjeld Kristiansen, the architects adopted a “more playful” approach to the design of the campus, incorporating Lego bricks in the external walls, placing two gigantic yellow bricks on the roof and creating an entryway made of bricks.

When completed in 2021, the campus will span 54,000m² and house more than 2,000 employees. Five hundred employees have already moved into two of the eight new buildings, which also include play areas, lounges and outdoor parks open to the public.

Lego has also designed the building to meet its sustainability principles, which the group calls its “Planet Promise”. The roof of the nearby parking garage is covered with 4,150 solar panels to produce more than 1m kWh, which will supply half of the campus’ energy. In addition, the rooftops of the new buildings are covered with Sedum plants that absorb water and CO₂, and rainwater will be used to irrigate the green parks on the site. For the interior, a special gypsum fibre board has been chosen as it requires less steel framing, saving 22 t of steel and 650 t of CO₂ emissions.