Lego House: Home of the Brick (2018) - full transcript
In Billund, Denmark, a nearly 130,000-square-foot house inspired by the iconic LEGO bricks is constructed, capturing the awe of kids of all ages.
Дом LEGO станет поистине уникальным,
ведь он будет единственным.
Начало положено.
Я не мог представить себе более приятной мечты
для осуществления, чем мечта Кьелля.
The design process we have been through is
as much as when you play with LEGO bricks.
Wow! [in Danish] Amazing.
I'm moved. [chuckles]
This house is Kjeld's dream.
[Søren] The house will open in,
let say, 20 minutes from now.
We're just changing it slightly, so
it becomes only the best is good enough.
We have to make sure that this is
really becoming the home of the brick.
[Кьелль] A home for the brick has been
my dream for many, many years.
A place where fans of all ages can come
and see and enjoy all the possibilities
that there are within our bricks.
[narrator] Making this dream come true has
been a long and often difficult journey.
The architectural structure
has to complement the interior perfectly.
The play experiences
have to be just right.
You have to create the most spectacular
LEGO builds ever seen.
All of this needs to be done
before the grand opening
and, of course, it all has to meet
the demands
of Кьелль Kirk and the LEGO Group.
Only the best is good enough.
For the purpose of getting the right
exterior frames for the full experience,
the LEGO Group contacted
a number of different architects
to propose various solutions.
But then Bjarke and his people came in
with the right proposal.
At the time, Bjarke Ingels
was already a star architect
and his company, BIG,
had won numerous awards.
[Bjarke] If BIG had been founded
with the purpose
of building just one building,
this was going to be the building.
Architects often forget we're not
just designing some nice facades,
or making things presentable,
or solving some practical issues.
No. We're actually literally creating
the world that we would like to live in,
and if that's what we're doing,
then let's start realizing some dreams.
[Кьелль] Bjarke has been a LEGO fan
all through his years
and used LEGO bricks
also very often in his creations.
I was four, turning five. I was, like,
obsessing with this yellow LEGO castle,
like I studied the images that were in
this catalog as much as I possibly could,
and eventually, actually,
I got it from my granddad for Christmas.
Of course,
I instantly built the castle, as is.
And eventually, all of that yellow LEGO
made it into the ecosystem of LEGO.
The basic idea of the LEGO House, it has
to be a completely inviting and engaging
and accessible and public building,
both on the inside and on the outside.
It's basically like a series of rooms,
almost like LEGO bricks,
so that when you look at Google Earth,
when you fly into Billund,
you can actually recognize
the LEGO building.
The ones that are sitting on the ground,
they contain all the most public functions
and they actually surround a big square
in the middle we call the LEGO square.
Two of the LEGO blocks
on the outside are melting.
This yellow one here is one of them.
You're actually invited
to climb up on the roofscape
and enjoy some
of these interconnected playgrounds.
You can reach the summit of the LEGO House
and you can actually look out
over the entire city of Billund.
You can see all the different
LEGO factories,
the airport set up
and the rest of the city.
In a town that's like, incredibly flat,
suddenly there's this, like,
man-made mountain
where you're actually invited to engage.
I said immediately,
that's going to be the LEGO House.
The lead engineers came back and said:
"We are simply not able
to build the building.
We need to put some pillars into the house
in order to keep up
the different boxes of the house."
When that was explained to Кьелль,
he almost choked the food
that he was eating,
because that was not at all the idea
that he bought into.
Quality is one of our key core values
and has always been very important for us,
quality in a broad sense,
not only in terms of product.
We should act in a qualitative way as
a company in all our behavior, and so on.
So, I think we have looked at
quality in a broad sense.
In 2014, in the center
of Billund, Denmark,
the LEGO House official
ground-breaking ceremony took place,
still unsure of how to solve
the actual constructional challenges.
[excited background chattering]
It's not always easy for me to communicate
the ideas that I have in my head
and I'm sure that I have not always been
very clear on... on how to express it.
A design team starts to come up with ideas
about what the inside of the house
should be like.
The LEGO House will be a world
of play experiences,
all taking a starting point
in the LEGO brick.
This will be the core of everything.
Our goal is to base all experiences
on core life skills,
a range of learning
through play competencies
that comes to life when you start playing.
We'll divide the house in different zones.
In the Red Zone, creativity is key.
We will fill the room with lots of bricks,
so you can build
whatever you can imagine.
In the Blue Zone,
we'll focus on problem-solving skills.
It could be building a city
like an architect,
building a vehicle like a race driver,
or it could be, uh, programming a robot
like a scientist.
The Yellow Zone is all about emotions,
where we want your LEGO models
to come to life.
So, imagine building a critter
that can dance,
or building a fish that could swim away.
The LEGO Minifigure
is a core part of the LEGO world...
and we have decided to create a zone
just for them to live in.
It's the Green Zone and the Green Zone
will be all about social play.
So, imagine the Minifigures
living in a world
where there are lots of story starters
all over.
We're designing the basement to become
a treasure chamber of LEGO secrets.
This is where we expect you to see
the most iconic sets ever made by LEGO
and this is also where you should be
able to revisit your own childhood.
On top of the house,
we'll place the Masterpiece Gallery.
This will be a LEGO art gallery
where we'll display the best builds
made by AFOLs around the world.
So, now we have the vision
and we have all these great ideas.
The only challenge ahead is to figure out
how to make all this great stuff
come to life.
Back at the LEGO House construction site,
the engineers plan to build a steel bridge
that will carry the entire house,
so the giant plaza,
the size of a soccer field,
can stand without any visible pillars,
just like if the house was built
with LEGO bricks.
This is the beginning,
and in the coming three or four months,
there will come small bits and pieces
and it's a puzzle that will be built up
uh, to form the bridge
over the LEGO square.
A lot of additional steel was added
into the construction of the house, uh...
and then we had to postpone
the actual opening date
for another 12 months of the house.
[narrator] Of course, postponing
the opening day of the house wasn’t ideal,
but it was necessary
to get the house just right.
Billund is the home of the company
and, of course, I have a lot of veneration
for Billund because I grew up here.
So, the location of the LEGO House
is quite unique.
It's literally next door to the house
where the founder of the company lived,
where the first offices were,
where the first factory was.
So, literally next door to the place
where the LEGO brick was created,
uh, in 1958, almost 60 years ago.
From a commercial aspect, does it make
sense to build a LEGO house in Billund?
And, no, not if you look at things
from a commercial aspect.
Then... I guess London, New York,
Shanghai, would be much more obvious.
[Кьелль] It's very important,
as a family-owned company,
that we really are true
to our heritage.
And this, for me, is a very important step
in this direction.
Billund is where we have our roots
and it's the most natural place
to build that LEGO House.
-Yes.
-Of course.
My grandfather started in 1932
making wooden toys.
He was a very skilled carpenter.
He wanted to make
some very high-quality toys for children.
The duck here is probably one
of the examples of his very early works.
Making wooden toys was actually
the beginning of the LEGO company.
[narrator] So, it all started in 1932 with
one man's love for wood craftsmanship.
The Great Depression brings
the global economy to a halt,
including Ole Kirk Kristiansen’s
small woodworking shop in Billund.
But always the fighter,
Ole Kirk refuses to give up.
He reinvents the company
and starts producing wooden toys
under the name LEGO.
Greatly inspired by his father,
Godtfred Kirk Christiansen carves
the words "Only the best is good enough"
into wooden plaques, reminding himself
and the employees
to keep their focus on quality.
During a chance encounter
with Godtfred Kirk,
a toy buyer complains
that he sees no system,
or actual ideas, in toys of the time.
The conversation plants a seed
in the mind of Godtfred Kirk,
and one year later,
the LEGO Company introduces
a town-planner themed boxset
that enables children to build their own
town where everything fits together.
On January 28th 1958,
the modern LEGO brick is born.
From this point on, endless building
possibilities become a reality.
[in Danish] I have a special emotional
connection to all this, right?
It is.... [chuckles]
It really is our... the ultimate house.
Ah! [in Danish] That’s it.
The construction of the steel bridge
carrying the house is now completed
and Кьелль visits the construction site.
[Danish] We're standing on top
of the biggest LEGO brick in the world.
The biggest two-by-four brick in the world
is here!
I think the staircase is so clever.
If you look at the lines
from the handrail, right?
The bottom of the handrail,
from corner to corner slants differently,
which will make the stairs exciting
to look at from below.
And in the middle will be a gigantic tree.
There are so many details
in a building like this
and I'm involved in many of them...
from how the LEGO House logo should be,
which I have an opinion on.
Often, it's more a feeling about something
that occurs to me when I see a proposal...
and it will simply be a gut reaction
because I've lived through this company
for so many years
and I just have a feeling
for what's right and what's not.
I think it's a bit inbuilt.
[Jørgen] I think the house is
one of the most important efforts
that Кьелль has ever undertaken.
Uh, he's so passionate about this.
I think for him,
uh, leaving a place behind
where you can really truly understand
the LEGO idea.
Ah.
Here it is. This is definitely
one of my favorite boxes.
It was something
that was very, very popular.
The castle.
This is the yellow castle.
This was actually the first set
with a lot of different Minifigures.
That's me on the picture here.
I was used as a model for lots of boxes
in the... in the early... early years.
It was easy to just ask me to come.
I played a lot with LEGO bricks...
as a child.
I feel that I sort of grew up
with the brick and often,
when I came home from school,
we had a couple of designers.
I loved going over there
and seeing what they were making
and I actually also got my own desk there,
so that I could sit there
and build whenever I wanted to.
[background chattering]
He is a child and lives up
to the children-of-all-ages notion of LEGO
and really believes
in the values of the child
and you see it when he's approaching
and talking to children.
Here's an adult who's taking me on
with a serious mindset
and not: "Oh, you're just playing."
"No, no, you're playing
and that's a serious matter.
That's something
that I care deeply about."
How can children create and really be
stimulated to develop themselves also?
Uh, that's been one of the things
that I have put even more emphasis on
in building our brand
over the period that I have been C.E.O.
[upbeat music and children chattering]
We've seen in our research
that there's nothing more important
than helping children develop
as creative thinkers.
Mitch Resnick is a professor
of learning research and has been working
for more than 30 years
at the MIT Media Lab,
a worldwide leading institute
in innovation and creativity.
When I think about play,
I don't see it as just fun and games,
but rather, I see play as a type
way of engaging with the world,
where you're willing to take risks,
to try new things.
I think the greatest learning
and the greatest innovations come
when people are doing things
in a playful spirit.
They might be building a sand castle,
or a LEGO castle or building a poem.
Whatever they are creating is
a way for them to create new ideas.
So it's this constant cycle
between children building things
in the world, to build new ideas
that lets them build new things
in the world.
That cycle provides the basis
for the best learning experiences.
I think places like the LEGO House provide
an image of what the world might be like
and how we can provide
new opportunities for children.
If we provide children the opportunity
to build, to play, to design and create,
they'll be prepared for a world which is
going to require creative thinking
more than ever before.
[narrator] As the building
of the LEGO House moves along,
a design team is put together
for the difficult task,
figuring out
what the experiences should be
in the different zones
in the LEGO House.
We want to represent more or less
all platforms that we have,
all element families
that we have as well,
and all different types of play that
we also offer in the LEGO experience.
The design process
that we have been through is as much
as when you play with LEGO bricks.
When you play with bricks,
you build your first model,
but having built that,
you sort of walk around it a bit
and you think: "It could be better,
I could improve it with a window,
perhaps with a roof as well."
That's the same process
as we've been through.
That's so cool. You become a kid.
The interior is something very unique
and very special.
Everything is very iconically designed,
as a LEGO brick.
It's not a doll house
we're making in big size,
but the brick is such a dominant factor
in the design of everything.
You can, if you want to,
build all furniture in LEGO bricks.
What a statement, you know,
a statement of LEGO. Grand.
[narrator] And, of course,
the outside of the LEGO House
should also look like
it's built from LEGO bricks.
[in Danish] Should it be wider or narrower
and how wide should the pointing gap be?
They're good discussions. [chuckles]
At another place at the construction site,
there are high hopes
of moving into the building
so that they can get started
on their part of the LEGO House.
We really want to make
the best family restaurant in Denmark.
And to do that, you need to create
a wow effect for the kids.
We actually plan to do
a quite fantastic journey for the food.
We plan to add a conveyor belt,
going from the kitchen
out to the family restaurant.
And then, in this place, we will have
robots standing, serving the food
to you as a guest of the restaurant.
It's interesting how the project
is also evolving over time...
especially the family restaurant.
There, we've taken the idea of
really bringing bricks into the hands
of guests,
no matter where you are in the house.
We've really taken that into the concept
of the family restaurant.
[narrator] While figuring out how the
restaurant will come alive with robots,
the testing of the experiences begins.
[Corey] The idea is that we go
from sketches to 3D dimensions
and making sure that the concepts
actually work in principle.
What we're working on now is,
we've already got proof from testing
that the whole idea of using cars on ramps
is effective and a good play experience.
So, at the moment, I'm trying make sure
that different type of vehicles,
based on weight and resistance,
are making the transition from this ramp
to the next ramp.
I'm making sure it's at least possible.
What has helped us to validate
whether our choices have been right
all along have been the guests.
So, we have been doing numerous testings.
[background chattering]
This is the biggest test that we have had
and will be having
before the opening of the house.
We've gone through extensive testing
for the last two years now,
but there's still a lot of final design
development that needs to be done.
Testing is super critical for LEGO.
We do it all the time.
We see thousands of children every year.
And also here in the LEGO House,
we want to make something that has
been developed together with children.
We think of a good idea,
but we don't know it'll work
until we put it in front of the kids.
And in the process of putting it in front
of them, we get feedback.
This ramp, for example, is really strong.
Kids are really loving it.
There's a lot of people on it.
This ramp over here, not so much, right?
So, we learn from the process
of our own design,
learning-through-play process,
creating and designing things,
what works and what doesn't and that
informs the next version of the design.
-[chuckles]
-Ah!
[laughs] Almost.
[children chatter]
[in Danish] It's more fun to build
if you have imagination.
[in Danish] I thought it was all new
and I thought it was all fun.
It has been brilliant!
[narrator] LEGO House wouldn’t be
a true LEGO House
without grand LEGO builds inside.
Such as a giant LEGO waterfall...
different LEGO worlds...
huge LEGO dinosaurs...
and the largest LEGO build to date,
the Tree of Creativity.
In charge of the many different
LEGO builds for the LEGO House is Stuart.
When I first started working for LEGO
in 1993,
um, and I joined LEGOLAND
as a model builder.
I made this myself.
I can't fly the flag outside
on the flagpole, so I fly it inside,
as a LEGO flag.
And we have another one here.
This is a prop we've used in a photoshoot.
Yellow castle, that's a classic LEGO set.
I have a little Beetle here,
because when I first moved to Denmark,
I came in my, uh, yellow Beetle.
It was a nice car,
so, um, I had a little copy made of it,
small scale, Minifigure scale.
This box here, a model
of the Tree of Creativity from LEGO House.
It was natural to have one of the most
iconic LEGO models
that has ever been built
to be done as a kit as well.
Here you can see Кьелль and myself
looking at the final product. Yeah.
We have a passion for the brand.
We like building with the bricks, so...
And I'm an adult, so I guess
that I count as an adult fan of LEGO.
Stuart doesn’t do the actual
LEGO buildings for the house himself.
He designs and supervises
that everything goes as directed.
This morning, I am going to
our model shop here in Billund,
where some of the designers are working on
one of the experiences we're developing.
The World Explorer Exhibition will be
covered in small Minifigure stories.
The task for Stuart and his team
is to create these scenes
for the visitor to discover.
Here we are in the model shop.
Today, Stuart will be presented
with a bunch of Minifigure scenes.
It's then up to him to approve and select
which ones will end up in the final build.
There's the Batman car.
He's getting a ticket.
-Also, we need to find a place for this.
-Okay. That's very cool.
I love the white-line painter.
-That's awesome
-[laughter]
Then we need to build the white line
into the road.
[all] Yeah.
What Stuart would love would be
your approval for the scenery,
-for those parts that we have here today.
-Yeah.
I think, uh, they've done a great job.
Really, uh, really happy with what I saw.
There are some fantastic scenes
and, uh, some good humor
and some great characters.
[Кьелль] This small Minifigure, he or she
has become a very, very important icon,
almost as important
as the two-by-four LEGO brick.
The first LEGO Minifigure is born in 1978,
and one year later,
Кьелль Kirk is appointed
president and C.E.O. of the LEGO Group.
The dominance
of increasingly popular video games
threatens to disrupt the toy market.
The LEGO company fights back
with new LEGO theme parks,
action figures, video games
and lifestyle products,
assuming that children
no longer have the time
or the patience
for old-fashioned plastic bricks.
Around the turn of the millennium,
times are tough for the LEGO company,
with falling sales and high costs.
Newly-appointed CEO Jørgen Vig
and LEGO owner Кьелль Kirk realize
that LEGO fans of all ages
positively love and adore
the simplicity of the LEGO brick.
Getting back to basics makes the LEGO
Group a profitable business once again
and now they've taken on
a new official mission,
to inspire and develop
the builders of tomorrow.
Today's a big day. I think
it's my biggest day in the house.
This is the day where we're going to get
hopefully the approval of the concept.
It is a big day for the design
and development team.
Today, Кьелль and the steering committee
have to approve the furniture design
and all the play experiences
for the LEGO House.
We're talking about all experiences
in the house, all paid experiences.
We are going through 19 individual
experiences today, one by one by one.
Hopefully, we'll get a thumbs up.
That includes the design of the interior.
[in Danish] So, if Кьелль says something,
we listen to Кьелль,
but what if what if Jørgen says
something different?
Then we still listen to Кьелль!
[laughter]
I've actually got a board I'll bring out.
I asked Stuart again
to find a couple of elements from Frank.
In the Duplo zone over here,
you can see,
we wanted to build it up
to the window,
but we can't
because of the ventilation duct here.
We need somewhere for people to sit.
And now people can sit there. That was
what I realized, so the advantage is,
we have around 30 centimeters
we can play around
and with 40 cm here,
we can pull it back a bit,
so, you can sit with your legs hanging
and look down there.
-Exactly, so the grown-ups can sit there.
-Really amazing to look down here.
-It could be an advantage here, right?
-Yes, it could.
[in English] One thing I learned
from my father was his saying...
"If you have the right idea,
if you have the right people,
then the results also will come."
We now have thumbs up, double thumbs up
for 19 different experiences.
Meaning that we now have the foundation
for the full LEGO House.
In Skærbæk, Denmark
the annual LEGO fan event is being held,
a two-day event where fans of all ages
from all over the world
gather to talk about LEGO topics
and impress each other
with their own builds.
Being a LEGO builder to me
means being able to express myself
with my art through LEGO
and being able to reach other people.
It's kind of like another form
of creativity.
You can express anything you want to say,
or do, by something you can build.
And, like, people who like
a certain thing, like cars, can build it.
I like music
so I chose to build a music box
and that's what LEGO really means.
[narrator] Obviously, one of
the biggest LEGO fans, Кьелль, is present.
[Кьелль] Well, that's wonderful every time,
and I must say,
it is very important for me also
because I get a lot of inspiration from
seeing what they have been creating
and it's really awesome. [chuckles]
Among all the fans, Stuart,
who’s managing all of the LEGO builds
for the house, is also here,
and not just for his own pleasure.
Part of the house is a showcase
for the work of the community...
and so we're also on the lookout
for some great creations
that we can use in the LEGO House.
These are
the sort of most eminent builders.
They are the people
who push the boundaries of the brain
and what's possible
with the LEGO brick and the LEGO idea.
And we wanted to create
a place that they would respect
and they would get inspired from,
but also that they would feel
would be a bit like a home to them,
a place where they would feel:
"This is at level.
This is a place I also can contribute to."
[narrator] As the design of the
experiences is now locked into place,
the focus is on the restaurant.
Niels Jørgen is on his way to Gothenburg,
where the conveyer belt
and robots are being built.
[Niels] The robots will definitely
look like LEGO-build robots.
The way you order your food is also
very well connected to, uh, LEGO,
because you actually build your meal
with LEGO bricks.
Morning. Great to see you. Yeah.
-Wow!
-So... yeah.
[laughs]
[narrator] The concept
for the family restaurant
is that you build your meal order
in LEGO bricks,
scan it and digitally send it
to the kitchen.
It's a really complex setup,
where we have a device being able to read
the different colors
to identify the different food items
and, uh, that's a complex piece
of technology
we've built for the purpose.
After the order has been handled
in the kitchen,
it will then make its way back
to the seating area via the conveyer belt,
before being served by the robots.
[Niels] We allowed ourselves to dream big
and to create something
that really matches the rest of the house.
By building this concept,
we are really... we are first movers.
As it turns out, not everything meets
the high LEGO standards.
[in Danish] It looks like
it was made five years ago.
I can’t understand. They just made it.
That worries me.
-Yes.
-[Jesper] It looks like very cheap bricks.
[in English] The color is so important
because it's representing everything
related to the brick and to the brand.
And, of course, we need to make sure
that whatever we do is on brand
and has the quality that we want
everything to be in the LEGO House.
[narrator] Year after year,
the limits of LEGO builds are being tested
in Kladno in the Czech Republic.
But with the LEGO House, they have now met
their biggest challenge so far.
Now they hope that all of their efforts
will pay off and impress Кьелль.
[Stuart] It's a pretty exciting day.
We've invited Кьелль to come down and see
the models in the model shop,
and so he's going to get a sneak preview
of the big iconic models that
we're working on for LEGO House.
I'm pretty excited. A little nervous.
Кьелль has seen a lot of models in
a lifetime with the LEGO Group and, uh...
But I still hope we can still amaze
and delight him.
And then who's got the control
for the main lights?
[narrator] As with every other step
in the making of the LEGO House,
Кьелль’s ideas and input
are carefully listened to.
Hope for the best
that he arrives at the right moment.
And now it's time for Stuart to show Кьелль
the LEGO builds for the first time.
[in Danish] Let's go in and have a look.
Wow! Amazing!
[in English]
And you see behind the castle,
see the wall is falling away,
and behind it is a yellow castle.
-[low chattering]
-[Кьелль in Danish] Oh, yeah. Behind there.
[English] The window here, you can see
a little copy of the first milling machine
that your father bought for the, uh...
[Кьелль] Oh!
So they're making little wooden toys.
I like very much the scenes here.
The wooden toys are made,
and which reminds me also
about how my grandfather started
and with the first milling machine
in there.
And then the city. A big city.
The city has a lot more characters
going on in here.
And here you see the line painter.
He's being chased by dogs.
So, he's gone all over the place
and he's now painting a line up the tree.
[Кьелль] Oh, yeah! [laughs]
-Lots of detail.
-There's a lot of little stories going on.
It is really to be inspiring
to children and adults,
showing them really
what can be done with our bricks,
and I think this way of making it really
can trigger a lot of imagination.
[narrator] But the tour isn’t over.
The biggest build is yet to come.
[indistinct chattering]
This...
-I'm moved.
-That's awesome.
You asked for a woodpecker,
you got a woodpecker.
Thank you.
[Кьелль] I must say, when I saw
the LEGO tree, I got a tear in my eye,
because it was just so touching
to see it in real life.
I've seen lots of drawings
and pictures, and so on.
But to see it, it's enormous
and it's fantastic.
Incredible.
So, we are at nine meters.
You are really seeing
just the top four meters.
-Come on.
-[Ludmila] Just a small piece...
just a small piece of tree.
[Кьелль] This is only the top six meters
of the 15 meters.
It's going to be awesome. [chuckles]
[Stuart] I'm feeling, uh, relieved
and happy and pleased and excited.
It's a... It's a good feeling,
a good feeling.
That's the second one from the bottom.
-That's the second one?
-Yes.
-Oh, the duck here. Yeah.
-[Ludmila] Find the details.
Great.
My father would probably have thought
this is too much,
but on the other hand,
I'm sure he would have liked the results.
[background chattering]
Beautiful!
-See there, it's this one...
-Yep.
...that we need to do something about.
-Sure. Yeah.
-Yeah.
[narrator] The fan community was asked
what was the most important to them
in the LEGO House.
The number one answer was that
it has to contain a vault in the basement
with all the LEGO models.
And I remember we also said:
"Well, making a big basement
in the town of Billund is not really
a good idea because of the water level."
But they said: "No, no, there has to be
a vault. There has to be a basement."
[narrator]
And so, the History Collection was added.
Today, Кьелль and his son, Thomas,
are stopping by
to see how everything has turned out.
I think they cannot help themselves
from playing with this
and these are actually museum artifacts.
So, you can touch them
but you cannot play with them
and I don't know
if we can get them to understand that.
-[chuckles] Hi.
-Hi.
So, we've asked you to help us put
a few models into display cases.
[Кьелль] The yellow castle
it has become a classic.
-[Line] Especially because it's yellow.
-Why was it yellow? Do you remember, Dad?
We didn't have that many gray bricks
at the time.
-[laughter]
-All right, we make it in yellow!
[Кьелль] We make it in yellow.
-We also brought, um... this one.
-Ah.
-My favorite.
-We thought so.
[Кьелль] 928.
-[Thomas] Very beautiful.
-[Кьелль] Beautiful. Very iconic also.
It had a lot of good play functions.
Open it up in the back so that
you could drive in a small vehicle.
Ah! That was sort of what we, uh, started
really to emphasize in the late '70s.
You have to have a lot of fun
building the model,
but then you should also be able to
really enjoy playing with it afterwards.
-Oh! Almost.
-[Line] Maybe you have to take his...
Ah!
It's not the right construction.
-Ah. There you go!
-[Line] There you go.
[chuckling]
Both ends.
I think it is extremely important
that we have this place
where we can exactly showcase
the best we can be with our products...
and, uh, hopefully inspire
a lot of new LEGO fans
to get started building
and build in new ways
that they have never thought about.
So, I see it very much
as a place of inspiration.
With the approval of the design,
the play experiences and the big builds,
it's time for another
and equally important step, the staff.
[Jesper] This has to be
the absolute best place you can go
and experience what LEGO is all about.
And fundamentally we believe
that we can only achieve that
if we also make LEGO House the best place
to work for all of you sitting here.
We can develop
the most amazing experiences
that the world has ever seen before.
But if we fail and get the wrong staff,
that does not display
the LEGO values the right way,
or does not show the service orientation
towards the guests
that we want them to show, it can
deteriorate the experience completely.
That’s just the perfect job for me
because I love children and I love to see
how they evolve,
especially when they're playing.
They will be the real facilitator
of what's possible
through learning through play
with LEGO bricks.
What's the LEGO brand all about? What is
so special about the LEGO experience?
[narrator] The exterior of the LEGO House
is finally done.
So, now it's time
to finish up the interior.
[background chattering]
This is a very important ring
with the duck on this one.
Finally, the giant LEGO tree is ready
for installment in the house.
It's incredible.
It's better than I could have imagined.
So, it's really, really cool.
[laughter]
[Stuart] We've built the house
around the tree.
The tree is the metaphor for
the LEGO Group and this house is here
as a sort of stage set for this tree.
This is the gallery.
This is where a selected group of fans
have been given the opportunity
to showcase what they're capable of.
And, you know, it has surprised us,
a lot of what they are able to do.
And it certainly
will also surprise our guests.
On the top of the house,
placed as this big two-by-four LEGO brick,
is the Masterpiece Gallery.
Here, AFOLs, Adult Fans of LEGO,
from all over the world,
are invited to exhibit
their own creations.
[Elspeth] It is an art form.
It's not an exclusive art form.
There's no level of how good you are
because everyone enjoys it,
whether it's a child putting
some bricks together,
or it's an adult building Santa Claus.
So, it's very much inclusive.
[man] Some people use clay.
Some people use paints. I use LEGO.
And it's amazing being in the home of it,
where it came from
and how the LEGO House celebrates it
as more than just a toy.
[woman] If I think of my child self,
this would have been a childhood dream.
So, I'm one of the lucky people
that sees a childhood dream come true.
[Stuart] They've done some brilliant work
and I'm a little bit jealous
of some of their creativity
'cause it's fantastic.
They inspire us and we inspire them,
so it's great to bring
the work together in one house.
Every bench that we have designed
in the house,
you sit down and you close your eyes
and you sort of: "Oh, oh, bricks
are within arm's reach, for sure."
So, you can just pick up
whatever brick you want
and you can build
whatever model you want.
So, every time you take a seat,
you take a rest,
LEGO is very close to you.
I clearly remember this discussion. It was
about how you could use the experiences
in different kinds of ways.
So, you can build whatever
and that's the purpose of the experience,
but secondary, we can benefit
from having this amazing furniture
built up around the bricks.
And that was exactly what we discussed,
the opportunity of being able
to sit next to an experience
and even reach out
and play with the bricks
but also, you know,
have this grand view over the LEGO square.
The house will open in,
let's say, 20 minutes from now.
This is the first room they'll come in to.
We're just changing it slightly
so it becomes:
"Only the best is good enough."
Last-minute changes.
Then we can push this.
Don’t drop it. It's almost like this.
Maybe we'll have another look at this.
Now we’ll have...
Yeah.
Yes. So, now the key broke.
[chuckles]
-I'll call Freddy, get another key.
-Thank you.
This is the day we have been looking
forward to for such a long time.
This is the LEGO House
and there is nothing like it.
I will definitely look back
at this as my masterpiece.
Кьелль, have fun with it.
The new LEGO House in Billund
is a physical manifestation
of a vision to stimulate
life and creativity.
For me, this day is really
a dream coming true.
We've put so much effort into this house
and we really want people to come and see
and experience and play here
and just have fun.
[Niels] The guests are really happy.
They are really surprised
that they can build their own meal in here
and it's a really good feeling
standing here.
He really deeply believes in...
that this house is going to be unique...
and is going to make a difference.
This is the dream coming true for me.
This is the home of the brick.
ведь он будет единственным.
Начало положено.
Я не мог представить себе более приятной мечты
для осуществления, чем мечта Кьелля.
The design process we have been through is
as much as when you play with LEGO bricks.
Wow! [in Danish] Amazing.
I'm moved. [chuckles]
This house is Kjeld's dream.
[Søren] The house will open in,
let say, 20 minutes from now.
We're just changing it slightly, so
it becomes only the best is good enough.
We have to make sure that this is
really becoming the home of the brick.
[Кьелль] A home for the brick has been
my dream for many, many years.
A place where fans of all ages can come
and see and enjoy all the possibilities
that there are within our bricks.
[narrator] Making this dream come true has
been a long and often difficult journey.
The architectural structure
has to complement the interior perfectly.
The play experiences
have to be just right.
You have to create the most spectacular
LEGO builds ever seen.
All of this needs to be done
before the grand opening
and, of course, it all has to meet
the demands
of Кьелль Kirk and the LEGO Group.
Only the best is good enough.
For the purpose of getting the right
exterior frames for the full experience,
the LEGO Group contacted
a number of different architects
to propose various solutions.
But then Bjarke and his people came in
with the right proposal.
At the time, Bjarke Ingels
was already a star architect
and his company, BIG,
had won numerous awards.
[Bjarke] If BIG had been founded
with the purpose
of building just one building,
this was going to be the building.
Architects often forget we're not
just designing some nice facades,
or making things presentable,
or solving some practical issues.
No. We're actually literally creating
the world that we would like to live in,
and if that's what we're doing,
then let's start realizing some dreams.
[Кьелль] Bjarke has been a LEGO fan
all through his years
and used LEGO bricks
also very often in his creations.
I was four, turning five. I was, like,
obsessing with this yellow LEGO castle,
like I studied the images that were in
this catalog as much as I possibly could,
and eventually, actually,
I got it from my granddad for Christmas.
Of course,
I instantly built the castle, as is.
And eventually, all of that yellow LEGO
made it into the ecosystem of LEGO.
The basic idea of the LEGO House, it has
to be a completely inviting and engaging
and accessible and public building,
both on the inside and on the outside.
It's basically like a series of rooms,
almost like LEGO bricks,
so that when you look at Google Earth,
when you fly into Billund,
you can actually recognize
the LEGO building.
The ones that are sitting on the ground,
they contain all the most public functions
and they actually surround a big square
in the middle we call the LEGO square.
Two of the LEGO blocks
on the outside are melting.
This yellow one here is one of them.
You're actually invited
to climb up on the roofscape
and enjoy some
of these interconnected playgrounds.
You can reach the summit of the LEGO House
and you can actually look out
over the entire city of Billund.
You can see all the different
LEGO factories,
the airport set up
and the rest of the city.
In a town that's like, incredibly flat,
suddenly there's this, like,
man-made mountain
where you're actually invited to engage.
I said immediately,
that's going to be the LEGO House.
The lead engineers came back and said:
"We are simply not able
to build the building.
We need to put some pillars into the house
in order to keep up
the different boxes of the house."
When that was explained to Кьелль,
he almost choked the food
that he was eating,
because that was not at all the idea
that he bought into.
Quality is one of our key core values
and has always been very important for us,
quality in a broad sense,
not only in terms of product.
We should act in a qualitative way as
a company in all our behavior, and so on.
So, I think we have looked at
quality in a broad sense.
In 2014, in the center
of Billund, Denmark,
the LEGO House official
ground-breaking ceremony took place,
still unsure of how to solve
the actual constructional challenges.
[excited background chattering]
It's not always easy for me to communicate
the ideas that I have in my head
and I'm sure that I have not always been
very clear on... on how to express it.
A design team starts to come up with ideas
about what the inside of the house
should be like.
The LEGO House will be a world
of play experiences,
all taking a starting point
in the LEGO brick.
This will be the core of everything.
Our goal is to base all experiences
on core life skills,
a range of learning
through play competencies
that comes to life when you start playing.
We'll divide the house in different zones.
In the Red Zone, creativity is key.
We will fill the room with lots of bricks,
so you can build
whatever you can imagine.
In the Blue Zone,
we'll focus on problem-solving skills.
It could be building a city
like an architect,
building a vehicle like a race driver,
or it could be, uh, programming a robot
like a scientist.
The Yellow Zone is all about emotions,
where we want your LEGO models
to come to life.
So, imagine building a critter
that can dance,
or building a fish that could swim away.
The LEGO Minifigure
is a core part of the LEGO world...
and we have decided to create a zone
just for them to live in.
It's the Green Zone and the Green Zone
will be all about social play.
So, imagine the Minifigures
living in a world
where there are lots of story starters
all over.
We're designing the basement to become
a treasure chamber of LEGO secrets.
This is where we expect you to see
the most iconic sets ever made by LEGO
and this is also where you should be
able to revisit your own childhood.
On top of the house,
we'll place the Masterpiece Gallery.
This will be a LEGO art gallery
where we'll display the best builds
made by AFOLs around the world.
So, now we have the vision
and we have all these great ideas.
The only challenge ahead is to figure out
how to make all this great stuff
come to life.
Back at the LEGO House construction site,
the engineers plan to build a steel bridge
that will carry the entire house,
so the giant plaza,
the size of a soccer field,
can stand without any visible pillars,
just like if the house was built
with LEGO bricks.
This is the beginning,
and in the coming three or four months,
there will come small bits and pieces
and it's a puzzle that will be built up
uh, to form the bridge
over the LEGO square.
A lot of additional steel was added
into the construction of the house, uh...
and then we had to postpone
the actual opening date
for another 12 months of the house.
[narrator] Of course, postponing
the opening day of the house wasn’t ideal,
but it was necessary
to get the house just right.
Billund is the home of the company
and, of course, I have a lot of veneration
for Billund because I grew up here.
So, the location of the LEGO House
is quite unique.
It's literally next door to the house
where the founder of the company lived,
where the first offices were,
where the first factory was.
So, literally next door to the place
where the LEGO brick was created,
uh, in 1958, almost 60 years ago.
From a commercial aspect, does it make
sense to build a LEGO house in Billund?
And, no, not if you look at things
from a commercial aspect.
Then... I guess London, New York,
Shanghai, would be much more obvious.
[Кьелль] It's very important,
as a family-owned company,
that we really are true
to our heritage.
And this, for me, is a very important step
in this direction.
Billund is where we have our roots
and it's the most natural place
to build that LEGO House.
-Yes.
-Of course.
My grandfather started in 1932
making wooden toys.
He was a very skilled carpenter.
He wanted to make
some very high-quality toys for children.
The duck here is probably one
of the examples of his very early works.
Making wooden toys was actually
the beginning of the LEGO company.
[narrator] So, it all started in 1932 with
one man's love for wood craftsmanship.
The Great Depression brings
the global economy to a halt,
including Ole Kirk Kristiansen’s
small woodworking shop in Billund.
But always the fighter,
Ole Kirk refuses to give up.
He reinvents the company
and starts producing wooden toys
under the name LEGO.
Greatly inspired by his father,
Godtfred Kirk Christiansen carves
the words "Only the best is good enough"
into wooden plaques, reminding himself
and the employees
to keep their focus on quality.
During a chance encounter
with Godtfred Kirk,
a toy buyer complains
that he sees no system,
or actual ideas, in toys of the time.
The conversation plants a seed
in the mind of Godtfred Kirk,
and one year later,
the LEGO Company introduces
a town-planner themed boxset
that enables children to build their own
town where everything fits together.
On January 28th 1958,
the modern LEGO brick is born.
From this point on, endless building
possibilities become a reality.
[in Danish] I have a special emotional
connection to all this, right?
It is.... [chuckles]
It really is our... the ultimate house.
Ah! [in Danish] That’s it.
The construction of the steel bridge
carrying the house is now completed
and Кьелль visits the construction site.
[Danish] We're standing on top
of the biggest LEGO brick in the world.
The biggest two-by-four brick in the world
is here!
I think the staircase is so clever.
If you look at the lines
from the handrail, right?
The bottom of the handrail,
from corner to corner slants differently,
which will make the stairs exciting
to look at from below.
And in the middle will be a gigantic tree.
There are so many details
in a building like this
and I'm involved in many of them...
from how the LEGO House logo should be,
which I have an opinion on.
Often, it's more a feeling about something
that occurs to me when I see a proposal...
and it will simply be a gut reaction
because I've lived through this company
for so many years
and I just have a feeling
for what's right and what's not.
I think it's a bit inbuilt.
[Jørgen] I think the house is
one of the most important efforts
that Кьелль has ever undertaken.
Uh, he's so passionate about this.
I think for him,
uh, leaving a place behind
where you can really truly understand
the LEGO idea.
Ah.
Here it is. This is definitely
one of my favorite boxes.
It was something
that was very, very popular.
The castle.
This is the yellow castle.
This was actually the first set
with a lot of different Minifigures.
That's me on the picture here.
I was used as a model for lots of boxes
in the... in the early... early years.
It was easy to just ask me to come.
I played a lot with LEGO bricks...
as a child.
I feel that I sort of grew up
with the brick and often,
when I came home from school,
we had a couple of designers.
I loved going over there
and seeing what they were making
and I actually also got my own desk there,
so that I could sit there
and build whenever I wanted to.
[background chattering]
He is a child and lives up
to the children-of-all-ages notion of LEGO
and really believes
in the values of the child
and you see it when he's approaching
and talking to children.
Here's an adult who's taking me on
with a serious mindset
and not: "Oh, you're just playing."
"No, no, you're playing
and that's a serious matter.
That's something
that I care deeply about."
How can children create and really be
stimulated to develop themselves also?
Uh, that's been one of the things
that I have put even more emphasis on
in building our brand
over the period that I have been C.E.O.
[upbeat music and children chattering]
We've seen in our research
that there's nothing more important
than helping children develop
as creative thinkers.
Mitch Resnick is a professor
of learning research and has been working
for more than 30 years
at the MIT Media Lab,
a worldwide leading institute
in innovation and creativity.
When I think about play,
I don't see it as just fun and games,
but rather, I see play as a type
way of engaging with the world,
where you're willing to take risks,
to try new things.
I think the greatest learning
and the greatest innovations come
when people are doing things
in a playful spirit.
They might be building a sand castle,
or a LEGO castle or building a poem.
Whatever they are creating is
a way for them to create new ideas.
So it's this constant cycle
between children building things
in the world, to build new ideas
that lets them build new things
in the world.
That cycle provides the basis
for the best learning experiences.
I think places like the LEGO House provide
an image of what the world might be like
and how we can provide
new opportunities for children.
If we provide children the opportunity
to build, to play, to design and create,
they'll be prepared for a world which is
going to require creative thinking
more than ever before.
[narrator] As the building
of the LEGO House moves along,
a design team is put together
for the difficult task,
figuring out
what the experiences should be
in the different zones
in the LEGO House.
We want to represent more or less
all platforms that we have,
all element families
that we have as well,
and all different types of play that
we also offer in the LEGO experience.
The design process
that we have been through is as much
as when you play with LEGO bricks.
When you play with bricks,
you build your first model,
but having built that,
you sort of walk around it a bit
and you think: "It could be better,
I could improve it with a window,
perhaps with a roof as well."
That's the same process
as we've been through.
That's so cool. You become a kid.
The interior is something very unique
and very special.
Everything is very iconically designed,
as a LEGO brick.
It's not a doll house
we're making in big size,
but the brick is such a dominant factor
in the design of everything.
You can, if you want to,
build all furniture in LEGO bricks.
What a statement, you know,
a statement of LEGO. Grand.
[narrator] And, of course,
the outside of the LEGO House
should also look like
it's built from LEGO bricks.
[in Danish] Should it be wider or narrower
and how wide should the pointing gap be?
They're good discussions. [chuckles]
At another place at the construction site,
there are high hopes
of moving into the building
so that they can get started
on their part of the LEGO House.
We really want to make
the best family restaurant in Denmark.
And to do that, you need to create
a wow effect for the kids.
We actually plan to do
a quite fantastic journey for the food.
We plan to add a conveyor belt,
going from the kitchen
out to the family restaurant.
And then, in this place, we will have
robots standing, serving the food
to you as a guest of the restaurant.
It's interesting how the project
is also evolving over time...
especially the family restaurant.
There, we've taken the idea of
really bringing bricks into the hands
of guests,
no matter where you are in the house.
We've really taken that into the concept
of the family restaurant.
[narrator] While figuring out how the
restaurant will come alive with robots,
the testing of the experiences begins.
[Corey] The idea is that we go
from sketches to 3D dimensions
and making sure that the concepts
actually work in principle.
What we're working on now is,
we've already got proof from testing
that the whole idea of using cars on ramps
is effective and a good play experience.
So, at the moment, I'm trying make sure
that different type of vehicles,
based on weight and resistance,
are making the transition from this ramp
to the next ramp.
I'm making sure it's at least possible.
What has helped us to validate
whether our choices have been right
all along have been the guests.
So, we have been doing numerous testings.
[background chattering]
This is the biggest test that we have had
and will be having
before the opening of the house.
We've gone through extensive testing
for the last two years now,
but there's still a lot of final design
development that needs to be done.
Testing is super critical for LEGO.
We do it all the time.
We see thousands of children every year.
And also here in the LEGO House,
we want to make something that has
been developed together with children.
We think of a good idea,
but we don't know it'll work
until we put it in front of the kids.
And in the process of putting it in front
of them, we get feedback.
This ramp, for example, is really strong.
Kids are really loving it.
There's a lot of people on it.
This ramp over here, not so much, right?
So, we learn from the process
of our own design,
learning-through-play process,
creating and designing things,
what works and what doesn't and that
informs the next version of the design.
-[chuckles]
-Ah!
[laughs] Almost.
[children chatter]
[in Danish] It's more fun to build
if you have imagination.
[in Danish] I thought it was all new
and I thought it was all fun.
It has been brilliant!
[narrator] LEGO House wouldn’t be
a true LEGO House
without grand LEGO builds inside.
Such as a giant LEGO waterfall...
different LEGO worlds...
huge LEGO dinosaurs...
and the largest LEGO build to date,
the Tree of Creativity.
In charge of the many different
LEGO builds for the LEGO House is Stuart.
When I first started working for LEGO
in 1993,
um, and I joined LEGOLAND
as a model builder.
I made this myself.
I can't fly the flag outside
on the flagpole, so I fly it inside,
as a LEGO flag.
And we have another one here.
This is a prop we've used in a photoshoot.
Yellow castle, that's a classic LEGO set.
I have a little Beetle here,
because when I first moved to Denmark,
I came in my, uh, yellow Beetle.
It was a nice car,
so, um, I had a little copy made of it,
small scale, Minifigure scale.
This box here, a model
of the Tree of Creativity from LEGO House.
It was natural to have one of the most
iconic LEGO models
that has ever been built
to be done as a kit as well.
Here you can see Кьелль and myself
looking at the final product. Yeah.
We have a passion for the brand.
We like building with the bricks, so...
And I'm an adult, so I guess
that I count as an adult fan of LEGO.
Stuart doesn’t do the actual
LEGO buildings for the house himself.
He designs and supervises
that everything goes as directed.
This morning, I am going to
our model shop here in Billund,
where some of the designers are working on
one of the experiences we're developing.
The World Explorer Exhibition will be
covered in small Minifigure stories.
The task for Stuart and his team
is to create these scenes
for the visitor to discover.
Here we are in the model shop.
Today, Stuart will be presented
with a bunch of Minifigure scenes.
It's then up to him to approve and select
which ones will end up in the final build.
There's the Batman car.
He's getting a ticket.
-Also, we need to find a place for this.
-Okay. That's very cool.
I love the white-line painter.
-That's awesome
-[laughter]
Then we need to build the white line
into the road.
[all] Yeah.
What Stuart would love would be
your approval for the scenery,
-for those parts that we have here today.
-Yeah.
I think, uh, they've done a great job.
Really, uh, really happy with what I saw.
There are some fantastic scenes
and, uh, some good humor
and some great characters.
[Кьелль] This small Minifigure, he or she
has become a very, very important icon,
almost as important
as the two-by-four LEGO brick.
The first LEGO Minifigure is born in 1978,
and one year later,
Кьелль Kirk is appointed
president and C.E.O. of the LEGO Group.
The dominance
of increasingly popular video games
threatens to disrupt the toy market.
The LEGO company fights back
with new LEGO theme parks,
action figures, video games
and lifestyle products,
assuming that children
no longer have the time
or the patience
for old-fashioned plastic bricks.
Around the turn of the millennium,
times are tough for the LEGO company,
with falling sales and high costs.
Newly-appointed CEO Jørgen Vig
and LEGO owner Кьелль Kirk realize
that LEGO fans of all ages
positively love and adore
the simplicity of the LEGO brick.
Getting back to basics makes the LEGO
Group a profitable business once again
and now they've taken on
a new official mission,
to inspire and develop
the builders of tomorrow.
Today's a big day. I think
it's my biggest day in the house.
This is the day where we're going to get
hopefully the approval of the concept.
It is a big day for the design
and development team.
Today, Кьелль and the steering committee
have to approve the furniture design
and all the play experiences
for the LEGO House.
We're talking about all experiences
in the house, all paid experiences.
We are going through 19 individual
experiences today, one by one by one.
Hopefully, we'll get a thumbs up.
That includes the design of the interior.
[in Danish] So, if Кьелль says something,
we listen to Кьелль,
but what if what if Jørgen says
something different?
Then we still listen to Кьелль!
[laughter]
I've actually got a board I'll bring out.
I asked Stuart again
to find a couple of elements from Frank.
In the Duplo zone over here,
you can see,
we wanted to build it up
to the window,
but we can't
because of the ventilation duct here.
We need somewhere for people to sit.
And now people can sit there. That was
what I realized, so the advantage is,
we have around 30 centimeters
we can play around
and with 40 cm here,
we can pull it back a bit,
so, you can sit with your legs hanging
and look down there.
-Exactly, so the grown-ups can sit there.
-Really amazing to look down here.
-It could be an advantage here, right?
-Yes, it could.
[in English] One thing I learned
from my father was his saying...
"If you have the right idea,
if you have the right people,
then the results also will come."
We now have thumbs up, double thumbs up
for 19 different experiences.
Meaning that we now have the foundation
for the full LEGO House.
In Skærbæk, Denmark
the annual LEGO fan event is being held,
a two-day event where fans of all ages
from all over the world
gather to talk about LEGO topics
and impress each other
with their own builds.
Being a LEGO builder to me
means being able to express myself
with my art through LEGO
and being able to reach other people.
It's kind of like another form
of creativity.
You can express anything you want to say,
or do, by something you can build.
And, like, people who like
a certain thing, like cars, can build it.
I like music
so I chose to build a music box
and that's what LEGO really means.
[narrator] Obviously, one of
the biggest LEGO fans, Кьелль, is present.
[Кьелль] Well, that's wonderful every time,
and I must say,
it is very important for me also
because I get a lot of inspiration from
seeing what they have been creating
and it's really awesome. [chuckles]
Among all the fans, Stuart,
who’s managing all of the LEGO builds
for the house, is also here,
and not just for his own pleasure.
Part of the house is a showcase
for the work of the community...
and so we're also on the lookout
for some great creations
that we can use in the LEGO House.
These are
the sort of most eminent builders.
They are the people
who push the boundaries of the brain
and what's possible
with the LEGO brick and the LEGO idea.
And we wanted to create
a place that they would respect
and they would get inspired from,
but also that they would feel
would be a bit like a home to them,
a place where they would feel:
"This is at level.
This is a place I also can contribute to."
[narrator] As the design of the
experiences is now locked into place,
the focus is on the restaurant.
Niels Jørgen is on his way to Gothenburg,
where the conveyer belt
and robots are being built.
[Niels] The robots will definitely
look like LEGO-build robots.
The way you order your food is also
very well connected to, uh, LEGO,
because you actually build your meal
with LEGO bricks.
Morning. Great to see you. Yeah.
-Wow!
-So... yeah.
[laughs]
[narrator] The concept
for the family restaurant
is that you build your meal order
in LEGO bricks,
scan it and digitally send it
to the kitchen.
It's a really complex setup,
where we have a device being able to read
the different colors
to identify the different food items
and, uh, that's a complex piece
of technology
we've built for the purpose.
After the order has been handled
in the kitchen,
it will then make its way back
to the seating area via the conveyer belt,
before being served by the robots.
[Niels] We allowed ourselves to dream big
and to create something
that really matches the rest of the house.
By building this concept,
we are really... we are first movers.
As it turns out, not everything meets
the high LEGO standards.
[in Danish] It looks like
it was made five years ago.
I can’t understand. They just made it.
That worries me.
-Yes.
-[Jesper] It looks like very cheap bricks.
[in English] The color is so important
because it's representing everything
related to the brick and to the brand.
And, of course, we need to make sure
that whatever we do is on brand
and has the quality that we want
everything to be in the LEGO House.
[narrator] Year after year,
the limits of LEGO builds are being tested
in Kladno in the Czech Republic.
But with the LEGO House, they have now met
their biggest challenge so far.
Now they hope that all of their efforts
will pay off and impress Кьелль.
[Stuart] It's a pretty exciting day.
We've invited Кьелль to come down and see
the models in the model shop,
and so he's going to get a sneak preview
of the big iconic models that
we're working on for LEGO House.
I'm pretty excited. A little nervous.
Кьелль has seen a lot of models in
a lifetime with the LEGO Group and, uh...
But I still hope we can still amaze
and delight him.
And then who's got the control
for the main lights?
[narrator] As with every other step
in the making of the LEGO House,
Кьелль’s ideas and input
are carefully listened to.
Hope for the best
that he arrives at the right moment.
And now it's time for Stuart to show Кьелль
the LEGO builds for the first time.
[in Danish] Let's go in and have a look.
Wow! Amazing!
[in English]
And you see behind the castle,
see the wall is falling away,
and behind it is a yellow castle.
-[low chattering]
-[Кьелль in Danish] Oh, yeah. Behind there.
[English] The window here, you can see
a little copy of the first milling machine
that your father bought for the, uh...
[Кьелль] Oh!
So they're making little wooden toys.
I like very much the scenes here.
The wooden toys are made,
and which reminds me also
about how my grandfather started
and with the first milling machine
in there.
And then the city. A big city.
The city has a lot more characters
going on in here.
And here you see the line painter.
He's being chased by dogs.
So, he's gone all over the place
and he's now painting a line up the tree.
[Кьелль] Oh, yeah! [laughs]
-Lots of detail.
-There's a lot of little stories going on.
It is really to be inspiring
to children and adults,
showing them really
what can be done with our bricks,
and I think this way of making it really
can trigger a lot of imagination.
[narrator] But the tour isn’t over.
The biggest build is yet to come.
[indistinct chattering]
This...
-I'm moved.
-That's awesome.
You asked for a woodpecker,
you got a woodpecker.
Thank you.
[Кьелль] I must say, when I saw
the LEGO tree, I got a tear in my eye,
because it was just so touching
to see it in real life.
I've seen lots of drawings
and pictures, and so on.
But to see it, it's enormous
and it's fantastic.
Incredible.
So, we are at nine meters.
You are really seeing
just the top four meters.
-Come on.
-[Ludmila] Just a small piece...
just a small piece of tree.
[Кьелль] This is only the top six meters
of the 15 meters.
It's going to be awesome. [chuckles]
[Stuart] I'm feeling, uh, relieved
and happy and pleased and excited.
It's a... It's a good feeling,
a good feeling.
That's the second one from the bottom.
-That's the second one?
-Yes.
-Oh, the duck here. Yeah.
-[Ludmila] Find the details.
Great.
My father would probably have thought
this is too much,
but on the other hand,
I'm sure he would have liked the results.
[background chattering]
Beautiful!
-See there, it's this one...
-Yep.
...that we need to do something about.
-Sure. Yeah.
-Yeah.
[narrator] The fan community was asked
what was the most important to them
in the LEGO House.
The number one answer was that
it has to contain a vault in the basement
with all the LEGO models.
And I remember we also said:
"Well, making a big basement
in the town of Billund is not really
a good idea because of the water level."
But they said: "No, no, there has to be
a vault. There has to be a basement."
[narrator]
And so, the History Collection was added.
Today, Кьелль and his son, Thomas,
are stopping by
to see how everything has turned out.
I think they cannot help themselves
from playing with this
and these are actually museum artifacts.
So, you can touch them
but you cannot play with them
and I don't know
if we can get them to understand that.
-[chuckles] Hi.
-Hi.
So, we've asked you to help us put
a few models into display cases.
[Кьелль] The yellow castle
it has become a classic.
-[Line] Especially because it's yellow.
-Why was it yellow? Do you remember, Dad?
We didn't have that many gray bricks
at the time.
-[laughter]
-All right, we make it in yellow!
[Кьелль] We make it in yellow.
-We also brought, um... this one.
-Ah.
-My favorite.
-We thought so.
[Кьелль] 928.
-[Thomas] Very beautiful.
-[Кьелль] Beautiful. Very iconic also.
It had a lot of good play functions.
Open it up in the back so that
you could drive in a small vehicle.
Ah! That was sort of what we, uh, started
really to emphasize in the late '70s.
You have to have a lot of fun
building the model,
but then you should also be able to
really enjoy playing with it afterwards.
-Oh! Almost.
-[Line] Maybe you have to take his...
Ah!
It's not the right construction.
-Ah. There you go!
-[Line] There you go.
[chuckling]
Both ends.
I think it is extremely important
that we have this place
where we can exactly showcase
the best we can be with our products...
and, uh, hopefully inspire
a lot of new LEGO fans
to get started building
and build in new ways
that they have never thought about.
So, I see it very much
as a place of inspiration.
With the approval of the design,
the play experiences and the big builds,
it's time for another
and equally important step, the staff.
[Jesper] This has to be
the absolute best place you can go
and experience what LEGO is all about.
And fundamentally we believe
that we can only achieve that
if we also make LEGO House the best place
to work for all of you sitting here.
We can develop
the most amazing experiences
that the world has ever seen before.
But if we fail and get the wrong staff,
that does not display
the LEGO values the right way,
or does not show the service orientation
towards the guests
that we want them to show, it can
deteriorate the experience completely.
That’s just the perfect job for me
because I love children and I love to see
how they evolve,
especially when they're playing.
They will be the real facilitator
of what's possible
through learning through play
with LEGO bricks.
What's the LEGO brand all about? What is
so special about the LEGO experience?
[narrator] The exterior of the LEGO House
is finally done.
So, now it's time
to finish up the interior.
[background chattering]
This is a very important ring
with the duck on this one.
Finally, the giant LEGO tree is ready
for installment in the house.
It's incredible.
It's better than I could have imagined.
So, it's really, really cool.
[laughter]
[Stuart] We've built the house
around the tree.
The tree is the metaphor for
the LEGO Group and this house is here
as a sort of stage set for this tree.
This is the gallery.
This is where a selected group of fans
have been given the opportunity
to showcase what they're capable of.
And, you know, it has surprised us,
a lot of what they are able to do.
And it certainly
will also surprise our guests.
On the top of the house,
placed as this big two-by-four LEGO brick,
is the Masterpiece Gallery.
Here, AFOLs, Adult Fans of LEGO,
from all over the world,
are invited to exhibit
their own creations.
[Elspeth] It is an art form.
It's not an exclusive art form.
There's no level of how good you are
because everyone enjoys it,
whether it's a child putting
some bricks together,
or it's an adult building Santa Claus.
So, it's very much inclusive.
[man] Some people use clay.
Some people use paints. I use LEGO.
And it's amazing being in the home of it,
where it came from
and how the LEGO House celebrates it
as more than just a toy.
[woman] If I think of my child self,
this would have been a childhood dream.
So, I'm one of the lucky people
that sees a childhood dream come true.
[Stuart] They've done some brilliant work
and I'm a little bit jealous
of some of their creativity
'cause it's fantastic.
They inspire us and we inspire them,
so it's great to bring
the work together in one house.
Every bench that we have designed
in the house,
you sit down and you close your eyes
and you sort of: "Oh, oh, bricks
are within arm's reach, for sure."
So, you can just pick up
whatever brick you want
and you can build
whatever model you want.
So, every time you take a seat,
you take a rest,
LEGO is very close to you.
I clearly remember this discussion. It was
about how you could use the experiences
in different kinds of ways.
So, you can build whatever
and that's the purpose of the experience,
but secondary, we can benefit
from having this amazing furniture
built up around the bricks.
And that was exactly what we discussed,
the opportunity of being able
to sit next to an experience
and even reach out
and play with the bricks
but also, you know,
have this grand view over the LEGO square.
The house will open in,
let's say, 20 minutes from now.
This is the first room they'll come in to.
We're just changing it slightly
so it becomes:
"Only the best is good enough."
Last-minute changes.
Then we can push this.
Don’t drop it. It's almost like this.
Maybe we'll have another look at this.
Now we’ll have...
Yeah.
Yes. So, now the key broke.
[chuckles]
-I'll call Freddy, get another key.
-Thank you.
This is the day we have been looking
forward to for such a long time.
This is the LEGO House
and there is nothing like it.
I will definitely look back
at this as my masterpiece.
Кьелль, have fun with it.
The new LEGO House in Billund
is a physical manifestation
of a vision to stimulate
life and creativity.
For me, this day is really
a dream coming true.
We've put so much effort into this house
and we really want people to come and see
and experience and play here
and just have fun.
[Niels] The guests are really happy.
They are really surprised
that they can build their own meal in here
and it's a really good feeling
standing here.
He really deeply believes in...
that this house is going to be unique...
and is going to make a difference.
This is the dream coming true for me.
This is the home of the brick.