LEGO® House competition winners

We received 30 exciting entries from 21 people in our competition to design your own vision of a museum for The LEGO® Group, and loved examining all of them. But sadly we only have two prizes so now let's cut to the chase. Hearty congratulations, Spencer_R, you are the winner!

First place

Spencer_R wins the copy of 4000010 LEGO House kindly provided by the Community and Events Engagement Team. All four judges scored him very highly (all entries were scored on creative approach, building technique and fitness for purpose) and his combined total was a couple of points ahead of everyone else's. Here are the comments the four judges made.

Josephine Johnson: Interesting form - stepped floors are inviting and the impressive skylighting would be excellent and the interior promises all sorts of possibilities with the changes of level. Plenty of Lego flair. Perhaps a little frontal in approach for all-round access, but the site might suit it.

Yvonne Doyle: I loved the combination of colours and clean lines. There are not too many studs on top but enough to show it is very definitely a LEGO museum. The stepped shape is interesting and practical. Excellent work!

Tim Johnson: It's pleasing that the stepped concept arose from playing with one particular element. The final shape suggests a clear 'journey' from the entrance to the top. I like how studs have been chosen as a design feature. It's also reminiscent of a colour chart! A small touch, but I love it when the vertical side of cheese slopes are used instead of two stacked plates!

Chris McVeigh: A colourful, stepped design and shimmering skylights set Spencer's Lego House concept apart from the crowd. It's bold and beautiful, combining a comfortable, repeating structural pattern with an almost chaotic palette. (And it's one of the few entries to include non-primary colours!) You can easily imagine yourself within its walls, each room illuminated by sunlight cascading through the glass ceilings.


It's worth checking out Spencer_R's Flickr as he's been making spectacular models of real-world buildings for some time now.

Second place

We also have a second prize again provided by CEE; a copy of my favourite 2013 Architecture set 21018 United Nations Headquarters. Things proved trickier here, as the next three highest entries scored equally. I wish I was able to send prizes to all of you but we had to pick one out of this tie-break, which was done by a majority vote. The winner of our second prize is Robert Murn!

Chris McVeigh: Murn's entry very nearly took the crown. Its irregular geometry is as ingenious as it is engaging, with rectangles running in every direction. The design is wonderfully punctuated by a wall of three primary colours cleverly adjacent to the greenery of the courtyard.

Josephine Johnson: Really impressed with this one. Great massing; very interesting interplay of forms, and realistic. Dignified, lovely colour use: shouts Lego. Very convincing - might rattle the cage of the real architects!

Tim Johnson: Solemn yet playful. I find the design very immersing - I'd love to wander around inside this building and see it from every different angle. The high tower is an interesting landmark that is monumental, but wouldn't be too overbearing in the low-lying town of Billund. The reference to LEGO colours is clear and nicely understated.

And...

...given that two other entries came equal in scoring for second place, I'd like to celebrate those by giving them Honourable Mentions! In no particular order, they are these two stunning entries:

Leopold Mao

Josephine Johnson: Great design elements- the two cubes linked with the spine block at 45º in the aerial view is very strong and the arch linking them creates beautiful sense of space, drawing a visitor in. All very well integrated to create a building of great interest. Lots of light and connection with the outside. The replica fountain is a very sophisicated touch and its placing and the tree most complimentary. I like the subtle colours: bright colours can work too, but this design is greatly enhanced by the neutral colours.


Kurt Altschul

Tim Johnson: Several entries used LEGO bricks as signature features, but this bold design took it to its ultimate expression by making the entire building a 2X4 brick. The concept of then partially hollowing it was well thought-through and brilliantly executed. I especially like the proportions of the public space with a cantilevered floor above it, and the detail of the enormous hinged door. The two courtyards at the back would be breathtaking to be inside of.

Everyone's a winner baby that's no lie

I hope all entrants enjoyed building, as we truly enjoyed reviewing. Competitions are all well and good until you have to judge them and assert that some people's creativity is better than others. My mother, who really got into this whole thing, put it really well;

"To have been able to review and assess this competition has been a privilege and a most enjoyable and rewarding experience. Overall the quality and level of creativity has been astonishing and to have achieved such results in so short a time is, I think, remarkable... with very few exceptions, any one of the entries could be successfully built and fulfill its purpose as a museum, which I find totally admirable. (Are all the entrants architects?!) Congratulations to every entrant: whoever is chosen as the winner, everyone else can be very proud of their effort. It is a great tribute to the model builders but also to the versatility of LEGO. This should be an exhibition, not a competition!"

Indeed we have an exhibition of sorts - if you haven't yet seen all the entries, definitely check them out on this page. I took the liberty of waving them under the nose of Bjarke Ingels, the architect of the actual LEGO House, on Twitter. Bless, he retweeted it, so I'm pretty certain he took a look!

My thanks to the judges, who so kindly dedicated themselves to the process.

I've contacted prize winners via Flickr Mail but they're equally welcome to simply mail me using the contact form on page top right. Given this is our first competition and that I'd like to run more, if anyone has comments/suggestions about how it was run I would welcome them via the mail form, or comment below.