Nearly two years after opening its Bjarke Ingels-designed LEGO House to much media fanfare, the LEGO Group now inaugurated the first phase of a new corporate campus at its headquarters in Billund, Denmark.

While the buildings and the campus concept, planned by Danish firm C.F. Møller Architects, have also been inspired by the basic brick nature of the toy giant's core product, the references here are far more subtle compared to the public-oriented, bricks-in-your-face LEGO House. Think fun serious workplace.

"In the same way you build with LEGO bricks, we took elements our people love and brought them all together to create something unique," explains the company's Senior Workplace Anthropologist, Anneke Beerkens, the search for the ideal LEGO workplace.

"For example, employees told us that they wanted the freedom to choose an environment that suited them best for whatever they were working on, but also liked to stay close to teammates. So we built team ‘neighborhoods’ which are a mix of individual and collaborative workspaces designed to create a caring environment where people can do great quality work."

Sustainability features include green roofs, solar panels, and a reduction in the amount of steel used in the framing: "[...] the consultants chose a special gypsum fiber board material over standard materials because this stronger material requires less steel framing, saving 22 tons of steel and 650 tons CO2 emissions," claims the company's statement.

"The rooftops of the new buildings are covered with Sedum plants which absorb water and CO2, and rainwater will be used to irrigate the green parks in the campus area. [...] builders covered the roof of the nearby parking garage with 4,150 solar panels to produce more than 1 million kWh which will supply half of the energy of the campus."

Once completely finished in 2021, the new campus will span 54,000 square meters (581,000 square feet) and provide workspaces for more than 2,000 employees.