The Rise and Fall of the Lego House

In the summer of 2009, British television personality James May enlisted Barnaby Gunning Architects to help him design and build a human-sized Lego House to be featured on his show James May's Toy Stories.  The 20-foot-tall home used approximately 3,500,000 legos, and was built on the Denbies Wine Estate in Dorking, Surrey.  Creating a reasonably safe and livable structure of out legos was a considerable challenge – one that began with a “mass build” day when over 2,000 volunteers worked together to assemble the standard components.  A lot of detail went into the home, including slippers by the bed, “rubber” ducks in the shower, and even a pet cat.

Sadly, although Legoland Windsor had initially agreed to take the home, in the end they considered it too unstable and expensive to move.  And, despite a last-minute plea on Facebook, the Lego House was torn down in September, very shortly after it was completed.

May was indeed able to spend a night in his Lego House creation on, he said, the most uncomfortable bed he’d ever slept in.  He also discovered that night that the roof was not waterproof.