LEGO·V&A Dundee

LEGO® Ideas campaign Staff Pick

Help turn a Scottish landmark into an official LEGO set.

V&A Dundee, Kengo Kuma's first UK building, rebuilt brick by brick. If it reaches 10,000 supporters, LEGO reviews it for production as an official set.

Vote on LEGO IdeasHow does voting work?

Free account required. Takes about a minute.

The V&A Dundee rebuilt in LEGO bricks

What this actually is

Most people assume this is a LEGO set you can already buy. It isn't, and that misunderstanding is the biggest thing slowing the campaign down.

Can I buy this set?

Not yet, and that is what the campaign is for. Nothing here came out of a box, and there were no instructions to follow, because none exist. Around 2,900 pieces were chosen and placed by hand, working from photographs and a 3D model of the building to get the angles and proportions right.

What is LEGO Ideas?

It is the LEGO Group's own platform for fan submissions. Anyone with a free account can support a project. At 10,000 supporters a design goes to a formal review board, and a small number are chosen to be produced as official sets.

Why are you doing this?

This is my favourite building in the world. The way the concrete bands step and shift as they rise, and the way the whole mass lifts clear of the ground above the water, is what made me want to rebuild it in brick and work out how it holds together. It has never been a commercial project. What I would love is to see a Dundee building on shelves next to the Eiffel Tower and the other landmarks in LEGO Architecture, and to put Scottish design in front of people who have never been here.

Voting takes about a minute

This is the only hard part of the whole campaign, and it is not very hard. You need to login with your (or create a free) LEGO Ideas account - the same one you'd use for LEGO.com.

1

Visit the V&A Dundee LEGO Ideas page

Hit the button below. It opens the V&A Dundee page on LEGO Ideas.

2

Login or Create a free account

Click Support, then Sign up. Email address, password, date of birth. No payment, no card, nothing else.

3

Confirm your email, then click Support

LEGO sends a confirmation link. Check spam if it isn't there in a minute. Click it, go back to the project, and click Support. That's it. You're done.

Go and vote

The architect's view

“It's an honour to see my building recreated in LEGO and I'm impressed with how well Brian has translated the design. The building design was inspired by the Scottish landscape and now the building is inspiring Scottish designers.”

“I always wanted the building to be a gate through which the city can connect with the world, reflecting Dundee's once thriving global trade routes on the river. If this design becomes an official LEGO set, then people all over the world will be building a Dundee landmark.”

“It's a joy to see the city get behind the project, especially so many school children, and I hope the support continues until it reaches 10,000 votes.”

Kengo KumaArchitect of V&A Dundee

A building made for the medium

V&A Dundee opened on the city's waterfront in 2018. It is clad in 2,500 precast concrete panels arranged in horizontal bands that shift as they rise, a form Kengo Kuma drew from the cliffs of the north-east Scottish coast.

That banded, angular façade is what makes the building so unusually well suited to being rebuilt in LEGO. I used a 3D version of the museum inside a Dundee Waterfront app to check scale and angles from every side as I built, rotating it like a reference photo you can walk around.

There is currently no Scottish building in the LEGO Architecture range. It has Himeji Castle, the Great Pyramid, the Flatiron. Nothing from Scotland at all.

Brian McNicoll, Dundee

Where to see it

The model is out on tour. Come and see it in person, and say hello.

Dates are set by the event organisers and can change. Check the event page before travelling.

Backing the campaign

Kengo KumaArchitect, V&A Dundee
V&A DundeeScotland's design museum
Lorraine KellyBroadcaster
Brian CoxActor
Edith BowmanBroadcaster
Danny WallaceWriter and broadcaster

Plus schools across Dundee, whose pupils have built their own versions of the museum.

Two minutes that would actually help

Vote, then send this page to one person who'd like it. That is the whole ask. Campaigns like this are won by people forwarding a link, not by posts going viral.

Press

Journalists: a full press release in English and Japanese, plus high-resolution images of the model, are available on request.

Media enquiries: brian.mcnicoll@me.com

Press kit

Images may be reproduced freely in connection with coverage of this campaign, with credit to Brian McNicoll.

Coverage

Institutional backing

V&A Dundee has shown the model at the museum. This is the museum's own account of the display, not independent press coverage.