The history of the current LEGO Architecture series can
be traced back to the beginning of the 1960s when the
LEGO brick’s popularity was still steadily increasing.
Godtfred Kirk Christiansen, the then owner of the
company, began looking for ways to further expand
the LEGO system, and asked his designers to come
up with a set of new components that would add a new
dimension to LEGO building.
Their answer was as simple as it was revolutionary: five
elements that matched the existing bricks, but were
only one third the height. These new building ‘plates’
made it possible to construct more detailed models
than before.
This greater LEGO flexibility seemed to match the spirit
of the age; where modernist architects were redefining
how houses looked, and people were taking an active
interest in the design of their dream home. It was from
these trends that the LEGO ‘Scale Model’ line was
born in early 1962.
The name itself was a direct link to the way architects
and engineers worked and it was hoped that they and
others would build their projects ‘to scale’ in LEGO
elements. As with LEGO Architecture today, the original
sets were designed to be different from the normal
brightly coloured LEGO boxes, and also included ‘An
Architectural Book’ for inspiration.
Though the five elements remain an integral part of
the LEGO building system today, the ‘Scale Model’
line phased out in 1965 – it would be over 40 years
before its principles would be revived in the LEGO
Architecture series we know today.
The‘ScaleModel’line–LEGOArchitectureinthes
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