World-renowned Danish architect, Jørn Utzon, who built the Sydney Opera House, also built The Utzon Center in Aalborg, the city of his birth. The center is dedicated to all things architectural and this also informs their educational initiatives. The center strives to make architecture accessible and understandable to people of all ages. The building itself, designed by Utzon and his son Kim, features elements that can be seen in other buildings that Utzon designed throughout his distinguished career. In this way, the center creates an embodied experience of architecture before visitors even step through the door.

Utzon Center features a permanent collection of white Lego bricks that can be used by visitors to design their own construction. The use of the Danish design classic, a Lego brick is a brilliant way of creating a focus on something that every child has experience with. This simple form, stripped of colour, creates a focus on the building blocks of architecture and construction and puts it into the hands of its visitors. The Sydney Opera House was built using handcrafted models that challenged the engineers’ structural calculations.

The Utzon Center bases its teaching on Utzon’s working method and adds the new technological opportunities available today. Visitors are able to learn maths and natural sciences by using their heads as well as their hands, print in 3D, drawing, building models, getting help from a robot and discovering geometry in virtual reality. The project links creativity and the natural sciences, combining architecture, mathematics and technology with learning by playing.