Lego
Lego House, Pt. II
HiQ creates a unique experience at LEGO® House
With five years in operation, MINI CHEF keeps its place as a must-visit for guests of LEGO’s global brand lighthouse.
One-of-a-kind family dining
Not all restaurants make you play to get your food. But at the Mini Chef restaurant, mini-figures cook your meal – and they only speak brick. HiQ helped bring the magic to life and keeps the show running to this day.
“We want magic”
In 2015, Billund town square was a hole in the ground. Soon, it would be the site of Denmark’s largest steel structure – the supports for what was to become the LEGO House. Keld Kirk Kristiansen, third-generation LEGO Group owner, was building his legacy: a building filled with 25 million bricks and creative, educational fun and games for fans of all ages. Part of that dream was world-class family dining with healthy local food – and a twist. The brief: a never-before-seen, impossible-to-imitate experience that embodies the LEGO spirit: Learning Through Play and Inspiring and Developing The Builders Of Tomorrow.
Our cross-functional team took the customer quickly from vision through cutting-edge exploration to a solution that keeps delighting families and delivering great business results.
Magnus Jonsson, Key Account Manager, HiQ
Playing well together
World-renowned hospitality design agency Stylt Trampoli were tasked to come up with the restaurant strategy and turned to HiQ to find out what was possible with the latest tech. Together, we developed a concept that combined novel and proven tech into a build-your-meal experience, wrapped in a story to delight the kids and with robots to serve the meals. From there on, Stylt took charge of restaurant identity and interior, and HiQ took on the role as turnkey contractor for 25+ expert consultants and nine subcontractors for the tech and digital content – developing the experience in close collaboration with the LEGO House team, testing iteratively with families and trimming it in with the operations team.
We were very happy that Stylt knew HiQ who know what it takes to build a complex tech system.
Nils-Jørgen Jensen, Operations Manager of LEGO House 2016–2020; Chairman of Visit Denmark
Guest Experience
Every component of the meal is represented by a specific LEGO brick. When the full meal order has been composed, diners slide their tray into a hatch on the Foodifyer box on the table, which sends the builds into the kitchen. You follow on screen as LEGO minifigures interpret your build, prepare the food and place it in a meal box. Meal boxes are then transported on a conveyor belt to Robert and Roberta, who hand out the orders to the excited kids. Families recognize their set of boxes by the unique lid color, and each guest recognizes their build on the slip on the box. And it wouldn’t be a LEGO experience if there wasn’t also a special surprise inside…
Solution
HiQ architected the guest journey, supporting processes and systems, and co-developed all design elements and animations – on-screen and physical. An automation hub syncs all experience elements: robot sounds and motion, mechatronics, guest app, conveyor belt, and the web based staff interface, which is used to manage orders and fire off the robot birthday dance – often several times a day. The solution also spans a restaurant management system, printing of order slips, payment, content management system and analytics. Two core software components had to be developed: brick recognition, to go from iPad camera input to 3D model and meal order, and a custom pipeline for translating Maya animations to movement instructions, then stream those to the ABB YuMi robots and custom head mechatronics.
Results
The restaurant is praised in the media, by fans, and in awards. Notably, it was shortlisted for two categories in EuroBest, made finals in the Gold Key Awards and won People’s Choice in the Webbys. The “Build Your Meal” core experience is patented by LEGO House together with HiQ. Five years in operation. One million plus house visitors. Hundreds of thousands of guests. Consistent top guest ratings and new record guest counts. Mini Chef has proven itself a must-visit for fans of one of the world’s most beloved brands.
Contact
Region
Lego
Order your food with lego bricks
HiQ creates a unique experience at LEGO® House
It’s fun and it’s an exciting process for children to watch – but the project is, of course, about more than simply ordering food.
Lego
Dream mission
Order your food with LEGO bricks – and have it delivered by dancing robots! Thanks to a highly creative collaboration between the LEGO Group and HiQ, the family’s meal at LEGO House in Billund, Denmark, really is something out of the ordinary!
“A dream assignment”
Simona Bamerlind, Managing Director of HiQ Gothenburg.
Digiphysical experience
LEGO House is the latest addition to the Billund skyline in Denmark, a gigantic LEGO building filled with 25 million LEGO bricks and creative, educational fun and games for LEGO fans of all ages. But to unleash your greatest talents for building and playing, you need fuel in the form of food in your tummy. And now the entire food experience – conceived and constructed by HiQ – reflects the true LEGO spirit.
“We have created a digiphysical play experience for the family restaurant that involves visitors in the process of composing their food order with the help of LEGO bricks,” says Jerker Lindstén.
Learning game
Every component of the meal is represented by a specific LEGO brick, and when the full meal order has been composed, diners slide their tray into a hatch that leads directly into the world of LEGO. Then you can follow on screen as LEGO figures interpret the children’s order, prepare the food and place it in a meal box. Meal boxes are then transported on a conveyor belt from the kitchen to two LEGO robots who hand out the orders to the waiting guests.
It’s fun and it’s an exciting process for children to watch – but the project is, of course, about more than simply ordering food. The LEGO group sought HiQ’s help to create a unique and magical experience that builds on the LEGO brand values of creativity, fun and learning.“That’s right. It’s all about a return to the roots of LEGO. The third generation of the Kirk Kristiansen family that founded the LEGO business wanted visitors to rediscover the pure pleasure of playing. So now we are linking today’s digital technology into what is otherwise very much an analog environment” says Cari Johansson, who is responsible at HiQ for delivering the project.
“The entire project has been characterised by an agile working approach close to our target group – not only families with children in the 4–12 age group, but also restaurant staff. This serves as a good example of how we can use our in-depth technical know-how to produce something truly creative. It has made this a very special project indeed.”
We are linking today’s digital technology into what is otherwise very much an analog environment.
Cari Johansson, Delivery manager for the project, HiQ
Great collaboration
The concept phase was carried out in close collaboration with the Gothenburg company Stylt Trampoli, which are experts in restaurant concepts and interior design. HiQ has been a turnkey contractor for nine subcontractors that span everything from automation, robots and payment systems to animation and music. The restaurant is praised in the media and by fans, and parts of the solution have been patented by LEGO House together with HiQ. Now, after five years in operation and over 1 million served guests, we can call Lego House nothing but a success story.
© Erik Nissen Johansen / Stylt Trampoli AB
Contact
Region West