It was 70 years ago that LEGO introduced the System in Play and its been at the heart of how we build today. LEGO has released a feature showing the different types of houses throughout the years using the LEGO System in Play from the first one being the Town Plan to one of the more recent ones with teh Modern House.

Houses built to last: 70 years of the LEGO® System in Play

70 years ago, the LEGO Group introduced the System in Play – a simple but revolutionary idea that means every LEGO® element, made generations apart, would fit together.

At its heart, the System in Play ensures that every element, from tiny hairbrushes to lightsabres, can connect. It’s why a LEGO astronaut can visit the LEGO Boutique Hotel, or a DUPLO giraffe can join a LEGO City adventure.

This versatility has made the LEGO System in Play the foundation for endless creativity. The same handful of bricks can be used to build anything from spaceships to castles to trains – limited only by imagination. And perhaps nowhere is this more evident than in the houses that children around the world, and our LEGO designers, have been inspired to build from the System in Play over the last 70 years.

Houses have been a mainstay of LEGO sets since the LEGO System in Play was launched in October 1955. They have appeared in every conceivable shape and style, mirroring changes in society and the lives of the children who build and play with them.

LEGO designer Stijn Oom, who designed 2024’s LEGO® Creator 3-in-1 Modern House (#31153), was inspired in part by “the fun I had building houses out of LEGO bricks when I was a kid”.

Seventy years on, the System in Play continues to shape and inspire every LEGO set – including the iconic houses. To mark the anniversary of this revolutionary system, we’re looking back through the LEGO archive to explore how the System in Play has evolved, and how it continues to make such imaginative designs possible.

“Our idea has been to create a toy that has value for life – a toy which appeals to the child’s imagination and develops the creative urge and joy of creation that are the driving force in every human being.”

Second-generation LEGO owner Godtfred Kirk Christiansen, 
about the LEGO System in Play.

Town plan – 1955-59

The LEGO Town Plan set was the first to implement the LEGO System in Play. There were only six colours in the LEGO palette back in 1955 then (compared with 78 in use today), and the buildings that could be created using the Town Plan were uniformly red and white, with transparent windows.

Houses had their foundations build on folding cardboard street layouts rather than LEGO base plates, and moulded-plastic cars and trucks drive along roads lined by two-dimensional trees and free-standing traffic signs – all features you would don’t find in a modern LEGO sets.

And yet the buildings themselves are unmistakeably LEGO builds.

This collection of LEGO elements was called town plan and was launched in 1955, three years before the modern LEGO brick was created:“ This is the city before LEGO City,” says Kristian Reimer Hauge, LEGO Corporate Historian.

“Why don’t we have a Galaxy Explorer or a yellow castle yet?” asks Kristian. “Because we started out with hollow bricks that lacked stability and clutch power. That’s why we begin with houses.”

Terrace house with car and garage (#353) – 1972

Fast-forward to the early Seventies, and the System in Play was being used to design terraced houses – a common sight in Denmark at the time. By now, LEGO bricks had gained their unique clutch power, giving builders stability to allow structures to become taller and more intricate – pretty important in the architectural world.

The introduction of the familiar green base plate and modular brick-built vehicle made it possible to create fully integrated environments with paths, driveways and buildings that stayed together during play. Builders could now combine elements in new ways, add interiors and expand their towns – all while knowing that every piece would connect securely.

Holiday home (#6374) – 1983

The LEGO minifigure, which debuted in 1978, marked a major leap for the System in Play, opening up new possibilities.

“Roleplay had become a massive thing,” explains Kristian. “The minifigure was the result of feedback in the Seventies, children saying we’d love to have someone to live in the house, or drive the car, or fly the plane.”

So now, the house’s interior design is considered for the first time. It has a simple layout for the minifigures to inhabit: there’s a kitchen stove, chairs and a table, and a bed upstairs.

The quirky touches that characterise modern sets are also starting to manifest, double-sloping roofs, printed baseplates and detailed elements like flowers, parasols and even a tree could be integrated as part of the System in Play.
Holiday home

Poolside paradise (#6416) – 1992

The joy of the LEGO System in Play is that it enabled endless creativity, and in the Nineties – this starts to come through in the design of LEGO houses.

Unlike the earlier houses which closely resembled real-life dwellings – houses like the Poolside Paradise were playful product of the designer’s imagination.

With the System in Play allowing for fans to redesign the house again and again, and swap the clothes and accessories of the minifigures to suit the adventure of the day – “the biggest focus is roleplay rather than construction,” says Kristian.

The consistency of the System in Play ensured that the new u curved or angled elements that characterise this futuristic house design could fit together seamlessly.

Family house (#31012) – 2013

By 2013, the LEGO. System in Play, with its endless combinations and the stability offered by clutch power, had allowed designers to push the boundaries of architectural detail. The Family House is packed with lively features both inside and out, from the fireplace and the balcony-top barbecue, to the textured two-tone roof.

The early 2000s saw the range of LEGO elements that designers could use streamlined, but that only seemed to fuel creativity, explains Kristian.

“The design team didn’t have all the element choices they had before, but the System was strong enough by now to allow them to create these fantastically detailed houses from what was available,” he says. The same element could be both a roof tile and a tabletop.

Modern house (#31153) – 2024

The Modern House shows how after seventy years, the LEGO System in Play still brings fresh ideas.

Assuming the responsibility for designing the latest incarnation of the LEGO house “was a bit daunting,” says Stijn, who pored over architecture magazines and watched video tours of celebrity homes to find inspiration.

The LEGO Creator 3-in-1 theme, to which the Modern House belongs, is all about “the joy of building”, says Stijn and encapsulates the creativity that is possible with the System in Play. He and the team use the same set of elements to produce three distinct houses – a beach house, a city high rise, and a forest cabin – each with fun details including a curved beachfront, a sideways-built bookcase and a brick-built parrot.

We’ll always have more opportunities, more possibilities for creating awesome houses,” says Stijn.

Seventy years on, the LEGO System in Play still feels as fresh as ever – scaling seamlessly from houses on a tabletop, to dinosaurs at LEGOLAND, and even to the iconic LEGO House, a full-size building built to LEGO proportions. With only imagination required, there will always be new ways to build.

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