“When I was young I used to play a lot with Lego, and then around the age of 14 or 15 it was like you couldn’t play with them anymore so you had to find something else to do. I started drawing houses and plans for houses and I made stacks of them with floorplans and everything. So I thought, let’s become an architect and that’s how I ended up in Delft. But I only studied for about nine months. I’m from a very small village and I was naïve and decided I needed to grow up a bit before doing anything else.
I started working for a year and then chose to study econometrics. My studies then had a big component of IT and that’s what I liked. I ended up working in IT for about 15 years. I did all kinds of jobs before, after and in between.
‘At the moment I’ve got over 2,200 Lego sets catalogued’
Then when I had a daughter I wanted to work less. When she was about ten years old I started thinking, ‘What’s the most fun thing I can think of for work?’ Back then, I was playing Lego with her all the time. I decided to try to make a business out of it, but I wanted a serious business not just a hobby. I was a single mom and had to make money. I turned my living room into a workshop and bought lots of Lego and six years later here I am.
At the moment I’ve got over 2,200 Lego sets catalogued, with about 575,000 pieces. I do workshops and parties, but programming with Lego robots is a big part of what I do with kids. I also host Lego parties and team-building events for grownups and I would love to do more.
This is my passion. I’ve always got new favorite Lego sets. But I still like houses and I still use everything I learned in architecture. I still remember lessons I had about how space moves through a building, colour and contrast, and I use that with designing my work space and with Lego that I build.”
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Heather Montague / Freelance writer
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