United Arab Emirates, Dubai

Legoland® Dubai

Building on success with the first Legoland® in the Middle East

A mere 28 months. That was all the time the teams of the JV Six Construct-Orascom needed to build Legoland Dubai, a full-scale theme park with a wide range of indoor and outdoor attractions. The JV was responsible for the construction of more than 53 buildings in the park as well as the finishing touches and amenities.

Six Construct: key player in the construction of theme parks

Located in Dubai’s Jebel Ali district, Legoland® Dubai comprises a wide range of indoor and outdoor attractions. Visitors will discover six themed lands (Lego City®, Adventure, Lego® Kingdom, Create, Lego® Factory and Miniland), each unique in their experience and educational offering.

With this project, the Six Construct-Orascom Construction joint venture reinforces its expertise as a key player in the construction of leisure parks. Within three years, the company already delivered beacon projects in the United Arab Emirates such as Hub Zero, The Green Planet and Ferrari World.

Lego® bricks boosted our childhood and they still do for the children of today. Six Construct was particularly proud of building this first Legoland® theme park in Dubai. The fact that we were building a project designed to entertain children created a particularly pleasant working atmosphere. We were inspired and motivated to transform this dream area into a concrete project, despite the engineering challenges. We are also delighted to see that several BESIX achievements such as the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, the Burj Khalifa and the Emirates Towers are represented in Miniland.

Breaking bricks records

The miniature replica of Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, breaks records in Legoland® Dubai. It is exhibited as the world’s tallest Lego® structure, standing tall at a height of 17 meters.

Technical feat: the ‘Miniland Dome’

Beyond the perfectly lifelike finishing of different rides and attractions, the construction of the ‘Miniland Dome’ posed a specific challenge for the JV team. Situated inside a fully air-conditioned aluminum framework of 100 m in diameter and 25 m in height, Miniland features a set of iconic buildings and landmarks of the Middle East, all built entirely out of Lego® bricks.

Constructing the underground trenches for air supply was a challenging task. The Six Construct Design Department in Dubai found an innovative solution for the design of these trenches by building them out of reinforced concrete.

The first stage involved the construction of a temporary metal mast (65 m high) at the center of the future dome. Construction was carried out around the mast in different phases. During each new phase cables were hoisted to the mast. Mounting the frame, the outer cladding in aluminum and the inside insulation were completed in only six months. At the base of the dome, a round curtain wall of 90 m in diameter closes the space between the floor slab and the dome's shell.