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On 17 April 2026, a model of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences Headquarters was completed for the first time from more than 60,000 LEGO bricks, serving as one of the most enduring mementos to mark the 200th anniversary of the Academy and its Library. At the initiative of the Hungarian Young Academy, secondary school students from the BMSZC Ágoston Trefort Bilingual Technical School, participating in the MTA Alumni programme, were the first to complete the model designed by LEGO Certified Professional Balázs Dóczy.

The Palace of the Academy was inaugurated on 11 December 2026, a project to which people from all walks of life had contributed across the country through donations in the preceding years. From the senior students of the Unitarian College in Cluj-Napoca to primary schoolers donating their pocket money, and from one-time governor of Hungary, Lajos Kossuth’s emigrés in Istanbul to the country’s wealthiest aristocratic families, thousands of donors pledged their support for the Academy’s cause. The Hungarian Young Academy wished to pay tribute to these donors by commissioning a building made of one of the most durable materials known to science today—a structure with a permanent foundation but facade sections comprising 195 modular elements that can be rebuilt again and again.

The dream of the Hungarian Young Academy was brought to life by LEGO Certified Professional Balázs Dóczy, whom we contacted in the spring of 2025. Based on his designs, a highly detailed model (90 x 120 centimetres in base area, 60 centimetres tall, and weighing approximately 80 kilograms) was created, and its exterior facade elements will be assembled a total of 7 times by secondary school students and HYA volunteers throughout 2026.

Photo: mta.hu / Tamás Szigeti

Using tens of thousands of LEGO bricks sponsored by LEGO Hungária Kft., students built a total of 126 modules comprising 17 different facade elements during the first community building session, and integrated them into the model pre-built by Balázs Dóczy and his team of four over the course of about a week, totalling approximately 150 working hours. A time-lapse video of the entire construction process was also created, which can be viewed here.

After each of the first six community building sessions, volunteers from the Hungarian Young Academy and the MTA Secretariat will dismantle the built modules so that new groups of students could experience the joy of completing the Palace. Following the final building session on 8 December 2026, , the completed, illuminated LEGO MTA Palace will be placed in a display case to ultimately find its permanent home on the ground floor of the MTA Library, in the space showcasing the collection of the founding Teleki family, where this beautiful memento will remain on display even after the bicentennial celebration series has concluded.

This community LEGO building event hosted by the Hungarian Young Academy is one of the most unique and exciting programmes in the MTA200 celebration series, in which people of all ages can participate, thus paying tribute to the Academy’s past together and shaping its future collectively.