Best-selling video game meets Sir John Soane

IT is an unlikely union – a celebrated Classical architect whose work shaped Regency Britain, and a computer game with a somewhat nerdish reputation.

But for Will Gompertz, director of the Sir John Soane’s Museum, the link-up between the makers of Minecraft and the institute that celebrates Soane’s work is a perfect fit.

This week the museum in Lincoln’s Inn Fields announced that it was introducing students to his design work with help from the game.

Minecraft is described as an online “sandbox” where the player creates worlds with building blocks, like a computer version of Lego.

Created in 2011, it is the best-selling video game ever made, with 350 million copies sold. It is estimated to have 150 million active users each month.

In the Soane’s version, players head back into ancient times to experience Soane’s inspirations and then allow them to create their own versions of classic cities.

Sir John Soane

Schools can download the game for free, giving students virtual visits to the pyramids, the Parthenon and Pompeii.

Mr Gompertz said: “Minecraft is fantastic. It is very architectural, and this game is a portal to the past. You enter via a sarcophagus that takes you into Ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome to discover how architecture is the great language of culture.”

Mr Gompertz said the marriage of Minecraft and the man who designed the Bank of England is both educational and fun.

He said: “Soane was a great innovator. He was interested in new ideas that are now totally on the money. For example, he installed central heating and an indoor bathroom.

“He was interested in technology. He would love Minecraft.”

Mr Gompertz has been at the Soane’s since 2024 and was previously the BBC’s arts editor and the artistic director at the Barbican.

Will Gompertz

He said when working in Sir John’s former home you are struck by how relevant his work is today.

He said: “It feels contemporary. It does not feel like you are stepping back 300 – or 3,000 – years, and that is the genius of Soane.

“He was a collator of the past but he synthesised it, so it felt super modern, it could have been built last week.

“He took elements from the architecture of Egypt, Rome and Greece that were relevant.” Soane’s rise to be the Royal Academy’s professor of architecture came despite his humble beginnings. Mr Gompertz said: “He was a working-class lad. He was destined to a life on building sites.

“He was a hod carrier, but would sketch during his breaks. When he was 13, a surveyor saw this and told one of his clients, George Dance, about him; he said: ‘there is this weird kid on this building site, who draws these brilliant sketches.’”

Dance was a celebrated architect and artist who became a founding member of the Royal Academy and took Sir John on as an office boy, and the rest is history.