Alistair Hardaker | Image: Screenshot from Soane's Portals to the Past
Sir John Soane’s Museum has partnered with gaming platform to create world dedicated to architecture and design launched 21 January.
Sir John Soane’s Museum has partnered with Minecraft Education to create a game world bringing architecture and design education to classrooms worldwide.
Soane’s Portals to the Past launched on 21 January 2026 and is Minecraft Education’s first world dedicated to creative thinking, architecture and design. Students can explore a recreation of Soane’s house and visit virtual Ancient Greece, Rome and Egypt to discover the cultures that inspired his designs.
The game allows students to study representations of artefacts in the museum’s collection and design their own structures inspired by ancient civilisations that influenced Soane.
Will Gompertz, director of Sir John Soane’s Museum said: “Minecraft’s gamification of our incredible Museum is a brilliant application of technology to help fulfill Soane’s ambition for his Museum to be an Academy of the Arts, free to all. At a flick of a switch, we can now share Soane’s remarkable collection and visionary architecture with a truly global audience of students through one of the world’s most beloved game-based learning platforms.”
Justin Edwards, director of learning experiences at Minecraft Education said the museum’s digital world “provides a unique opportunity to connect the past with the present to give young people the skills they need to thrive in the increasingly digital world.”
Over 160,000 people visited the museum during 2024-25 and over 2,700 children engaged with the learning team. The museum aims to reach hundreds of thousands more through the online experience.
The game was created by BlockBuilders. The classroom resource is available free on the Minecraft Education website as part of the Microsoft Office 365 Education subscription.
