As the Irish property market was in the early days of what would become a freefall in 2008, Damien Murtagh had an opportune idea.

The architect, then working in Dublin, was used to making models using card and foamboard to show clients what their completed home would look like. However, the process typically took improvisation, with magnets from kitchen cabinets used to bring the scale structures to life. Many other architects had long since switched to solely showing their work via 3D computer imagery.

Murtagh said: “I thought [that] surely if you can make a model as quickly as you can draw it, architects will start making models again. If I could make it quick, affordable, reusable, there has to be a world out there that would want it.”

From those early thoughts emerged Arckit, a modelling kit that provides the doors, walls, supports and roof tiles to create scale-model houses.

While the initial product was focused on architects, the popularity of the kits has now spread to hobbyists and children, prompting comparisons with Lego and Meccano.

“I like to say that it is a graduation from all of the building blocks you have ever played with,” said Murtagh. “I always knew that if I could simplify model making that it would open it up to everybody. It just means that you take away the glue, the cutting, the measuring, the sticking. You don’t have to know about scale.”

The plastic kits include a selection of 26 different types of parts, which come together to make up the final home, from the joins that connect floorboards to the tiles that line the rooftop. The pieces are clicked together to take the form of the houses, which are 1:48 in scale to a full-sized building. Ideas are provided in an accompanying booklet.

Using this basic selection of parts, two- and three-storey models, linked by stairwells, internal columns and corner windows, can be constructed. Packaged with the parts are blank adhesive sheets on which designs such as brick patterns can be printed, to bring colour to the constructions. Future plans include the option for users to design their own parts for the kits, which can then be 3D-printed to order.

After launching last year, the kits’ appeal extended beyond architects who may have wanted to use them alongside 3D on-screen renderings, said Murtagh. The Arckit boxes are placed beside Meccano on the shelves of Harrods in London.

Arckit’s place among other construction toys was confirmed when Barnes Noble stocked the product in 445 of its US stores. Four kits are available: The smallest is £49.99, while a kit equivalent to 60 sq metres (650 sq ft) is £89. One for 120 sq metres (1,292 sq ft) is £169 and a version equivalent to 240 sq metre (2,583 sq ft) is £269.

Adding to demand is a generation of children who have grown up playing Minecraft, the computer game where players make constructions in a virtual world.

Murtagh said: “There is this gap between all of these toy products and [something more advanced]. You had all of these toys but you had nothing done after that.”

Murtagh’s family, who are from Cavan, Ireland, has a long history in the construction industry. His father, Eugene, was the founder of Kingspan, the listed-building materials group. The first Arckit box was sold at the Grand Designs show in London last year to a child who had played with an early test version the year before.

Murtagh said: “This generation is incredible, what they are creating is staggering and I think [that] — like Lego inspired the architects of today — Minecraft will inspire the architects of tomorrow, and I hope that Arckit will take part in that.” Arckit has been use to recreate Big Ben and build spaceships and airports, which is all far from the intended scale models for architects.

The construction toy market is a lucrative one to break into. It is one of the fastest-growing segments of the games industry and even outperforms video games, according to figures from Euromonitor International. From 2008 to 2013, toy sales were down 15% but the construction toy sector grew by 123%.

In the US, Arckit has won an award for its educational benefits and for introducing children to architecture. Murtagh explained the four different-sized kits are tailored to the different groups – hobbyists, architects and children – using them. One of the primary aims for the kits was education, rather than for it to become the next mainstream toy product, he said.

At £269, the largest kit could be above some parents’ budgets. Murtagh argues, however, that it is a “product for life”. He added: “It is a quality reusable product that is a design tool. If you compare this to other products it is not really expensive.”

One of the scale houses that Murtagh has made to illustrate what can be achieved with the Arckit is a recreation of a Frank Lloyd Wright house in Pittsburgh.

His own preference is for modern architecture and the kits are based on contemporary panel-building systems. While he initially divided his time between the Arckit project and designing real-life homes at his architecture practice in Teddington, south-west London, he says his sole focus is now on the rapidly growing new product.

The future launch of an online shop for components will broaden out the range of pieces by 30, with users able to order individual parts. People will also be able to draw sketches of parts they want, such as a curved or coloured wall, and they will be designed and printed. “If you want to put a turret [on the house], you can 3D-print it,” Murtagh said

What is in the kit?

The heavily stylised Arckit boxes give more of a nod to Apple design than traditional toy packaging. Inside there are selections of corner-wall joints, low walls, corner windows, roof panels, stairsand other components. The pieces click into each other and can be reused.

A booklet offers ideas for modern-style buildings that can be made to scale. Bags of additional pieces can be bought to add to those included in one of the four kits.