“Sometimes dreams come true”. Andrew Lactantius wrote it on his blog on January 13 last year. His post opens with an emblematic photo: in his hands Lattanzio holds the box of a new Lego Ideas set, a series of products “created by Lego fans and voted for by Lego fans”.
In the huge package there is everything needed to assemble a “A-frame cabin”, a popular house between the 50s and 70s and suddenly back in fashion in recent years, due to its extravagant shape and its low cost. Even Lactantius, in 2020, fell in love with it. And in ten days he built an identical one with the bricks he had at home.
About two years later, Lactantius received a special mail: “Hi Andrea, we would like to ask you more about your project”. Those lines had been written in Billund, Denmark, the city where it is located the heart and headquarters of the Lego company.
The ‘hut’ of Lactantius – one of the best-known and most respected builders in the international community of Lego enthusiasts – has become a Lego Ideas set. And the author of him became the first Italian to achieve such recognition.
“Everything was supposed to remain a secret, I practically imploded” Lattanzio told us, who in life is a fundraiser for a non-profit association. And that in this beginning of 2023 has crowned his dream. Her “A-frame cabin” will be on sale from February 1st.
Lactantius explains to us how do you propose an idea like yours to Lego?
“You have to apply on the Lego Ideas platform and collect at least 10,000 votes from community members”.
But that’s just the first step, right?
“Yes, votes are only for consideration. When you get 10,000, Lego reviews are triggered. But obviously not everyone makes it: only one or two projects are selected every three months. There are four reviews a year”.
Does it often happen that an idea exceeds 10,000 preferences?
“It is difficult but not impossible. It happened more frequently in the most acute period of the pandemic, with the lockdowns: enthusiasts spent more time at home and evidently produced more”.
Lattanzio you are the first Italian to sign a Lego Ideas set. How did he do it?
“It was almost an accident, actually. I have been building prototypes with Lego bricks for at least ten years, but I had long since lost hope of seeing my idea produced. In March 2021, however, I try to apply again. But with another diorama, inspired by Into The Wild, the 2007 film by Sean Penn. Which however is discarded because evidently the theme, given the end of the protagonist of the story, is a bit borderline. But I didn’t give up and I decided to nominate the A-frame cabin, which in just 42 days collected the 10,000 votes needed”.
His Italian project, besides her, actually has very little. Does he tell us how he was born?
“It’s true, the A-frame cabin is a quintessentially American and Canadian architectural theme. In 2021 I was browsing through a photo book of the strangest houses in the world and saw one of these ‘A’ shaped cabins. It was love at first sight. I’d never seen one, then doing some research I discovered that in the US it’s an icon and that there are dozens of Instagram pages dedicated to buildings of this type. I immediately made it mine. For some years now, I have been dedicating myself to the construction of bizarre and strange rural houses. And this was perfect.”
He builds them with bricks, of course.
“Yes sure [ride]. I make almost one a month. Some time ago, for example, I replicated the country house on the cover of the book “Walden (Life in the Woods)” by Henry David Thoreau. I liked the shape, but also the story. I always try to combine storytelling with my creations. I didn’t think fans could care, but in my case the stories made the difference”.
And what story does your cabin tell?
“A story originally different from the one that was then transferred to the Lego Ideas set. My characters were two hermit brothers who had left the city for the woods, tired of modern life and looking for a more spiritual contact with nature. That sentiment, in the official product, has been changed to more reflect Lego values. The Lego Ideas set building is newer and less run-down than the original, and was conceived as a vacation home.”
What else did the designers of the Lego company change?
“Several things, especially from a technical point of view. But it was inevitable. It is one thing to build a prototype, another to design a product that guarantees playability and safety. We builders often use ‘illegal’ techniques. For example, we happen to support the bricks to obtain a result that would otherwise be impossible. This makes the prototypes, which we call ‘mocks’, very fragile. Everything else about my original cabin has survived: the colors, the position of the trees, even the heads of the hammers I used to get the base of the building. Plus there are easter eggs”.
What surprises does this Lego Ideas set hide?
“It is not unusual to find references to sets from the past, or to the past of those who created them, in Lego sets. First of all, at the base of the cabin, in a point that will be hidden from view once the set is assembled, three palettes have been added with the colors of the Italian flag. In addition, a picture was created, which hangs above the bed at the top of the house, on which there is a drawing of a blue cottage that I had built some time ago”.
What role does technology play in the work of builders?
“I am inspired by old school builders because I build my projects with real bricks, I don’t use software unlike many who build their ideas without touching a single piece. And in the end they apply by proposing renderings. But the result is often a soulless set that closely resembles existing ones.”
But is it legal?
“It may seem paradoxical, but it can be done. The explanation I gave myself is that Lego, in this way, gives everyone the opportunity to create and propose themselves, even to those who don’t have the economic means to buy the bricks that would be used to make their ideas come true”.
What impact will artificial intelligence have on this world?
“It will greatly affect those who use software, that’s undeniable. In my case, it will do nothing. AI will not be able to replace me because the way I build, with unorthodox techniques, cannot be replicated by software”.
To conclude: what needs to be done to conquer the Lego designers? What’s the secret?
“Go outside the box. And do what Lego would never do.”
Andrea Lattanzio will personally present his “A-Frame Cabin” with a tour of the main Italian and European Lego stores. Next February 1 will be in Grenoble. Two days later Lattanzio will stop in Milan, in the San Babila shop. And then on the 10th he will be in Florence and on the 11th in Naples.