Francesco Spreafico

How old are you? 51

Which country are you from? Italy

What is your role at the LEGO® Group? I work as a Senior IT Engineer on kids.LEGO.com.

How did you get into building with LEGO bricks, especially building your own creations? Like most people, I started as a kid, then I came back to building as an adult when I noticed that the national Italian fan community was based in my hometown and I started meeting other fans.

What kind of creations do you love building the most, and why? I like building models of existing buildings, mostly. I like architecture and I think I like the challenge of reproducing details with the limitations of available LEGO bricks.

If you could give one piece of advice to aspiring LEGO builders, what would it be? Just build what you want to build and never mind what other people say. Everybody has their own preferences, and they will never be exactly like someone else’s.

How does it feel to have your work exhibited here at LEGO House - Home of the Brick? It’s amazing! I remember when the Masterpiece Gallery was announced, more than 10 years ago… I started immediately wondering if I could ever end up there… and now I did!

Do you have a personal LEGO portfolio website or social media profile that you can share? https://www.flickr.com/photos/laz75/collections/72157703322737145/

Title Ole Kirk’s House

Can you describe your model and what it represents? It’s a model of the house where Ole Kirk Kristiansen (founder of the LEGO Group) lived. It was built in 1924, and it still lies in Billund today, about 90 meters away from LEGO House, where it houses a private LEGO history museum. I fell in love with the place the first time I visited it, in 2015. I built a first version of the model a few years ago and now I have updated it completely, by covering it with snow and adding some festive storytelling with kids and adults coming out of it and going back home for the holidays to LEGO House (a very short journey!) with many LEGO gifts to inspire them and feed their creativity.

How long did it take you to build? This is a tricky question… considering it is an ongoing project, I would say almost 10 years!

Approximately how many LEGO elements did you use? Maybe about 7,000-8,000, but I don’t know, really.

Are there any hidden details, Easter eggs, or techniques in your model that fans should look out for? Plenty! Find Ole Kirk Kristiansen, his son Godtfred and his grandson Kjeld looking at the happy people coming out of the door. Godtfred is standing in his classic “I stand on a brick-built house to show how solid it is” pose, that you can see in the History Collection in LEGO House. On the corner of the house you can see a LEGO House Play Agent showing the way to LEGO House with an arrow… just like in the real world! In the back there are various boxes full of LEGO sets of different eras. Also try and spot the 3D-printed parts and the SMART Brick.

For interesting techniques, I like how I recreated the typical Danish rowlock sills under the windows, and the use of some old parts like the old 1x1 bricks with numbers for the “1924” on the main door, or the old little doors used as windows. I’m also quite happy with how the “snow” turned out.