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Vincent Wauters was born in Belgium and lives in Amsterdam, but speaks Spanish quite well. "My partner, Fabia, is from Malaga," says the 31-year-old engineer over the phone. In 2022 the couple travelled through Andalucía by car. "It was a beautiful trip. I fell in love with Granada." Vincent remembers walking through the Albaicín, with flamenco guitars in the background, when the Alhambra appeared on the horizon. "I felt a magic I had never experienced before in my life." So, to capture that moment in time that has had an impact on so many others over the centuries, instead of taking a photo or writing a few lines, he did what he always does: he imagined the monument built with Lego pieces.
2,365
That's exactly how many pieces Vincent Wauters' Alhambra has in Lego. Purchased separately they would cost about 800 euros. The whole set-up is 73.6 centimetres long, 23.2 centimetres wide and 7.4 centimetres high. So far, it has 1,200 supporters on the official website.
"I've been a Lego fan since I was a child. I've spent my whole life building worlds and scenarios with my imagination. Lego is something fundamental to understanding my life." That epiphany when seeing the Alhambra really marked him. Back home in Amsterdam he designed a model of the Nasrid fortress with Lego. It took him four months to finish it: 2,365 pieces for a set 73.6 centimetres long, 23.2 wide and 7.4 high. "I wanted to replicate the magic of the Alhambra in my model so I could share it with the world, it was my way of doing something for Granada."
If you look at the image, you'll see that he didn't just make something similar, but there are many details taken from the real Alhambra: the Nasrid Palaces, the Patio de los Leones, the Alcazaba... "I like to think that someone could discover the Alhambra little by little, as they build this Lego."
So, has Vincent built this Lego set at home? "I wish! It's a digital design. Piece by piece, but digital." Wauters explains that those 2,365 pieces could be bought separately from Bricklink, an official Lego website, and shaped into his design. "Those 2,365 pieces would cost me around 800 euros bought separately.... I haven't done it yet, but I will." So, is this Lego Alhambra design just a curiosity? No. Well, at least not if we all give Vincent a hand.
The dream is for this Alhambra to become a Lego Architecture set, the series that Lego dedicates to great buildings and monuments from all over the world, such as the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, London Bridge, the Titanic, the New York skyline and the White House. The company, considered one of the most creative companies on the model-making scene, has a website called Lego Ideas ( ideas.lego.com ) where users share their projects so that Lego can make them a reality. Is it that easy? No, of course not. The projects submitted need to collect 10,000 signatures, that means 10,000 people supporting the idea. How? All you have to do is register on the website and click on the 'Support' button.
Vincent, whose Lego username is 'GatoBearVinci', has more than 1,200 supporters, so he still needs another 8,800. "I hope there are people in Granada who want to support the idea, it would be great," he says happily. The Lego Alhambra has reached different forums (especially Reddit) and is starting to add more and more signatures. "If it reaches 10,000, the project goes to a Lego committee that evaluates it to see the possibilities of making it real. So the first step is to reach that number. After that, we'll keep our fingers crossed."
"Lego is the basis of everything in my life, in a way. I see something and think about how I could replicate it in Lego." Vincent Wauters is an industrial engineer, specialising in product design. "The spirit of Lego has guided me in the world of innovation: how to improve something, how to build products, how to make things different? Also, Lego is a way of making abstract things. For example, here I have a version of the Colosseum. It's not the same, but it's a version that you identify with the real thing. And that's part of my work."
Vincent works in the innovation cabinet of the Dutch government. "My responsibility is to identify new technologies, new trends, and to analyse how we can use them to make the organisation more flexible and innovative."
Fabia, his partner, is an architect, so construction is a recurring topic of conversation in their shared home. "We design a lot of Spanish things in Lego because Spain is an amazing country," says Wauters. "I just made a house from Cordoba, with its patio and everything." But that walk through Granada remains one of his "most precious" memories. "That's why we tried to do it justice by recreating the magic of the Alhambra in a Lego set." The pieces are in our hands and 8,800 bricks remain. Shall we help to make the dream come true?
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