Today we are excited to publish a guest article from Arno Knobbe (@legoarno on Instagram), an Associate Professor at Leiden University in the Netherlands who attended our building workshop at Skærbæk Fan Weekend 2024. As a fan of both numbers and LEGO® bricks, he is perfectly qualified to tell you everything you ever wanted to know about building “off-grid” with LEGO parts, but were too afraid to ask because it would probably involve math... Fear not! With Arno’s beginners’ introduction to LEGO building at angles and diagonals, it's easy.

When building with LEGO, we usually adhere to the familiar structure of the standard square grid, where everything aligns neatly and predictably. This grid system provides stability and order. However, there are moments when creativity takes over, and we decide to break free from the constraints of this rigid structure. Either because some angled part needs to be matched, or simply because the diagonal bit breaks the monotony of building in “the Matrix”. The LEGO universe offers several techniques for escaping the LEGO grid by building at an angle, which I will be taking you through today.