![]() ![]() I wanted to try a different way of building cylinders that could be scaled to whatever height I needed. But the trick is creating a pretty convincing illusion of a round shape at least when you look at your model from a few steps back.įor the minarets of the Taj Mahal, I did not want to be limited by the small selection of cylinder pieces that LEGO has. The result is never perfect and the limitations of the LEGO medium are always apparent in the jaggedness of the curves and the gaps that you may see, especially when you are looking at your model up close. In much the same way, all the techniques described here try to use square/rectangular bricks or plates to create the best approximation that is possible of the round shape. However it is possible to get close enough by using an approximation of the number π (pi). So what exactly is involved in creating round shapes out of LEGO ? The title of this post refers to “ squaring the circle” which is an age-old mathematical problem that people tried to solve for centuries until it was proven (in 1882) to be impossible to solve. While I can’t claim to have invented any of the techniques listed in this article, I am happy to catalog them here for future reference (giving credit to the inventors wherever possible). Every step of the way, I was amazed and inspired by the endless creativity of the AFOL community (I also tapped into some of the tools created by the Minecraft community). Needless to say, I had to take a deep dive into all the techniques out there that can be used to create round shapes using LEGO – I basically scoured the web looking for any information I could find on this topic. ![]() My model of the Taj Mahal The dome and drum of the Taj Mahal The minarets (slender towers) that sit at the 4 corners of the plinth of the Taj Mahal are essentially stacked cylinders too. The focal point of this well-known landmark (which happens to be one of the modern wonders of the world) is its massive dome which sits atop a cylindrical base called the drum (that is an actual architectural term !). I did not have much experience building these shapes out of LEGO until I started working on my own version of the Taj Mahal. And yet, there are many wonderful LEGO creations out there that include round shapes – all kinds of cylinders and even spheres. After all, the basic building block – a 1×1 brick has a square footprint and a LEGO baseplate has studs placed in a regular square grid. LEGO is not a medium that is inherently suited to building round shapes. Different versions of Empire State Building. ![]()
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