As someone who has been playing with and building LEGO® bricks on and off for a while, I have found myself trying to understand how LEGO bricks work, as a prompt for play, creativity, and storytelling, as part of a greater System of Play. That said, with a background in biomedical sciences, I don’t have a solid grasp of the basics of play theory and play design.
Fortunately, my daughter is studying Play Design in Kolding, about a three-quarters-of-an-hour drive from the LEGO Group’s headquarters in Billund, Denmark. She suggested I check out the work of one of her lecturers, Jess Uhre Rahbek, Assistant Professor in the LAB for Play Design at the Kolding School of Design.
Dr Rahbek has written the book “This is Why You Love LEGO®” – 2026, MIT Press. I was heading to Denmark for the Skaerbaek Fan Weekend in late September 2026. I contacted the publisher, and they kindly sent me a copy to read on my way over to Denmark.Jess and I arranged a meetup on a windy Monday lunchtime in Billund: we sat down with a cup of coffee at Billund Bageri and proceeded to chat.
Meet Jess Uhre Rahbek
Like many Danish children, Jess grew up playing with LEGO – particularly his older brother’s Blacktron and Forestmen sets. Both of his parents grew up in Billund, and his father played in the LEGOLAND Marching Band when it opened in 1968. And so he feels quite attached to these little plastic bricks.
From 2018 to 2020, he undertook PhD studies through the Kolding School of Design. During his LEGO Foundation-funded research, Jess worked alongside the Experience Design Team at LEGO House, exploring play design while reviewing the existing literature on play theory.
“There are over 400 years of academic observations on the nature of play. These theories have come together by looking at play after the fact, but they fail to aid us in designing for play. My goal was to develop a minimalist theory to support the design process.“
The ‘Playful tension model’ is the result. The theory aims to reconcile what we know about play theory with what play designers aim to achieve. And while the book focuses on the way we engage with LEGO bricks, the theory is just as applicable to any form of play.”
I asked Jess why he decided to turn his thesis into a book.
“I gained theoretical insights into designing for play during my research, but I know that my PhD dissertation is unlikely to be read by too many people. I was looking for a way to bring value from my research to the community – and the book is the result”
“I have never been engaged with the LEGO fan community,” he explained, “but I was looking for a way to bring value to the wider [fan base].”
I asked Jess about how the book came about.
“It was a real learning process… I had to work out how I was going to explain the sound scientific methodology in a more playful way.”
The book was initially pitched to publishers at a design conference, and while it wasn’t originally intended for an academic press, MIT Press picked it up. They subjected the book to peer review and felt it was worthy of their label.
This Is Why You Love LEGO®
The book applies Rahbek’s research and his ‘Playful Tension’ model to playing with LEGO bricks. Playful tension exists at the intersection of what feels familiar and manageable (what Rahbek calls handleable) and what is uncertain, unpredictable, and challenging (what he calls unhandleable). Leaning too far towards the handleable makes play too predictable and boring. Moving too far towards the unhandleable can make it overwhelming, frustrating, chaotic or dangerous. Playful tension depends on these opposing conditions existing in a dynamic relationship. If this tension breaks, play ends for the time being. These breaking points vary by activity and player. When playing with LEGO bricks, consider the tension between a model’s physical stability and relative permanence and its configurability. Other tensions arise when you build a MOC of your own design, or when you build from instructions.
The book conveys the author’s expertise: I found his light and enjoyable writing style makes his academic work accessible. The narrative moves between the concepts behind playful tension and a central narrative of a boy named Theodor.
Theodor sets out to create a spaceship with his collection of LEGO Bricks. As the story progresses, a few catalyst bricks catch his eye and inspire his model. As he builds and searches for specific parts, a classic pirate cannon appears and derails Theodor’s plans: the spaceship becomes a space pirate ship, and shenanigans follow.
Each time Theodor faces a challenge in his build, Rahbek introduces the relevant theory behind it. Along the way, he discusses how free play differs from building a model from instructions and how an adult might approach their model, starting with a more established plan, greater technical experience, and perhaps a few more of the correct bricks in the right colour available.
As the story unfolds, you gain a better understanding of what sets up the conditions for play, and how world-building and storytelling become forms of play in their own right.
By the end of the book, Theodor’s model differs significantly from how it was initially imagined.
These transitions between story, play theory, and play design flow smoothly and offer insight into what to consider when designing a play experience, while also helping you understand why you enjoy the times you play in your own life.
Along the way, the reader is encouraged to consider some of the challenges Theodor faces, and try a little building experiment for themselves. I really enjoyed these suggestions, but given that I was reading the book on an international flight, I didn’t have a collection of bricks close at hand.
That said, the book includes a few simple illustrations showing how Theodor’s build progressed. I would have loved to see some of the author’s photographs of the finished model incorporated into the book itself – even if only on the back cover – but the line illustrations convey what is going on well enough.
As Jess and I discussed some of the ways that free play might vary from directed building, he challenged me to consider just pouring out a box of bricks and ignoring the instructions. While I was doubting my ability to fully exploit this: I am unlikely to try this with a huge set like Rivendell – I just don’t feel I could do all those parts justice.
Jess looked at me and said, “Things can be beautiful for other reasons than appearance. I am not lobbying for a return to the old days [of simple sets with lots of basic bricks], but rather that you have the courage to believe in your own ideas, and to be inspired”
And this is probably the point of LEGO freeplay. By the end of this book, I was inspired to sit down with a pile of bricks and wait to see where the play takes me, and what comes together in the process.
“This is Why You Love LEGO” by Jess Uhre Rahbek is out now from MIT Press. It is available through Amazon (not an affiliate link) and other booksellers. I think it will appeal to people who enjoy building and playing with LEGO, as well as those interested more generally in play design.
This book was provided by MIT Press for review purposes. All opinions are my own.
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Until Next Time,
Play Well!
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