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This intriguing book offers a novel view of the development of modern architecture through the prism of children's construction toys.

Informative, opinionated and ranging across more than a century of toys and architectural trends, this book inspires an infectious nostalgia for these wonderful toys, many of them vintage classics.

The authors discover a host of connections linking model-building sets with architectural movements, social history, and national identities. They investigate not only how model sets reflected building styles, but also whether they influenced the careers of children who grew up playing with them.

Some construction toys have looked to the past - Richter's Blocks, Lincoln Logs and Tudor Minibrix, for example. Others have looked to the future: as early as the 1920s, the American metal toy Bilt-E-Z could be used to construct the iconic stepped-back skyscraper, like the Empire State building in New York. Later the British Arkitex and American Girder and Panel mirrored the steel-framed glass towers of the modern era.

The Vales show how the prefabricated engineered aesthetic of Meccano and Lego does seem to have influenced some notable architects. They draw out novel connections between model-railway buildings and modernism; model sets such as Castos and reinforced concrete housing; and even between the creative but slightly surreal Playplax and postmodern deconstructivist architecture.

Tabla de contenidos provista por Syndetics

• Introduction: Toys Are Us(p. 7)
• Chapter 1 Modernism on the Line(p. 9)
• Chapter 2 Richter's Blocks and the Castles on the Rhine(p. 24)
• Chapter 3 Meccano and Making Visible How Things Work(p. 38)
• Chapter 4 Lott's Bricks and the Arts and Crafts Movement(p. 51)
• Chapter 5 Wenebrik and the (Un-modern) Steel House(p. 64)
• Chapter 6 Lincoln Logs and the Log Cabin(p. 77)
• Chapter 7 Mobaco and De Stijl(p. 89)
• Chapter 8 Bayko and Suburbia(p. 99)
• Chapter 9 Minibrix and Unassuming Architecture(p. 111)
• Chapter 10 Juneero and the Architecture of Make-Do-and-Mend(p. 127)
• Chapter 11 Castos and Concrete on the Carpet(p. 136)
• Chapter 12 Bilt-E-Z, Girder and Panel, Arkitex and the Brave New World(p. 150)
• Chapter 13 Playplax and Deconstruction(p. 164)
• Chapter 14 Lego and the Green City(p. 176)
• Chapter 15 Learning Architecture on the Carpet(p. 189)
• Notes(p. 191)
• Picture Credits(p. 204)
• Acknowledgments(p. 204)
• Index(p. 205)

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CHOICE Review

The title of this quirky but fun book implies that it is about construction toys' influence on the development of modern architecture. However, readers expecting to learn how toys shaped the minds of major architects will be left wanting; this is one of the book's weaknesses and a missed opportunity. Largely about construction toys' history, this volume reflects the perspective of architects/toy collectors B. Vale and R. Vale (both, Victoria Univ. of Wellington, NZ). Each chapter features a different toy or group of toys: Richter's Blocks, Meccano, Lott's Bricks, Wenebrik, Lincoln Logs, Mobaco, Bayko, Minibrix, Juneero, Castos, Bilt-E-Z, Arkitex, Girder and Panel, Playpax, and Lego. The Vales discuss each toy's history; its relationship to various, largely vernacular, built forms; its realism in replicating real-life building methods and materials; and its relationship to broader historical, cultural, and social issues. For instance, they connect Richter's Blocks--a 19th-century German construction toy with miniature medieval castles, churches, and villages--to the rise of German nationalism in the wake of industrialization, and the making of German cultural identity or Heimat, a concept first described by Wilhelm Riehl in 1851. More up-to-date topics like modernism, deconstruction, and contemporary urban planning are featured in the last few chapters. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates and above; general readers. D. E. Gliem Eckerd College

Notas de autor provistas por Syndetics

Brenda and Robert Vale are both professors in the School of Architecture at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. They are the authors of The Autonomous House , Green Architecture , The New Autonomous House and Time to Eat the Dog? , all published by Thames & Hudson.