Teaching materials commissioned by Maria Montessori. 1920s. Manufactured by Baroni e Marangon, Gonzaga, Italy (est. 1911). Collection of Maurizio Marzadori, Bologna

MoMA is presenting the first large-scale overview of the modernist preoccupation with children and childhood. The exhibition brings together areas underrepresented in design history and often considered separately, including school architecture, clothing, playgrounds, toys and games, children’s hospitals and safety equipment, nurseries, furniture, and books.

Ladislav Sutnar (American, born Bohemia [now Czech Republic]. 1897–1976). Build the Town building blocks. 1940–43. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of Ctislav Sutnar and Radoslav Sutnar.

The exhibition examines individual and collective visions for the material world of children, from utopian dreams for the “citizens of the future” to the dark realities of political conflict and exploitation. In this period children have been central to the concerns, ambitions, and activities of modern architects and designers both famous and unsung, and working specifically for children has often provided unique freedom and creativity to the avant-garde.

Jean Prouvé (French, 1901–1984). School desk. 1946. Manufactured by Ateliers Jean Prouvé, Nancy. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Dorothy Cullman Purchase Fund

The exhibition brings together over 500 items, ranging from urban-planning projects to small design objects by celebrated designers and lesser-known figures, Century of the Child brings together a number of areas underrepresented in design history: school architecture, playgrounds, toys and games, animation, clothing, safety equipment and therapeutic products, nurseries, furniture, and books.

Gerrit Rietveld (Dutch, 1888–1964). Child’s wheelbarrow. 1923. Manufactured by Gerard van de Groenekan IN 1958. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. © 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / Beeldrecht, Amsterdam

Ford convertible toy car with original box. c. 1956. Manufactured by Marusan Shoten Ltd., Tokyo (est. 1947). Subaru 360 toy car with original box. c. 1963. Manufactured by Bandai, Tokyo (est. 1950). Bruce Sterling Collection, New York

Minka Podhájská (Czechoslovak, born Moravia [now Czech Republic], 1881–1963). Series of Personifications of Childhood Misdeeds. 1930. Museum of Decorative Arts, Prague   

Froebel Gift No. 2: Sphere, Cylinder, and Cube. c. 1890. Manufactured by J. L. Hammett Co., Braintree, Massachusetts (est. 1863). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of Lawrence Benenson, 2011


Exhibition: Century of the Child: Growing by Design, 1900-2000
From July 29 to November 5, 2012
The Museum of Modern Art, The Joan and Preston Robert Tisch Exhibition Gallery, sixth floor
New York, NY 10019, USA

Belgian designer Arnaud Eubelen is presenting 'Try2Cycle' his new project of a progressive bicycle.

The object is designed for 2 to 5 years old children. The aim of the project is to learn to children, in a progressive way, how to ride a bicycle. It is to build at home by parents and their child.

At first, T2C is built in the tricycle mode. The child learns to move freely without having to balance. When he acquires insurance on his vehicule and begins to have more balance, T2C is transformed in the bicycle mode. A higher position, more suitable for his legs, is obtained by increasing the height of the saddle.

The piece which allows the conversion of tricycle to bicycle mode is very easy to move. Once in bicycle mode, that piece is reused to keep the bike fixed right once put away.

You can contact Arnaud Eubelen for more information: [email protected]

Douglas Rollins and Tim Boyle, founder and co-founder of brinca dada, design "toys that parents love to look at and children love to play with".

The Emerson House is a great home for the modern family. The home has six rooms including a living room, kitchen, library/office, master bedroom, bathroom and child's bedroom.

With its large, open floor plan and floor-to-ceiling windows, the modern house features many extras including mitered-glass corners, two fireplaces, sliding glass doors, solar panels, and recessed LED lights.

Finally, the house is easy on the environment with only non-toxic and lead-free wood stains and paints.

The living room set creates the perfect atmosphere for entertaining guests, reading a good book or relaxing with family.

Not just any doll would feel at home in the Emerson House. The Modern Family is sleek and minimalist.

Exploring Materials invites you to get inspired by physical forms and substances. Materials are like words. The richer your design vocabulary, the more design solutions you can see and express. Foam, mesh, wood, plastic, and wire each have behaviors and properties that suggest different types of structure, surface, and connection. Each has its place, consequences, and cost.

Understanding materials is essential to design, and understanding materials through hands-on experiment is absolutely crucial.

Use this book to begin looking at design with new eyes. Ignore what you already know, and find out how substances such as cardboard, cloth, metal, and rope can yield surprising structures with unexpected functions.

The book opens with case studies of the design process. Lively examples show how designers can interact with physical materials to jump-start the course of thinking and inventing and how they can involve real people and real environments to take a fresh look at real problems.

At the core of the book is a visual glossary of materials, organized both to inspire and inform. Everyday uses of each material are juxtaposed with experimental projects that reveal how designers from around the world have exploited materials in surprising and creative ways. The book concludes with a section on making it real, moving beyond the prototype to create a product that can be manufactured and marketed.

Book for sale on Amazon: Exploring Materials: Creative design for everyday objects
by Ellen Lupton and Inna Alesina (Princeton Architectural Press)

A palm-sized modular toy created by Kelly Harrigan, a fourth-year industrial design student in the College of Architecture and Urban Studies at Virginia Tech, has been awarded a design patent. The toy, named Ferra, won first place last year from Swiss Toymaker Naef Speilzeug. Naef asked for game or design objects appropriate for ages 3 to 99, made primarily of wood. There were 107 entries in the company's inaugural toy competition.

Harrigan layered the wooden shapes of her toy with magnets "because people are fascinated by them at any age," she said.

"I wanted to design a toy that makes you want to experiment and learn about the capabilities of magnetism."
The name, Ferra, came from the type of magnet she used -- a ceramic magnet called ferrite.
"The curvy modular design allows for smooth movement between pieces and the opportunity to create several configurations," added Harrigan. "And it feels good in your palm."

Via Dexigner

The Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) presents an exhibition (now in Chicago) with 99 actions that instigate positive change in contemporary cities around the world. Seemingly common activities such as walking, playing, recycling, and gardening are pushed beyond their usual definition by the international architects, artists, and collectives featured in the exhibition. Their experimental interactions with the urban environment show the potential influence personal involvement can have in shaping the city, and challenge fellow residents to participate.

The 99 actions featured include projects related to the production of food and possibilities of urban agriculture; the planning and creation of public spaces to strengthen community interactions; the recycling of abandoned buildings for new purposes; the use of the urban fabric as a terrain for play such as soccer, climbing, skateboarding, or parkour; the alternate use of roads for walking, or rail lines as park space; the design of clothing to circumvent urban barriers against resting on benches or sliding on railings; among others.

Here are some of the projects.

Ping-Pong Connects Neighbours (© Droog Design - Photo by Misha de Ridder) The Table Tennis Fence subverts the fence as a dividing element. A built-in ping pong table can be opened for neighbours to play with each other, transforming the fence into a meeting place. Share Fence is a related project with cut-outs in the shape of gardening tools like trowels and a watering can. Neighbours can hang tools to be shared in fence holes where they are accessible from both sides. Droog Design was founded in Amsterdam in 1993 by Bakker and Renny Ramakers. NEXT Architects was founded by four graduates from the Delft University of Technology.

Sheep and Lambs Eat City Parks (©Daniele Hosmer Zambelli)

The city of Turin saved 30,000 euros by using sheep to mow lawns at three public parks. In Pasture in the City, cows were also used during the experimental first year, but because they produced too much manure they have not returned. Traffic is diverted for the herd of sheep to enter the city. After the animals are rotated through fenced-off parks for two months, they return to the Alps for the remainder of the summer. The sheep aerate and fertilize their temporary pastures.

Reclaim Vacant Lot with What City’s Got (© Recetas Urbanas)

A proposal made to the city of Seville for legislation to assist in the temporary transformation of public and private solares – vacant lots walled off for security – into public spaces for at least six months. Wall rubble is incorporated into the design, and elements of car and pedestrian barriers are used to construct benches, see-saws, swings, and bike racks with readily available plastic materials like concrete. Instruction sheets were produced to allow residents to construct their own furniture. The project is designed to minimize material movement, cost, and other barriers to change. Santiago Cirugeda is an architect based in Seville who has proposed semi-legal strategies for housing and urban renovation under the name Recetas Urbanas, or “urban prescriptions,” since 1996. He inhabits gaps between laws, exploiting overlap and oversight to practice autonomous architecture.

Outlaw Gardeners Beautify City (© Richard Reynolds)

Richard Reynolds, or Richard 001, as he is known in the Guerillagardening.org organization, descends on traffic islands, forgotten parks, public gardens, and roadway edges with troops around the world; he transforms ignored spaces into beautiful gardens. Other troops focus on productive planting, encouraging vegetable and fruit farming in the city.
Although Richard 001’s little war against mundane landscaping began in 2004 when he became fed up with the sorry condition of the yard in front of his apartment building, the guerrilla gardening movement can be traced back to at least the 1970s, when artists like Liz Christy and Gordon Matta-Clark used the term to describe illegal, and often nocturnal, horticulture missions.

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