Architecture and Building Toys

Talk about learning to handle gravity, static structures, and cantilevers...
All Frank's play with Froebel Blocks seems to have paid off.

The most popular and most sophisticated descendant of Froebel's Blocks so far has got to be Lego blocks.

Legos are beautifully engineered and wonderfully adaptable. Purists (like me) prefer the big ol' bucket o' blocks approach, but the company seems, these days, to be stressing it's themed kits: Star Wars (TM) or Harry Potter (TM) etc. In the end it really doesn't matter, an imaginative child will soon have Harry riding his medieval bulldozer into battle against the Evil Space-Mermaid Horde. A child's castle - build from a merger of pirate and spaceman parts gives the idea of "eclectic" a whole new vocabulary. There are, of course, the basic blocks, but also specialized pieces for every possible use.

My only grumble with Lego is its occasional tendency to make their blocks blush pink for girly sets. It ought to go without saying that blocks are a unisex toy. And, given the growing number of females in 3D/spacial fields like architecture (now a majority), clearly girls can hold their own without pink bricks.

But Lego does an awful lot right - including traveling Lego build-athons and some fascinating adventure playgrounds like Legoland!

A little hard to catch the spirit of this one-of-a-kind Art Deco masterpiece in mini building blocks, but fun to try. Look just above for the Nanoblock kit!

So vitally important is the proper sorting of LEGOs that BoingBoing featured an article on just that topic! (Click on the pic to read the post.)

Lincoln Logs are only the miniature version of a construction type rooted in world-wide architectural history - wherever forests existed - a tradition that continues today.

It's a mistake to think that the wooden construction traditions that start with humble log cabins can't develop into sophisticated architectural styles. Here Russia's traditions of masonry building and wood building meet in the fantastic elaboration of St. Basil's in Moscow. Those roofs are all wood... distant cousins to your Lincoln Logs.

After the persnicketiness of the teensy building blocks, how about the refreshment of wild, messy, sandy construction?

Sand castles are the perfect kid-at-the-beach play, but grown-ups have been known to hold competitions where elaborate structures (not all castles) are built. Did you know there are Professional sand castle builders?

One of the best, most imagination-freeing gifts you can give your kid is a great big empty cardboard box. A house, a truck, a rocket ship... there's no end to its uses.

But don't think that only kids get to play with boxes and cardboard or that the results are just kid-stuff. In Rotterdam's Kunsthal (art museum), artist Ayako Rokkaku built this cardboard playhouse as part of a quite serious - while very playful - exhibit of contemporary art called "Colors in My Hand."

This photo shows part of Minatur Wunderland, perhaps the world's largest and most elaborate train set, built by two German brothers. Click on the Pic to go to a website on this fantastic train set - where there's a cool video. This isn't just a Train set... there are trucks, planes, a cruise ship (with fjord), Las Vegas, the Matterhorn, Carlsbad Caverns, and an attention to detail that is just amazing!