BCA TOYLAB
The BCA TOYLab designs and
develops prototypes for smart, simple architectural toys.
Building Toys - Architecture on the Red Carpet
BridgmanCollaborative’s TOYLab partnered with the University of Manitoba Faculty of Architecture and Brazil's Science Without Borders program to mount an architectural and building toys on exhibition, at the Arch 2 Gallery, Faculty of Architecture, University of Manitoba (18 September - 17 October, 2014).
The exhibition of building toys represents a long history of design, collaboration, creation, storytelling, modelling, experimentation, testing, tinkering, making and recycling for those who invent and make such toys, and for those who play with them.
The 20th century and beyond can be called The Age of Toys. Ideas about childhood as a time for learning and education – and a time for play – intersected with ideas about architecture, the design of cities, growth and material wealth. The post-war building boom paralleled building toy inventions galore. Toys are not just fun and games, in other words. They have become big business. According to the Toy Industry Association, within the U.S. domestic market alone, toys now generate sales of $24 billion annually (excluding digital games), with building toys generating approximately $2 billion. Increasingly, toys appear to feature single-use, prescriptive sets or scenarios, rather than allowing for open-ended play.
Ephemeral architecture in a small box. Kits of stacking or modular lightweight parts and fragments. Architectural styles and precedents from around the world. Endless possibilities for wholes in danger of imminent collapse. Miniature structures, buildings, entire cities are erected, demolished and resurrected...in an hour. The child is the architect, designer, structural engineer, builder, client and guest critic.
Download exhibit title banner here.
Building Toys - Architecture on the Red Carpet
BridgmanCollaborative’s TOYLab partnered with the University of Manitoba Faculty of Architecture and Brazil's Science Without Borders program to mount an architectural and building toys on exhibition, at the Arch 2 Gallery, Faculty of Architecture, University of Manitoba (18 September - 17 October, 2014).
The exhibition of building toys represents a long history of design, collaboration, creation, storytelling, modelling, experimentation, testing, tinkering, making and recycling for those who invent and make such toys, and for those who play with them.
The 20th century and beyond can be called The Age of Toys. Ideas about childhood as a time for learning and education – and a time for play – intersected with ideas about architecture, the design of cities, growth and material wealth. The post-war building boom paralleled building toy inventions galore. Toys are not just fun and games, in other words. They have become big business. According to the Toy Industry Association, within the U.S. domestic market alone, toys now generate sales of $24 billion annually (excluding digital games), with building toys generating approximately $2 billion. Increasingly, toys appear to feature single-use, prescriptive sets or scenarios, rather than allowing for open-ended play.
Ephemeral architecture in a small box. Kits of stacking or modular lightweight parts and fragments. Architectural styles and precedents from around the world. Endless possibilities for wholes in danger of imminent collapse. Miniature structures, buildings, entire cities are erected, demolished and resurrected...in an hour. The child is the architect, designer, structural engineer, builder, client and guest critic.
Download exhibit title banner here.