Showing posts with label toy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label toy. Show all posts
Ludic Architecture - the book
In 2017 I organized the Ludic Architecture congress at FAUP. Now I would like to share the whole book to spread it's contents. Sorry about the several languages, indeed I did not translated the entire book yet. It's one of the next steps... enjoy!
Thanks to Colexio Oficial de Arquitectos Galicia for hosting the PDF file.
Architectural Toys Course at FAUP 2017/18
One more teaching experience at FAUP in the Architectural Toys Course during the academic year 2017/18. And some more very interesting results made by the students that attended the course.
The first work is based on Aldo Rossi architecture and was developed by the student Silvia Scandola. It is a construction set made by simple and colored shapes, very close to the famous Italian architect's language. Even the box was designed as a part of the toy with nine separated spaces to pack the pieces after the use.
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| The pieces |
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| The box cover |
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| The box interior |
The second work I would like to present is by the student Lucie Adoud and is a very simple idea using the Velcro technology (few peoples know that Velcro is a patented product https://www.velcro.com/). Several sticks made by foam and wraped by Velcro can be easily jointed creating several different geometries, structures and shapes.
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| The toy |
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| An example of structure |
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| Another example |
The third toy is designed by Kathrin Benstem and it is inspired in the traditional tiled of the city of Porto. Kathrin created a toy through which it is possible to create the patterns that are used in the facades of Porto using stamps and ink. Is is very simple and easy to use and the results are always different. You can combine different stamps for different patterns. Beside that, all the toy has a vintage style that can really combine with the tiles tradition.
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| The toy |
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| The stamps |
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| Some results |
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| The kit |
The last work is by Mariana da Silva Ribeiro & Mariana Pereira Campos that created the "MagnetHouse - to build and color". The toy is based on magnetic joints between some simple volumes, made by steel sheet, and magnetic elements that simulate different materials.
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| The box made by the steel sheet volumes and the magnetic pieces |
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| The volumes can create a building |
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| The final result with the materials |
Juguetes de construcción (Escuela de la arquitectura moderna)
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| Juan Bordes © |
From
"Esta exposición analiza, a través de planos, bocetos, apuntes y
objetos, el influjo de los juguetes de construcción en la historia de la
arquitectura moderna. Existe, en opinión del educador suizo Heinrich
Pestalozzi (1746-1827), una cierta pulsión infantil por la construcción,
por la imitación de edificios con materiales cotidianos. De ahí la
fascinación especial, en los niños, hacia los juegos de construcción.
Estos comenzaron a fabricarse como derivación de los bloques que desde
finales del siglo XVIII se utilizaban para enseñar matemáticas,
geometría y dibujo; para visualizar operaciones abstractas.
Los fabricantes advirtieron las extraordinarias posibilidades de
estos nuevos juguetes y comenzaron a producir variantes en madera y
cartón, y posteriormente en piedra, metal y plástico. Fue el pedagogo
alemán Frederich Froebel (1782–1852) quien introdujo estos juegos en su
elaborado programa docente de las escuelas infantiles, en la medida en
que ayudaban a explorar en profundidad el razonamiento espacial, el
pensamiento analítico y el diseño creativo."
Future + Toy Design Workshop at UABB - Urbanism\Architecture Bi-city Biennale Shenzhen
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| Conference poster |
The agreement is almost done, the first group of students will travel to Shenzhen in March 2016 and I must confess that I'm very proud because I consider this agreement as a big step for new relationships between the Faculty of Architecture of Porto and other foreign institutions putting the FAUP in the leading world framework of schools.
Meanwhile I was there, during a meeting at the Shenzhen Center for Design, they invited me to organize a toy design workshop during the opening week of UABB (Urbanism\Architecture Bi-city Biennale Shenzhen). When I got back to Porto I soon start working on this idea and I thought that it would be better to deeply involve the Faculty in the UABB. So from September to December I organized the FAUP participation to the Biennale and 2 conferences besides the toy design workshop (here the link to the course presentation)... three really crazy months, for sure, but finally everything was done!
The chinese experience was absolutely amazing, from every point of view. Professionally, for sure, it is always a great experience because when we lecture in a different cultural environment, we really learn a lot. But also from the personal point of view it was highly enriching because I met good friends in a fantastic human ambiance.
Starting with a "long" lecture in order to introduce the students to the main aspects of toy design, the course continued during five days. During this week participants developed their own prototypes and, on Wednesday, we organized a visit to two spaces: a wooden workshop and a toy factory near Shenzhen (near Shenzhen means something like 2,5 hours by car...). A very good experience for the students that finally realized how dolls are made.
Finally, on friday, we organized a final presentation and each participant presented hits own toys to the audience by a powerpoint presentation.
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| Some ideas and models in the very beginning |
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| Some prototypes |
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| Other prototypes |
MYTHO - mythologická stavebnice / mythological construction set
Of course some exhibition was about Ladislav Sutnar, his graphic and industrial design works, painting and, for sure, toys. The three exhibitions are part of the project The Return of Ladislav Sutnar which comprises a number of activities, in which Sutnar's work will gradually, during the course of 2015, be presented to the public. But all of them absolutely unmissable.
As a teacher is a really great proud when your student start his journey by himself. Is some kind of circle that, finally, reaches its final shape. Congratulation Pavla!
Here the official site: http://www.kutulu.cz
ArtCamp 2015 in Pilsen
One more
time I’ll have been in Pilsen at Ladislav Sutnar Faculty of art and design for
the ArtCamp 2015. One more time I loved the experience in that inspiring city
and school with a great class of students coming from all around the world.
As it happened
last year, after a first approach made by lecturing a class about some
theoretical topics, students started developing their own proposals with great results.
It is
always quite interesting to see how each cultural background can influence the toy design processes. Indeed 11 students from different countries, since Czech
Republic to Slovakia, Poland, USA, Japan and
China, developed toys that, in different ways, represent their own countries, traditions and personal skills.
Honorata, from Lodz University of Technology in Poland, developed a toy based on stamps technology. An A4 format box contains paper sheets with trees images that can be completed with leaves, birds, fruits, etc... The final result are images with a high artistic quality also because the gradual ink attenuation during the process.
Rachel, from USA, is a jewelery designer created a kind of mountable doll house that has a simple and abstract language based on simply volumes and colors. The player can change the configuration and create easily several different building for different scenarios.
Moe, from Japan, was interested in infant toys so she worked on two toys for early ages. One is a rattle with smooth forms and nice colors. The other is a small construction kit based on dragons and stars images that can be easily build. Moe worked also on packaging and marketing design improving a bag for both toys and a catalog that help to understand how they works.
Also Sylwia and Monika came from Lodz in Poland. Sylwia and she worked on a changeable figure based on a wooden sliced cylinder. Rotating the different slices you can change the body configuration between several variations. The technology is quite interesting because it can be used with other subjects as animals or even graphic combinations.
Monika, created a toy based on the kaleidoscope technology. A truncated pyramid with, inside, mirrors that reflect each other creating great optical effects. Besides it is possible to put inside the volume other accessories as other mirrors or panels in order to improve the reflection effects.
Monika, created a toy based on the kaleidoscope technology. A truncated pyramid with, inside, mirrors that reflect each other creating great optical effects. Besides it is possible to put inside the volume other accessories as other mirrors or panels in order to improve the reflection effects.
Muyi came from the Tokyo Art School and was fascinated by birds, their colors and shapes. So she designed a series of three bird with vivid colors and movements. She used steel springs in order to joint the body parts made by styrofoam and allow the head shake in a very funny neck moving.
Sarah, a student from Ladislav Sutnar Faculty, started very soon with two toys: one based on balance and the other on patterns. The first toy that ca be used as a game by several peoples because exist a stick where each one should put one of the many colored pieced that are delivered with toy. Each piece has a different weight (with a color code) and a different size so players have to carefully choose the piece and its position. The other toy can be a solitaire or a game and it is a kind of puzzle made by cubes painted with four different patterns that you can joint together following the same color configuration.
Magdalena, also from Ladislav Sutnar Faculty, worked on the hat idea. Indeed her toy is a changeable magic hat that can be wear by the children creating a new character. Beside the hat is always an important accessory for kids because is something quite unusual in the normal dress code and can be used as a very meaningful object symbolizing a profession or a special social condition.
Andrea, from Ladislav Sutnar Faculty, love to sew and this passion is visible in her toy. The main idea is a series of animals that are oviparous (animals that lay eggs, with little or no other embryonic development within the mother). So she created four animals - a snake, a snail, a fish and a tortoise - that you can reverse and turn into an egg.
Petr, the unique man in a a women's class, was interested in an object that could change the space around the kid. He invented a seat that can be used as projector in a dark room creating shadows and other light effects. In this way the player can not only understand some basic knowledge about shadows but also play with his own environment.
Finally Jana, one more student from Ladislav Sutnar Faculty, designed a kind of puppets that can be mounted in a large number of ways. Eyes, ears, arms, legs, horns, etc.. are all connectable with a main body in order to create funny monsters or strange creatures. All is painted with vivid colors and dots and fit in a colored box. At the end of the workshop a child appeared in the school and start enjoying with Jana's toy, the best test each toy designer could deserve!
See you at ArtCamp 2016!
SEI - Sociedade Escola Investigação
Last week was finally presented the works made by the students from the Soares dos Reis School of Arts in Porto in the context of an agreement between the Porto City Council and the Faculty of Architeture of the University of Porto (represented by me).
It was a good opportunity in order to work, one more time, on the architectural toys issue with young students from an excellent school of arts. The Soares dos Reis is an incredibly well equipped teaching institution where several very good professors are lecturing almost all the arts and art-crafts skills. So it was a pleasure to join a strong team for a new project like that.
This video was made by Nuno Beire (http://www.amatilha.com) in order to communicate the state of the project after some months because it will end later (I'll keep you update).
Anuária exposition at FAUP - Architectural Toys course
Every year the FAUP organize an exposition with some student's works of all the courses. This year we also organized some interviews (spoken in portuguese) with professors in order to better explain the exercises and the underlying theory.
Here the video about my course, Architectural Toys:
http://www.ctchannel.tv/video/226
Here the video about my course, Architectural Toys:
http://www.ctchannel.tv/video/226
Architectural Toys course at FAUP 2014/2015
One more edition of my course Architectural Toys at FAUP (faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto) is over. Also this year I had a lot of enrolled students and some very interesting works were produced, let me show you some of them.
Ana Filipa Dias work is based on the urban scale in a very simple and intuitive way: a black board (made by slat) with chalk and some wooden volumes. The child can sketch a city with streets, green areas or water and put on it some buildings in order to understand concepts like urban scale, density, street or block.
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| Ana Filipa Dias - The Poster |
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| Ana Filipa Dias - The prototype |
Bruna Nunes focused on a specific element: the small shelter Le cabanon by Le Corbusier. It was built between 1951-1952 is where Le Corbusier preferred to spend summers in the months of August and September. The small building was designed based on the "Modulor" a system of measures directly related to the human scale, invented by Le Corbusier. The child can learn about measures, proportions and space playing with this model, a kind of doll house, that is openable in different ways in order to allow interact with it.
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| Bruna Nunes - The poster |
The toy designed by Catarina Brites is based on a tridimensional optic effect. Indeed with plan surfaces child can create several different volumes, even buildings. It is very simple and cheap, can made by a printed sheet of paper, but with a strong visual effect. One of the most interesting aspect is that the child can make several mistakes and through them create new and unsuspected shapes. So the mistake can really be part of the creative process.
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| Catarina Brites - The poster |
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| Catarina Brites - The prototype |
Guilherme Oliveira designed a toy for space creation. It is based on a wooden board where the child can insert different walls and create interior and exterior space in a simple way. Changing the wall material, like transparent or not unique materials, the child can experience different spaces and relations.
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| Guilherme Oliveira - The prototype |
Indira Nunes fell in love with the Charles and Ray Eames toy "THE TOY" and decided to create a new version. The result was quite interesting manly because she understood the real complexity of that toy and of the producing technologies involved.
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| Indira Nunes - The poster |
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| Indira Nunes - The prototype |
Joana Bicas worked on a stamps system. Based on Le Corbusier work she developed a kit with a book and stamps that the child can use in the proper way. So behind an aesthetic value based on a specific figure of the architecture, the use of this toy develops scale comprehension and perspective understanding. Also in this toy the mistake can be a learning source because it can provides new and unexpected solutions.
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| Joana Bicas - The Poster |
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| Joana Bicas - The prototype |
Jolan Haidinger designed a wooden construction set with vivid colors and a specific shape. It is always a very stuff challenge because it is quite difficult to find a shape that should be at the same time simple and complex enough to allow the creation of several tridimensional figures.
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| Jolan Haidinger - The poster |
Julien Ponsar made a structure that can be used in several ways and position in order to create different spaces where the child can move, interact or simply stay. The structure, made by steel or aluminum, can be combined with tissue or other materials and can be easily mounted in a garden or in a public space.
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| Julien Ponsar - The Poster |
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| Julien Ponsar - The model |
Also the work of Lise Kerdraon is for exterior use. Based on flexible sticks that are threaded in a tissue to create a tent that can assume several different configurations for different uses. The tissue can be elastic and tensioned between the sticks and has a very interesting shape determinated by the moutend elements.
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| Lise Kerdraon - the poster |
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| Lise Kerdraon - The prototype |
Robert Somod explored a technology based on wooden blocks and elastics connections to create a toy that can change it's own shape and create several figures. The technology was adapted to architecture to create an arc or other building elements, but can also be used for animals or other objects.
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| Robert Somod - The prototype |
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| Robert Somod - The prototype |
Finally (because the alphabetic order) I post the work of Sara Vila Cova. It is a construction set that use the small straws that come with the beverages. With a simple connection system the child can build wire-frame structures. Sara also developed a packaging idea for promote her toy that is quite simple: just put in each pack a small plastic bag with some connection and a short description.
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| Sara Vila Cova - The prototype |
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