Introduction and translation by Sibyl Moholy-Nagy
Download the PDF file here.
Paul Klee - Pedagogical Sketchbook
Introduction and translation by Sibyl Moholy-Nagy
Download the PDF file here.
The child and play - Theoretical approaches and teaching applications
From the preface:
"This report is primarily intended for teachers and teacher-trainers; it may also be found useful by ethnologists, sociologists and psychologists who are interested in child behaviour. It is divided into three main sections: an analysis of play activities from an anthropological, sociological arid pedagogical point of view, case studies conducted in a number of Member States over the past few years, and, finally, proposed working instruments and models for those who might wish to use in their teaching, methods and materials based on the games or toys of their particular environment. A brief bibliography completes the study."
You can download the PDF document from the UNESCO site: here.
"This report is primarily intended for teachers and teacher-trainers; it may also be found useful by ethnologists, sociologists and psychologists who are interested in child behaviour. It is divided into three main sections: an analysis of play activities from an anthropological, sociological arid pedagogical point of view, case studies conducted in a number of Member States over the past few years, and, finally, proposed working instruments and models for those who might wish to use in their teaching, methods and materials based on the games or toys of their particular environment. A brief bibliography completes the study."
You can download the PDF document from the UNESCO site: here.
Architectural Toys - Processos Complementares de Reprodução Disciplinar em Arquitectura
The next academical year (2012/2013) I'll teach a new course at the FAUP called "Architectural Toys - Processos Complementares de Reprodução Disciplinar em Arquitectura". It will work during a semester from September to January.
So this blog will be used also as a platform to spread ideas, bibliography or other kind of information both for students or to the general public.
You can find more information following this link.
Once upon a time... Joseph Maria Olbrich and the Princess Elizabeth
Once upon a time, more specifically in 1902, the Grand Duke of Hesse Ernest Louis Charles Albert William, was the older brother of Alexandra of Hesse, better known as Alexandra Feodorovna, the last emperor of the Russian Empire and, as it seemed, an unusual beautiful woman. Better known as Erni, the Grand Duke was a very powerful man with an intense life and a very active military career. He earned several titles through his two marriages: the first with the english crown and the second with the russian crown.
Although he was one of the european sovereign with more titles, the Grand Duke lived a reserved and family dedicated life; far from the many big happenings that, at the time, were crossing almost all the european countries. But notwithstanding wanting to live a calm life, almost bourgeois like, Ernie had an unfortunate existence because of the numerous deaths that happened around him. This unlucky series began when he was two years old, in 1873, and attended to his older brother Friedrich violent dead. Friedrich at the time was 5 years old and fell from a window suffering a cerebral lesion that was impossible to heal because he was hemophiliac (a genetic disease very often present among the european monarchies). Since that moment death visited Ernie with a terrible frequency and he got the fear to die in solitude. The life of this man was so tragic that it is common know as “the Hesse fate”.
Although he was one of the european sovereign with more titles, the Grand Duke lived a reserved and family dedicated life; far from the many big happenings that, at the time, were crossing almost all the european countries. But notwithstanding wanting to live a calm life, almost bourgeois like, Ernie had an unfortunate existence because of the numerous deaths that happened around him. This unlucky series began when he was two years old, in 1873, and attended to his older brother Friedrich violent dead. Friedrich at the time was 5 years old and fell from a window suffering a cerebral lesion that was impossible to heal because he was hemophiliac (a genetic disease very often present among the european monarchies). Since that moment death visited Ernie with a terrible frequency and he got the fear to die in solitude. The life of this man was so tragic that it is common know as “the Hesse fate”.
Maybe it was because this deep sadness that followed him and that he would never be able to free himself during his own life that Ernie always kept a prudent political behavior. In this intellectual mediocrity the only context of which he really liked and in which he became active was the art field. He, himself even wrote poems, plays and musical compositions and, in 1901, he founded the Darmstadt Artists' Colony when he invited several celebrities from different countries in Europe to teach or even to participate in a cultural project that still exists today. Despite not having the same importance that already once had, Darmstadt still has its fame of university and cultural city thanks to this heritage. Two years after been founded, the Colony inaugurated his first exhibition with the title “Ein Dokument deutscher Kunst” (a document of german art). This exposition was a financial disaster; a huge quantity of money was wasted to build buildings and to sponsor the artists without a minimum return. So, still today, Darmstadt has a series of really fantastic examples of architecture designed by figures as Peter Behrens or Joseph Maria Olbrich. Olbrich design also several houses for the 1901 exposition in Darmstadt. At the time the building was used as art galleries to expose the works of the plastic artists as painters or sculptors.
The austrian architect Joseph Maria Olbrich (1867 - 1908) was precisely one of the architect invited by the Grand Duke Ernie. He was one of the most important artist of the Vienna Secession with Gustav Klimt, Josef Hoffmann and Koloman Moser, and designed, between 1897 and 1898, one of the most enigmatic buildings of the beginning of the XXth century: the Secession building in Vienna, Austria. This artistic movement, that emerged at the end of XIX century and continued until the first decades of the XXth century, represented one among the several european forms of modernity. Characterized by the artistic autonomy with a need of rupture with the past, the Secession was, in a first period, an heritage of the Art Nouveau and, in a second period, an approximation to the languages and forms of the Modernism.
The Grand Duke Ernest liked so much the Olbrich’s works that, in his second marriage (with the princess Leonor de Solms-Hohensolms-Lich) commissioned him the design for a building that become known as the “wedding tower” in Darmstadt. A brick tower with a roof shaped as five fingers of a hand extended across the sky.
But the tower was the second architectural design that Ernie requested to Olbrich. The first was in 1902, when the Grand Duke was still married with the Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1876 – 1936) with which he had a daughter Elizabeth, in 1895, and a stillborn son in 1901.
But the tower was the second architectural design that Ernie requested to Olbrich. The first was in 1902, when the Grand Duke was still married with the Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1876 – 1936) with which he had a daughter Elizabeth, in 1895, and a stillborn son in 1901.
Ernie had a true devotion for his daughter Elizabeth, even before she began to talk the Grand Duke was convinced that he was the only person able to understand what she said. A legend says that when she was a 6 month child her father asked to her which colors she should prefer to paint the room. When he showed her a purple fabric she screamed and that was interpreted by her father as a signal to choose the color and it was soon ordered that the child room should BE painted in purples shades.
In 1901 the little Elizabeth’s parents divorced and her mother moved to Coburg, Bavaria with her new husband, the Grand Duke Cyril Vladimirovich of Russia with which she already had a relationship before the divorce. The Grand Duchess Victoria did not have patience for the child, so she usually was entrusted to the nurses. This emotional distance made the child wanting no more to travel to Coburg. In his memories the father remembers that IT was very difficult to convince his daughter to meet her mother; each time she was departing he found her crying hidden behind the couch.
In December 1901 the Hesse court finally granted the divorced to the couple allowing that, four years later, Erine marriaged again, this time with the Princess Eleonore of Solms-Hohensolms-Lich that gave him two children. Even the birth of two children did not save the Grad Duke from the charges of his anterior wife about to be an absent husband because of the several homosexual affairs that already had ruining the relationship.
On March 11th, 1902 Elizabeth completed seven years of life and her father, the Grand Duke, asked Olbrich to design a garden house for her. The house should be exclusively for the girl and the chosen place was the garden of the castle of Wolfsgarten in Langen, a small town between Frankfurt and Darmstadt. At that time the architect was 36 years old and had no children but showed a great sensibility designing a child scale little house with the same effort that he would have in any other, even bigger, commission.
The house was designed and built in a perfect Art Nouveau style. With a parlor, a living room and two bedrooms it had everything that could be necessary in a real home: a kitchen with wood-burning stove, scaled furniture, curtain, tableware and a little fenced garden around with 75 brass doves as ornament as symbol of peace and Holy Spirit. The interior ceiling was 1.90 meters high and in the pediment, under a golden crow, was painted, also with gold, the letter E of Elizabeth. Also on the roof there was a crow as a royalty symbol and in the pediment there was a phrase: “Once upon a time … (...) and this little house is mine, built just for me in 1902”
The house was designed and built in a perfect Art Nouveau style. With a parlor, a living room and two bedrooms it had everything that could be necessary in a real home: a kitchen with wood-burning stove, scaled furniture, curtain, tableware and a little fenced garden around with 75 brass doves as ornament as symbol of peace and Holy Spirit. The interior ceiling was 1.90 meters high and in the pediment, under a golden crow, was painted, also with gold, the letter E of Elizabeth. Also on the roof there was a crow as a royalty symbol and in the pediment there was a phrase: “Once upon a time … (...) and this little house is mine, built just for me in 1902”
Olbrich also designed the furniture, the decoration and the wallpaper. Even in the wallpaper it is possible to find the letter E inserted in a very Art nouveau geometric pattern. In 1996 the house was totally refurbished and it is today the only Olbrich’s building that is in rigorously in the same conditions as the conditions it had when built. The access was banned to adults and Elisabeth spent her days surrounded by pets with the educators and the nurses that patiently waited outside until the little princess ended her play.
Although she received a princely gift that still exists today, the little Elisabeth could not escape to the Hesse’s curse. In the November 6 of 1903, 8 years old and perfectly conscious about what was happening to her, she died with typhoid. The body was carried in a silver coffin and her father required a completed white funeral, from flowers to horses, all had to be white.
Although she received a princely gift that still exists today, the little Elisabeth could not escape to the Hesse’s curse. In the November 6 of 1903, 8 years old and perfectly conscious about what was happening to her, she died with typhoid. The body was carried in a silver coffin and her father required a completed white funeral, from flowers to horses, all had to be white.
The year following the death of the little Elisabeth, her governess, the baroness Georgina Freiin von Rotsmann wrote a book for children in memory of the princess. She wrote the story and asked Olbrich to draw the figures. The book’s title was “Once upon a time...” and looking for its images it is clearly possible to recognize the little house that Olbrich designed for the princess.
Four years later Olbrich died of leukemia. The princess Victoria, Elisabeth’s mother, died in 1936 with a heart stroke caused by the news that her husband, the Grand Duke Cyril Vladimirovich of Russia, spent life traveling to Paris where he had several mistresses.
The princess Leonor, the Grand Duke Ernest second wife, died the following year in a plain crash. She was travelling to join to her younger son Louis of Hesse’s marriage. In the same accident also died her older son, Jorge, her daughter-in-law, the Princess Cecilie of Greece and Denmark, at the time 8 months pregnant, and her two grandchildren Louis and Alexander. The plane in which they were traveling collided with a factory chimney near Ostend in Belgium and who rushed immediately after the accident said that between the wreckage there was a fetus indicating that the child was born even before the accident.
In 1918, during the WWI, was proposed to the Grand Duke Ernest to abdicate the throne but he refused. Later, during the same year, the cities of Darmstadt and Hesse were included in the Weimar Republic and the title of Grand Duke was abolished. So Erni has survived all the protagonists of this story and died alone in 1937 at the age of 69 years.
Some references:
http://www.architekt-giel.de/
http://mainzauber.de/blog10/
http://romanov.blogs.sapo.pt/
Four years later Olbrich died of leukemia. The princess Victoria, Elisabeth’s mother, died in 1936 with a heart stroke caused by the news that her husband, the Grand Duke Cyril Vladimirovich of Russia, spent life traveling to Paris where he had several mistresses.
The princess Leonor, the Grand Duke Ernest second wife, died the following year in a plain crash. She was travelling to join to her younger son Louis of Hesse’s marriage. In the same accident also died her older son, Jorge, her daughter-in-law, the Princess Cecilie of Greece and Denmark, at the time 8 months pregnant, and her two grandchildren Louis and Alexander. The plane in which they were traveling collided with a factory chimney near Ostend in Belgium and who rushed immediately after the accident said that between the wreckage there was a fetus indicating that the child was born even before the accident.
In 1918, during the WWI, was proposed to the Grand Duke Ernest to abdicate the throne but he refused. Later, during the same year, the cities of Darmstadt and Hesse were included in the Weimar Republic and the title of Grand Duke was abolished. So Erni has survived all the protagonists of this story and died alone in 1937 at the age of 69 years.
Some references:
http://www.architekt-giel.de/
http://mainzauber.de/blog10/
http://romanov.blogs.sapo.pt/
Arthur Carrara and the magnetic toys
Arthur Carrara was born in Chicago in 1914. Son of an Italian immigrant that worked in a clay manufacture that provided ornamental parts for the buildings designed by the famous north american architect Louis Sullivan (1856-1924). Since he was a young boy Arthur manifested a very strong interest for architecture and, in 1931, he visited with his school class an exposition about Frank Lloyd Wright and attended to his famous lecture "To the Young Man in Architecture", delivered at the Art Institute of Chicago. Later he would state that this lecture was one of the most important and determinant moment for his own professional life. Carrara began his studies in architecture and engineering at the University of Illinois and graduated in 1937. After the conclusion of his academic formation he worked a short period as drawer in the John van Bergen’s office, a Frank Lloyd Wright’s collaborator.
During the World War II Carrara served in the army of United States of America in the Pacific Ocean area as topographer. He also was charged for the design of some logistical support buildings in Australia and in the Philippines.
In 1943, when he was in Australia, the local government demands to him the design for the Café Borranical, a very complex moving structure inserted in a botanical garden on the Yarra River cost, near Melbourne. This project represented the opportunity for the architect to experience some ideas about the application of hydraulics and magnetic systems in the buildings construction. The solution was a central plan that looks like a flower whose petals were platforms that, moving down and up, changed the building form increasing its surface.
In 1944, with the rank of Major in the army, was invited by the Philippines’s City Planning Commission to design the urban plan of Manila and Cebu. This two cities were bombed during the bigger urban battle of the Pacific war. 95% of Manila, at the time under japonese domain, was raised between 3rd February and 3rd March 1945 during a battle that was compared, for its violence, to the Warsaw destruction or to the Stalingrad battle.
In 1946 Carrara returned to Chicago where he opened an architectural office. He made several projects for houses, service buildings, expositions and designed some industrial products like furniture and lights. Later, the increasing workloads justified, in 1965, to open a second office in Buffalo in the state of New York. In his work it is possible to recognize both influences of Prairie Houses style by Frank Lloyd Wright, Modern Movement canons and some high-tech experiences.
In 1943, when he was in Australia, the local government demands to him the design for the Café Borranical, a very complex moving structure inserted in a botanical garden on the Yarra River cost, near Melbourne. This project represented the opportunity for the architect to experience some ideas about the application of hydraulics and magnetic systems in the buildings construction. The solution was a central plan that looks like a flower whose petals were platforms that, moving down and up, changed the building form increasing its surface.
In 1946 Carrara returned to Chicago where he opened an architectural office. He made several projects for houses, service buildings, expositions and designed some industrial products like furniture and lights. Later, the increasing workloads justified, in 1965, to open a second office in Buffalo in the state of New York. In his work it is possible to recognize both influences of Prairie Houses style by Frank Lloyd Wright, Modern Movement canons and some high-tech experiences.
Carrara arrived to the idea to adopt magnetism in building construction before the war period when he had thought about the possibility to create structural joins for metallic building that could be done by this system. However, given the weakness of the magnets at the time, this project never left the paper. At the end of 1940 was found the Alnico, an iron alloy with Aluminum, Nickel and Cobalt beyond other metals in smaller amount (the own name of the alloy is the combination of the main elements: Al, Ni, Co). This metal was discovered twenty years earlier during a military investigation looking for substitute electromagnets with permanent magnets. The magnetic field created by this alloy is so strong that it can support 1000 times its own weight; in this capability Carrara saw a really big potential to apply in his own projects.
So it is not really surprising that, in 1947, Carrara started a design of a toy that could show the power of magnetism and his possibilities for the architecture field. Having failed in the real building scale, Carrara decided to apply the magnetic technologies in a smaller scale, more specifically in a toy, a construction set for children.
The Magnet Master was desenvolved in a partnership between Arthur Carrara, his brother Reno and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. It was suggested, by the magazine Everyday Art Quarterly, as a toy for people of every age or intellectual conditions.
About the toy Carrara wrote, in the catalog of the exposition of 1960 at the Milwaukee Art Center: “Magnet Master grew out of my experiments with the new found magnetic and electromagnetic metals. Every idea of man is first employed as a toy or in a toy. Every scientific principle was at first presented in a toy form. Magnet Master grew out of a comprehensive study of man’s methods of fastening materials (...) joinery techniques. The uses inherent in Magnet Master for architecture and other fields are apparent. As a study method Magnet Master was first exhibited and manufactured with the tremendous encouragement and financial help of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, which deserves the credit or whatever popular acceptance this adventure has received. The unit shown here has been distributed around the world, it is hoped with some good effect. It has been expanded as an architectural concept for the first time in the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial”.
In the box there were no instructions because, as was written in its advertising brochure, “children are naturally imaginative and will derive greater pleasure and benefit when left to their own images and devices”. This idea was at the base of a promotional article published in the Look magazine of February 1949 where the famous painter Max Weber was photographed playing with Johnny, his own 11 years old son.
The toy was advertised in a lot of museums and educational institutions. There was a specimen in the children room in the Marcel Breuer prototype house built at the Moma in New York, in the exposition of 1949.
In 1960 Carrara participated in the competition for the Franklin Delano Roosevelt memorial with a proposal based on the investigations that he was developing for the Magnet Master design. It was a pyramid whit a suspended sphere by a magnetic field.
Although it received a strong commercial support and be associated with some of the most important artist of the time, for the Magnet Masted never arrived a real commercial success. Anyway it remained for us a real example of architectural toy paradigm.
Anne Tyng, Louis Kahn and the toys
It is very funny browsing antique issues to see the real ingenuity of certain inventions and, among them, the toys invented for the children. For a contemporary look some are really incredibly dangerous and today it would be impossible even to produce something like that. One example is a series of toys produced by Guilbert that contained radioactive and poisonous substances. In another case I already found advertising of a toy that was a little submarine where children could enter and navigate in small rivers or lakes... or little cannons perfectly functioning, to show to your sons how the artillery works... just incredible.
During a “visit” to some old issues of the Popular Mechanics Magazine I found an article about a project for a large scale building set that allow to construct toys or even furniture. It was a set of cut plywood parts, very ingenious, with a very functional and simple slot system without screws, nails, bolts or nuts. It was the August 1950 issue and among the pictures there was one of the author of the “make-it-and-brake-it” (that was the name): Anne Tyng.
This was not a complete stranger name for me but I could not remember where or when I have heard it. Anyway also my eight years old daughters know that with a Google page infront of us there are no more secrets or doubts...
So after a quick search almost everything was clear: Anne Griswold Tyng was born in 1920 in the city of Lushan, in the Kingsi chinese province. She was an architect and professor known, among other things, for her struggle for the woman emancipation in the artistic profession field. Anne always advocated the importance of women moving from the role of muse to release her own creative power and potential.
As the fourth daughter of an american episcopal missionary, in 1938 Anne took the chance of a family travel to United States (due to her father’s sabbatical year) to stay definitely in that country. After a graduation at the Radcliffe College Anne Tyng was, in 1942. one of the first women to receive a master degree in Architecture at the Harvard University, Massachusetts. In this faculty she came to be Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer assistant.
After her academic formation Tyng keep working in the Konrad Wachsmann office in New York, in the Van Doren, Nowland and Schladermundt design office and at Knoll Associates. The facts of Anne Tyng was a woman who learned architecture and worked with some so famous architects and offices should give to her a great place in the modern architecture history, but the reason that made her really famous was what happen after 1945.
In 1945 Tyng moved to Philadelphia and started working in the Louis Kahn office. At the time Kahn has still a partnership with Oscar Stonoron and Anne participates in several projects including the Philadelphia master plan (1946-52). In 1947 Kahn dissolved the partnership with Storonov and Tyng continued working with him until 1964. At that time Anne was a beautiful and smart 27 years old woman and Louis Kahn, as it will be demonstrated some years later, never could be able to resist these arguments. During this period she worked in several Kahn’s projects and, furthermore, get involved in a loving relationship with the architects which arose their daughter Alexandra. But the “family” that Louis create with Anne was just one of three families that this architect created and maintained during his own life.
The collaboration between Anne Tyng and Louis Kahn is clearly visible in buildings as the Yale University Art Gallery (1951-53), the Philadelphia City Tower (1952-57) or the Trenton Bath House (1955-56); all them strongly characterized for the geometric accuracy, for the typological investigation as for the architectural composition and the structural solutions.
About the relationship between Anne and Louise I would be able to write much more, both was really especial and rare peoples and about the love that join the couple you can find much more information in the letters exchanged between 1953 and 1954. In this period Anne went to Rome, the city where their daughter Alexandra was born. There is a compilation of the letters that were published in 1997 by Anne Tyng where it is possible to read the 53 letters that Kahn wrote to her weakly talking about love, architecture politics or colleges and common friends. Instead of writing more I prefer the portrait of this man made by the great movie My Architect realized by one of his own sons, Nathaniel. This documentary try to explain what happened to this magnific architect that mysteriously died in 1974, totally broken and completely alone.
After leaving the Kahn office, Anne Tyng continued to investigate the relation between geometry and architecture. Moreover she wrote several articles about urbanism and about her experience as a worker woman in a context dominated by men. In 1968 she began to teach courses about the geometrical order and the human scale in architecture at the University of Pennsylvania, where she remained until 1995.
In a so intensive life the toys were forgotten but the author that passes to history for others reasons, at the time gained certain notoriety with them. If we pay some attention to the article published on the Popular Mechanics Magazine connecting it with the historical context, we can understand that, indeed, the toys were something really innovative. It would be possible to say that they are at the level of some other contemporary toys as the Eames’s toys or the António Vitali’s toys (a swiss toy designer). Totally made by cutted plywood boards, the toys have complex shapes that could be jointed to make several of different objects. At the time plywood was a really innovative material, like carbon fiber or kevlar are today. It was a material used in the construction of building, furniture or used, during the World War II, to construct ships or lending vehicles. Really resistant but, at the same time, flexible; lightweight but durable to the elements, plywood was one of the most promissory material of the time. Even Charles Eames, in the decade of 194o, began to design and to produce his own famous plywood chairs that are still for sale today.
Beyond the use of playhood, the idea that the child could easily and quickly change his own environment and his own objects is something that, at the time, was particularly innovative. It was innovative because was perfectly tuned with his contemporary philosophical movements that were preaching the need for a radical change in the teaching paradigms. In this context John Dewey (1859-1952), an american philosopher, was on of the main responsables for the introduction of the Pragmatism in the educational practices. He advocated that the child learn more through the action and less through the observation or the study of theory. Accordingly was not real trivial to give to a child a changeble or manipulable object (Charles Eames’s “The Toy” began to be produced ten years later). Furthermore, the geometrical complexity of the parts and of the possible combinations proved the will of the author for sensitize the child to a geometric and compositive knowledge through the play or, in general, thought the occupation or action. She felt this need due to the dual and rare (for the time) role she had: architect and mother.
References:
http://www.philadelphiabuildings.org/pab/app/ar_display.cfm/21436
http://www.upenn.edu/gazette/0107/feature1_3.html
http://daddytypes.com/2009/10/13/holy_smokes_its_the_tyng_toy.php
Takefumi Aida – from the blocks to the houses
In the past I had already wrote about this architect in a post about the “Architectural design” review that published the results of a dolls house competition held in 1983. In fact Takefumi Aida was the second prize winner with a very interesting proposal of a dolls house made by elementary volumes like cubes, cylinders and pyramids. At that time I discovered that Aida designed a group of houses called “Toy Blocks Houses” where he adopted an architectural language based on the toy blocks in a larger size. So I thought that it would be interesting to know more about these houses and periodically I was searching more information in the internet without great results. In October I decided to try to write a mail directly to architect Aida; to my surprise he replied me soon and sent me several publications about the houses. So, here I am.
Until now, in the other posts, I used to talk about the influences that the architectural culture had in the childhood word. For me was important to observe and analyze the way that architects looked to the children and to the childhood along history.
In this specific case we face the opposite way process: the Aida’s houses show how the childhood culture (that is influenced by architectural culture) can, in its turn, influence an architectural design process. It is not the unique example (I remember the UNI-SET Corporation and its TV set design or the relation between the kites and the houses in the Charles Eames’s architecture, among others) but maybe this is the more obvious and clear of all them.
So, like most of the architects, he look for an intellectual and formal substructure that could feed his own design experience. He finds this substructure in the toy blocks because, as he said “architecture is produced within the framework of restrictions and conditions characteristics of an era, just as toy blocks are played within the framework of certain given condition”.
In the same text, further, Aida talk about the importance of the possibility that toy blocks have in the creative process and in the education. The reference to Roland Barthes is direct especially when we remember that the French philosopher wrote: “The merest set of blocks, provided it is not too refined, implies very different learning of the world: then the child does not in any way create meaningful objects, it matters little to him whether they have an adult name, the actions he performs are not those of a user, but those of demiurge. He creates forms which walk, which roll, he creates life, not property: objects now act by themselves, they are no longer an inert and complicated material in the palm of his hand” (Barthes, Roland. 1972. Mythologies. New York: Hill and Wang. 52.). Blocks as a complete free thinking tool and not as parts of a pre-built object or artifact.
Since 1974 Takefumi Aida designed a series of nine toy block houses, a dolls house and a wood toy, all based on the same geometrical roles derived from the toy blocks system. All the houses are based on elementary solids like cubes, cylinders prisms and parallelepipeds joined together avoiding penetrations or overlapping between them. The results are building that look like huge toys constructions.
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| Toy Blocks House I |
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| Toy Blocks House III |
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| Toy Blocks House IV |
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| Toy Blocks HouseV |
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| Toy Blocks HouseVII |
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| Toy Blocks HouseVIII |
The Toy Blocks House IX is not a real house, it is the doll’s house about which I have already spoken in my other article. It would be easily a scale model to help the creation of a Toy Blocks House. The unique aspect that leaves me curious is the way the architect painted the blocks because it is very different from the white and gray tone used in the houses. Maybe the transferring process from the toys to architecture changed direction and he tried to represent the plaster’s surface in a small scale….
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| Toy Blocks House X |
I think that the Aida’s Toy Blocks Houses are a clear example about the possibility to see each building, or each architecture, as a sum of parts, as an union of several shapes. In his houses Aida turn this relation very evident and explicit building some pedagogical values. What is more interesting maybe is not the finally result but the methodological process that leads to the result. This is the main pedagogical value: to show how the building is created and designed, to show that exists a method, despite the quality of the method.
References:
Aida, Takefumi. 1984. Tsumiki no ie. Tōkyō: Maruzen.
Aida, Takefumi. 1986. Space and concept. Contemporary 1. Architecture in Drawing. Nakagyoku Kyoto: Dohosha Publishing Co Ltd.
Site:
http://www.kt.rim.or.jp
Imagination Playground
From the Rockwellgroup's site: "Imagination Playground is a breakthrough playspace concept designed pro-bono by David Rockwell to encourage child-directed, unstructured free play. With a focus on loose parts, Imagination Playground offers a changing array of elements that allows children to constantly reconfigure their environment and to design their own course of play. Giant foam blocks, mats, wagons, fabric and crates overflow with creative potential for children to play, dream, build and explore endless possibilities."
URL: www.imaginationplayground.com
URL: www.imaginationplayground.com
Toys of the Avant-Garde
Existem brinquedos que nunca poderão ser encontrados na Toys"R"Us ou noutra loja qualquer por muito fornecida ou exclusiva que seja. Peças únicas construídas por alguns entre os grandes artistas do século XX.
Já tive oportunidade de escrever sobre alguns destes objectos em outros textos: os circos de Alexandre Calder, as construções de Latislav Sutnar, os brinquedos de Charles Eames ou ainda os “gifts” de Froebel, mas existem muitos mais de muitos outros autores. Alguns foram feitos para os próprios filhos, como é o caso dos bonecos de Picasso, outros na tentativa de serem vendidos e outros ainda como meras especulações formais. Todos contam uma história onde a arte e a infância se encontram.
O livro Toys of the Avant-Garde é o resultado de uma exposição no Museu Picasso em Málaga, patente entre 4 de Outubro de 2010 e 30 de Janeiro de 2011, a mesma exposição em que foram expostas as peças da colecção do escultor espanhol Juan Bordes que podem ser vistas no fantástico livro “La infancia de las vanguardias: sus profesores desde Rousseau a la Bauhaus”.
Os brinquedos são abordados e tratados como verdadeiras obras de arte e como objectos de confluência de diferentes narrativas históricas. Arquitectura, design industrial, pintura, escultura ou design gráfico são só alguns dos âmbitos pelos quais os 8 ensaios, acompanhados por excelentes imagens, passam e cruzam informações com as teorias pedagógicas que dominaram a primeira metade do século XX. Um sector importante e muito interessante de uma cultura material que marcou, mesmo que silenciosamente, inteiras gerações.
Em suma, um excelente livro para começara a compreender como a arte soube mediar a complexa relação que existe entre o universo dos adultos e o das crianças.
Toys of the Avant-Garde, Museo Picasso Málaga, 2010, 384 p.
Barbie Dream House
Em Abril publiquei um post sobre a recente decisão da Mattel em criar uma Barbie arquitecta no seguimento da operação “I can be…” - pouco tempo depois a produtora de brinquedos norte-americana ter anunciado que a “carrer of the year 2011” seria, justamente, arquitectura, associando-se à AIA (American Institute of Architects) na promoção de um concurso chamado “Architect Barbie Dream House Competition”.
A ideia de uma casa para a Barbie não é certamente nova, já na década de 1960 havia a possibilidade de comprar uma verdadeira mansão ricamente mobilada e com todos os luxos para a boneca que, na altura, simbolizava a sociedade de consumo, a modernidade e a emancipação da mulher. Desta vez a Mattel promoveu o lançamento do concurso na tentativa de contrariar as notícias embaraçosas que, em Junho de 2011, tinham sido divulgadas pela organização não governamental Greenpeace. No dia 7 os activistas desenrolaram da cobertura das instalações da Mattel na California enormes cartazes onde aparecia Ken de cara triste que declarava “I don’t date girls that are into deforestation”. A acusação da Greenpeace tinha a ver com o facto da Mattel ter comprado a materia-prima para as suas embalagens da companhia Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), do grupo Sinar Mas. Este grupo foi acusado, sempre pela Greenpeace, de ser o maior destruidor da floresta virgem da Indonésia. No seguimento destas acusações, as empresas Carrefour, Staples, Office Depot e Woolworths pararam de comprar o papel da APP.
Com uma manobra que pretendia ser moralista, ecologista e comercial ao mesmo tempo a Mattel promoveu um concurso baseado em valores contemporâneos tais como a diversão, a moda e a natureza, sem esquecer o conforto para uma vida moderna. No edital do concurso era pedido um projecto para uma “Barbie Dream House” com algumas caracteristícas específicas: “A sleek, smart home office is important for any doll. With more than 125 careers, I need a spacious office that can accommodate my hi-tech gadgets for meetings, client visits and presentations. I love to entertain so I need living and dining areas that are open and connected allowing for mingling and easy entertaining from one room to the other.
The kitchen should be functional and fabulous with top-of-the-line appliances—large countertops and lots of space to cook. I also love natural light in my kitchen so windows are critical. I am quite the chef you know!
As the original “fashionista,” you can imagine how large my closet needs to be! I have unlimited fashions and accessories, so I need lots of shelving, shoe racks and a closet that can be easily organized - getting ready can’t be a chore every day.
My dream bathroom: a large, stylish space accessible from the master bedroom and other areas.
I love animals and I have as many as five pets (including a giraffe) around at any given time. A big backyard is very important so they can roam and play! (...)” enfim, não podia faltar mesmo nada.
Entre as trinta propostas que foram entregues, a Mattel elegeu as cinco que ficaram a disputar o primeiro lugar através de votação pública na qual participaram 8.470 entre adultos e crianças. Ganhou a dupla composta pelas arquitectas Ting Li e Maja Paklar com uma casa altamente ecológica. Na memória descritiva do projecto as autoras afirmavam que “Barbie is on a mission to set an example to be sustainable wherever she can. Her house proudly utilizes solar panels, operable shading devices, low flow bathroom fixtures, energy saving light fixtures, and efficient HVAC equipment. The house occupies minimum footprint as it cantilevers over a bluff, she landscapes her yard, roof and terraces for cooling and visual effects. In order to reduce CO2 emission, Barbie opts to ride her Pink Vespa around town instead, and if she needs to haul her shopping bags, Ken is never far behind in his convertible”. A casa chega a respeitar os padrões do USGBC, o U.S. Green Building Council.
Esta iniciativa lembra, com outros protagonistas e noutro contexto, uma história que já tive oportunidade de contar neste blog e que aconteceu em 1983 com a revista Architectural Design quando esta resolveu lançar um concurso para uma casa de bonecas.
Apesar de não conhecer todas as outras propostas, não acho a vencedora particularmente interessante. Todavia tenho que admitir que, no contexto de uma "cultura Barbie", consegue despertar para alguns dos aspectos centrais da arquitectura. A criação de espaços e a sua adequabilidade ao programa, a articulação de vários compartimentos, a implantação no lote e, claro, a pegada energética da casa, são todas questões que são levantas e apontadas pelo projecto de Ting Li e Maja Paklar.
E o que podemos pedir mais de um brinquedo se não o de despertar a curiosidade das crianças sobre alguma coisa? De pó-las a pensar de forma diferente sobre um objecto tão comuns e, aparentemente, tão banal como a casa?
Isto é o papel e a responsabilidade de um “architectural toy”.
A ideia de uma casa para a Barbie não é certamente nova, já na década de 1960 havia a possibilidade de comprar uma verdadeira mansão ricamente mobilada e com todos os luxos para a boneca que, na altura, simbolizava a sociedade de consumo, a modernidade e a emancipação da mulher. Desta vez a Mattel promoveu o lançamento do concurso na tentativa de contrariar as notícias embaraçosas que, em Junho de 2011, tinham sido divulgadas pela organização não governamental Greenpeace. No dia 7 os activistas desenrolaram da cobertura das instalações da Mattel na California enormes cartazes onde aparecia Ken de cara triste que declarava “I don’t date girls that are into deforestation”. A acusação da Greenpeace tinha a ver com o facto da Mattel ter comprado a materia-prima para as suas embalagens da companhia Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), do grupo Sinar Mas. Este grupo foi acusado, sempre pela Greenpeace, de ser o maior destruidor da floresta virgem da Indonésia. No seguimento destas acusações, as empresas Carrefour, Staples, Office Depot e Woolworths pararam de comprar o papel da APP.
Com uma manobra que pretendia ser moralista, ecologista e comercial ao mesmo tempo a Mattel promoveu um concurso baseado em valores contemporâneos tais como a diversão, a moda e a natureza, sem esquecer o conforto para uma vida moderna. No edital do concurso era pedido um projecto para uma “Barbie Dream House” com algumas caracteristícas específicas: “A sleek, smart home office is important for any doll. With more than 125 careers, I need a spacious office that can accommodate my hi-tech gadgets for meetings, client visits and presentations. I love to entertain so I need living and dining areas that are open and connected allowing for mingling and easy entertaining from one room to the other.
The kitchen should be functional and fabulous with top-of-the-line appliances—large countertops and lots of space to cook. I also love natural light in my kitchen so windows are critical. I am quite the chef you know!
As the original “fashionista,” you can imagine how large my closet needs to be! I have unlimited fashions and accessories, so I need lots of shelving, shoe racks and a closet that can be easily organized - getting ready can’t be a chore every day.
My dream bathroom: a large, stylish space accessible from the master bedroom and other areas.
I love animals and I have as many as five pets (including a giraffe) around at any given time. A big backyard is very important so they can roam and play! (...)” enfim, não podia faltar mesmo nada.
Entre as trinta propostas que foram entregues, a Mattel elegeu as cinco que ficaram a disputar o primeiro lugar através de votação pública na qual participaram 8.470 entre adultos e crianças. Ganhou a dupla composta pelas arquitectas Ting Li e Maja Paklar com uma casa altamente ecológica. Na memória descritiva do projecto as autoras afirmavam que “Barbie is on a mission to set an example to be sustainable wherever she can. Her house proudly utilizes solar panels, operable shading devices, low flow bathroom fixtures, energy saving light fixtures, and efficient HVAC equipment. The house occupies minimum footprint as it cantilevers over a bluff, she landscapes her yard, roof and terraces for cooling and visual effects. In order to reduce CO2 emission, Barbie opts to ride her Pink Vespa around town instead, and if she needs to haul her shopping bags, Ken is never far behind in his convertible”. A casa chega a respeitar os padrões do USGBC, o U.S. Green Building Council.
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| A proposta vencedora |
Apesar de não conhecer todas as outras propostas, não acho a vencedora particularmente interessante. Todavia tenho que admitir que, no contexto de uma "cultura Barbie", consegue despertar para alguns dos aspectos centrais da arquitectura. A criação de espaços e a sua adequabilidade ao programa, a articulação de vários compartimentos, a implantação no lote e, claro, a pegada energética da casa, são todas questões que são levantas e apontadas pelo projecto de Ting Li e Maja Paklar.
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| Duas proposta excluídas |
E o que podemos pedir mais de um brinquedo se não o de despertar a curiosidade das crianças sobre alguma coisa? De pó-las a pensar de forma diferente sobre um objecto tão comuns e, aparentemente, tão banal como a casa?
Isto é o papel e a responsabilidade de um “architectural toy”.
Arthur Carrara e as construções magnéticas
Arthur Carrara nasceu em 1914 em Chicago, Illinois, filho de um imigrante italiano que trabalhava numa fábrica de argila que fornecia peças ornamentais para os edifícios projectados pelo famoso arquitecto norte-americano Louis Sullivan (1856-1924). Desde muito cedo Arthur demonstrou um particular interesse pela Arquitectura e, em 1931, visitou com a escola que frequentava a exposição de Frank Lloyd Wright e assistiu a sua famosa palestra "To the Young Man in Architecture", proferida ao Art Institute of Chicago. Mais tarde, declarará que este foi um dos momentos mais marcantes e determinantes para a sua vida profissional.
Carrara começou os estudos em arquitectura e engenharia na Universidade do Illinois que o levará, em 1937, a obter aí a licenciatura. Após a conclusão da formação académica trabalhou algum tempo como desenhador no gabinete do arquitecto John van Bergen, um colaborador de Frank Lloyd Wright.
Carrara começou os estudos em arquitectura e engenharia na Universidade do Illinois que o levará, em 1937, a obter aí a licenciatura. Após a conclusão da formação académica trabalhou algum tempo como desenhador no gabinete do arquitecto John van Bergen, um colaborador de Frank Lloyd Wright.
Durante a Segunda Guerra mundial Carrara serviu o Exercito norte-americano no Pacifico como topografo e foi encarregue de projectar alguns edifícios de apoio logístico na Austrália e nas Filipinas.
Em 1943, quando se encontrava na Austrália, o governo deste país encomendou-lhe o projecto do Café Borranical, em Melbourne. O projecto deste espaço, uma teahause, foi para Carrara a oportunidade para experimentar algumas das suas ideias sobre a aplicação de sistemas hidráulicos e magnéticos na construção de edifícios. A solução apresentava uma planta central que lembrava uma flor cujas “pétalas” eram plataformas móveis que, ao mexer, alteravam a forma do edifício e aumentavam a sua área de ocupação.
Em 1943, quando se encontrava na Austrália, o governo deste país encomendou-lhe o projecto do Café Borranical, em Melbourne. O projecto deste espaço, uma teahause, foi para Carrara a oportunidade para experimentar algumas das suas ideias sobre a aplicação de sistemas hidráulicos e magnéticos na construção de edifícios. A solução apresentava uma planta central que lembrava uma flor cujas “pétalas” eram plataformas móveis que, ao mexer, alteravam a forma do edifício e aumentavam a sua área de ocupação.
Em 1946, Carrara voltou para Chicago onde abriu um escritório. Chegou a fazer projectos para várias casas, edifícios para serviços, espaços expositivos e para alguns produtos industriais como móveis ou candeeiros. As crescentes encomendas levaram-no, por volta de 1965, a abrir outro escritório em Buffalo, no estado de New York. Sobretudo na década de 1950, o arquitecto projectou várias moradias, entre as quais, muitas casas de férias. Nos projectos reconhece-se a habilidade do autor em conseguir conjugar o estilo Prairie, de Frank Lloyd Wright, com as influências do movimento moderno e algumas experiências high-tech da época.
Não é portanto de estranhar que, em 1947, Carrara resolva projectar um brinquedo que conseguisse demonstrar o poder do magnetismo e as suas possibilidades para a arquitectura. Não tendo conseguido aplicar as suas teorias na arquitectura em escala real, resolveu aplicá-las na pequena escala, num sistema de construções para crianças.
O Magnet Master foi desenvolvido em parceria com o irmão Reno e com o Walker Art Center em Minneapolis chegando a ser sugerido pelo Everyday Art Quarterly como um brinquedo para as crianças de todas as idades, licenciados e estudantes, inclusivé.
Acerca do Magnet Master o autor escreve no catalogo da exposição que lhe é dedicada em 1960 no Milwakee Art Center: “Magnet Master grew out of my experiments with the new found magnetic and electromagnetic metals. Every idea of man is first employed as a toy or in a toy. Every scientific principle was at first presented in a toy form. magnet Master grew out of a comprehensive study of man’s methods of fastening materials . . . joinery techniques. The uses inherent in Magnet Master for architecture and other fields are apparent. As a study method Magnet Master was first exhibited and manufactured with the tremendous encouragement and financial help of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, which deserves the credit or whatever popular acceptance this adventure has received. The unit shown here has been distributed around the world, it is hoped with some good effect. It has been expanded as an architectural concept for the first time in the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial”.
Acerca do Magnet Master o autor escreve no catalogo da exposição que lhe é dedicada em 1960 no Milwakee Art Center: “Magnet Master grew out of my experiments with the new found magnetic and electromagnetic metals. Every idea of man is first employed as a toy or in a toy. Every scientific principle was at first presented in a toy form. magnet Master grew out of a comprehensive study of man’s methods of fastening materials . . . joinery techniques. The uses inherent in Magnet Master for architecture and other fields are apparent. As a study method Magnet Master was first exhibited and manufactured with the tremendous encouragement and financial help of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, which deserves the credit or whatever popular acceptance this adventure has received. The unit shown here has been distributed around the world, it is hoped with some good effect. It has been expanded as an architectural concept for the first time in the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial”.
Vendido numa caixa de cor amarelo limão, o Magnet Master, era composto por um conjunto de peças metálicas que se juntavam por encaixe ou por magnetismo. Era possível construir estruturas tridimensionais onde as ligações magnêticas davam uma extrema leveza e elegância às partes chegando a desmaterializar quase por completo o conjunto. Além disso, o facto de o brinquedo ser magnêtico permitia que as crianças juntassem, para o complementar, outras peças metálicas, como clips, molas ou alfinetes.
Não eram fornecidas instruções uma vez que, como dizia o panfleto publicitário do brinquedos, “children are naturally imaginative and will derive greater pleasure and benefit when left to their own images and devices”. Esta ideia estava na base de um artigo promocional da revista Look de Fevereiro de 1949 onde o pintor Max Weber se apresentava a brincar com o filho de onze anos Johnny com Magnet Master .
O brinquedo chegou a ser publicitado em vários museus e instituições educacionais; no quarto dos brinquedos da casa protótipo de Marcel Breuer construída no Moma de New York, na exposição de 1949, havia um Magnet Master.
Em 1960, Carrara participou no concurso para o memorial a Franklin Delano Roosevelt com uma proposta inspirada nas investigações que tinha desenvolvido para o projecto do Magnet Master: uma pirâmide com uma esfera suspensa num campo magnético.
Não eram fornecidas instruções uma vez que, como dizia o panfleto publicitário do brinquedos, “children are naturally imaginative and will derive greater pleasure and benefit when left to their own images and devices”. Esta ideia estava na base de um artigo promocional da revista Look de Fevereiro de 1949 onde o pintor Max Weber se apresentava a brincar com o filho de onze anos Johnny com Magnet Master .
O brinquedo chegou a ser publicitado em vários museus e instituições educacionais; no quarto dos brinquedos da casa protótipo de Marcel Breuer construída no Moma de New York, na exposição de 1949, havia um Magnet Master.
Em 1960, Carrara participou no concurso para o memorial a Franklin Delano Roosevelt com uma proposta inspirada nas investigações que tinha desenvolvido para o projecto do Magnet Master: uma pirâmide com uma esfera suspensa num campo magnético.
Apesar de ter tido um forte apoio comercial e ter sido associado a alguns dos mais importantes autores da altura, o Magnet Master nunca chegou a ser um sucesso comercial. Ficou para a história como um verdadeiro paradigma entre os brinquedos de arquitectura.
La infancia de las vanguardas: sus profesores desde rousseau a la bauhaus
Juan Bordes é um escultor espanhol e um colecionador de várias coisas. Uma das suas coleções foi exposta no Museu Picasso, em Málaga, em 2010 numa exposição com o título de "Los juguetes de las vanguardias". O projecto procurava encontrar as raízes educativas dos artistas que participaram nas vanguardas do século XX reunindo artefactos pedagógicos, manuais e brinquedos. A exposição nasceu da colecção privada de Bordes que já tinha servido, anteriormente, para a publicação de um livro de grande qualidade gráfica e científica: La infancia de las vanguardias: sus profesores desde rousseau a la bauhaus.
Ao folhear o livro conseguimos perceber as origens pedagógicas do dadaismo, do cubismo ou do futurismo. Se por um lado a historiografia oficial da arte do século XX retrata com maior ou menor pormenor as obras e os autores, as dinâmicas educativas que possibilitaram as grande rupturas nos paradigmas artísticos raramente foram objecto de atenção. A única exceção foi a Bauhaus que representou, e ainda representa, um caso de estudo praticamente inesgotável.
Bordes conta esta história. Uma história que aconteceu nos infantários, nas escolas ou nas casas e que teve, com pano de fundo, pensadores do calibre de Rousseau, de Pestalozzi ou de Froebel. Ao longo das 300 páginas, ricas em fotografias de alta qualidade, o autor consegue cartografar um fenómeno que nos fascina pela sua evidência e pela beleza e qualidade dos objectos expostos.
Creio que dificilmente encontraremos algo de tão bonito e intelectualmente estimulante entre os materiais de estudo dos nosso filhos. E isto, claramente, da que pensar.
Bordes, Juan. 2007. La infancia de las vanguardias: sus profesores desde rousseau a la bauhaus. Madrid: Ediciones Cátedra.
Anne Tyng, Loius Kahn e os brinquedos
O frenesim tecnológico e científico que se viveu no pós-guerra europeu e norte-americano é bem testemunhado pelos meios de informação que, na altura, procuravam divulgar as inúmeras inovações que diariamente eram descobertas, inventadas ou produzidas. Entre as revistas, a Popular Mechanics Magazine era certamente uma das mais activas e, como diz o próprio nome, populares. Esta revista, cujo primeiro número é de 1902, já teve versões traduzidas em nove línguas e nos seus números podem encontrar-se artigos sobre os mais variados temas tratados de forma compreensível através de textos acessíveis e de imagens explicativas.
Uma das coisas mais divertidas é folhear números antigos e ver a ingenuidade com a qual eram aceites certas invenções e, entre estas, os brinquedos que eram pensados para as crianças. Já tive oportunidade de mostrar, por exemplo, algum dos jogos produzidos por Guilbert nos quais existiam substâncias radioactivas ou fortemente tóxicas. Noutros casos, havia quem se lembrasse de construir pequenos submarinos onde as crianças podiam entrar para navegar em pequenos rios ou lagos... ou ainda mini canhões perfeitamente funcionantes para mostrar aos filhos como funciona a artilharia.
Numa das minhas visitas aos números antigos da Popular Mechanics Magazine encontrei, no número de Agosto de 1950, um artigo sobre um projecto de um sistema de montagem que permitia construir ora brinquedos de grandes dimensões, ora peças de mobiliário para crianças.. Tratava-se de um conjunto de peças em controplacado recortadas, bastante engenhoso, com um sistema de encaixe extremamente simples, sem recorrer a parafusos ou porcas para a montagem. Entre as fotografias presentes no artigo havia uma da autora do projecto “make-it-and-brake-it”: Anne Tyng.
Este nome não me era completamente novo, não conseguia lembrar onde ou quando o teria ouvido, mas até as minha filhas de 7 anos sabem que com o Google já não existem secretos ou dúvidas...
Começou-se a fazer luz: Anne Griswold Tyng, nascida em Kuling, na província chinesa de Kiangsi, em 1920, é arquitecta e professora conhecida, entre outras coisas, pela sua luta pela emancipação da mulher no âmbito das artes. Anne sempre defendeu a importância da mulher passar de musa para heroína libertando, assim, o seu próprio potencial criativo.
Quarta filha de um missionário episcopal, em 1938 Anne aproveitou um dos regressos sabáticos da família aos Estado Unidos para ficar definitivamente neste pais. Após uma licenciatura no Radcliffe College, Anne Tyng foi, em 1942, uma das primeira mulheres a receber um Mestrado em Arquitectura pela Universidade de Harvard. Nesta faculdade chegou a ser aluna de Walter Gropius e Marcel Breuer.
Após a formação académica, Tyng começou a trabalhar no gabinete de Konrad Wachsmann, em Nova Iorque, na firma de design Van Doren, Nowland and Schladermundt e na Knoll Associates. Já o facto de ser uma mulher que aprendeu e trabalhou com profissionais e em escritórios deste calibre valeria a Anne Tyng um lugar de respeito na história da arquitectura moderna, mas o que a tornou mesmo famosa foi o que aconteceu depois de 1945.
Em 1945 Tyng mudou-se para Philadelphia e ingressou no escritório de Louis Kahn, que na altura ainda era sócio de Oscar Stonorov, onde participou em vários projectos, entre os quais o plano para Philadelphia (1946-52). Em 1947, Kahn desfez a sociedade com Storonov e a Tyng manteve-se no seu escritório onde ficou até 1964. Durante este período participou em vários projectos de Kahn e, além disso, envolveu-se numa relação com este arquitecto da qual resultou uma filha, Alexandra. A “família” que Louis criou com Anne foi uma das três que este arquitecto foi criando e mantendo ao longo da sua vida; em 1947 Anne Tyng tinha 27 anos, era uma mulher bonita e inteligente e Kahn, como se veio a demonstrar mais tarde, nunca teve uma grande capacidade de resistência a estes argumentos...A colaboração de Anne Tyng com Kahn é bem visível em projectos como a Yale University Art Gallery (1951-53), a Philadelphia City Tower (1952-57) ou o Trenton Bath House (1955-56); todas obras marcadas pelo rigor geométrico tanto no estudo tipológico como na composição arquitectónica ou nas soluções estruturais.
Sobre a relação entre Anne com Kahn poder-se-ia escrever muito mais, tanto um como outra eram pessoas especiais e do amor que os uniu, além de uma filha, ficaram as cartas que trocaram, entre 1953 e 1954, aquando Anne esteve em Roma, cidade onde nasceu Alexandra. Nesta obra, publicada por Anne Tyng em 1997, são recolhidas as 53 cartas que Kahn lhe escreveu, com uma frequência semanal, e onde se encontram, além das conversas privadas entre dois amantes, comentários sobre a situação política, sobre os colegas ou sobre a arquitectura em geral. Prefiro deixar ao belíssimo filme My Architect realizado por um dos filhos do arquitecto, Nathaniel Kahn, o retrato deste homem que morreu misteriosamente em 1974, completamente falido e sozinho.Depois da saída do escritório de Kahn, Anne Tyng continuou a investigar a relação que existe entre a geometria e a arquitectura. Além disso foi produzindo muitos artigos sobre urbanismo e sobre a sua experiência profissional num campo dominado pelos homens. Em 1968 começou a ministrar cursos sobre a ordem geométrica e a escala humana na arquitectura, na Universidade de Pennsylvania, onde ficará até 1995.
Numa vida tão intensa, os brinquedos ficaram esquecidos e a autora, que ficou conhecida por outras obras, na altura ganhou uma certa notoriedade com eles. Se olharmos com alguma atenção ao artigo publicado pela Popular Mechanics e o relacionarmos com o contexto histórico, percebemos que os brinquedos eram, de facto, algo de muito inovador. Poder-se-á chegar a dizer que se encontram ao nível de outros brinquedos que lhe são contemporâneos como os do casal Eames, sobre os quais já escrevi, ou os de António Vitali, um designer de brinquedos suíço sobre o qual irei falar um dia destes. Feitos inteiramente em placas de contraplado recortado, possuem umas formas complexas de forma a servirem para, quando unidas, construir vários objectos muito diferentes. Na altura o contraplacado era um material inovador; se quiséssemos fazer um paralelo com a actualidade poderíamos falar em kevlar ou em fibra de carbono. Era um material reservado à construção de edifícios ou móveis ou ainda, ao longo da Segunda Guerra Mundial, na construção de barcos ou de veículos para desembarque. Resistente mas flexível, leve mas duradouro aos elementos, o contraplacado era um dos materiais mais promissores da época; mesmo na decada de 1940 Charles Eames tinha começado a projectar e produzir as suas famosas cadeiras em contraplacado moldado.Além da adopção do material, a ideia de que a criança possa mudar a sua envolvente e os seus objectos com extrema facilidade e rapidez é algo que, na altura, era extremamente inovador . Era inovador na medida em que se encontrava em sintonia com os movimentos filosóficos que, na altura, pregavam a necessidade de mudar os paradigmas de ensino. John Dewey (1859-1952), um filósofo norte-americano, foi um dos principais responsáveis pela introdução do Pragmatismo nas práticas educativas ao defender que a criança aprende sobretudo através da acção e não só através da observação ou do estudo. Neste sentido entregar à criança um objecto mutável, manipulável não era, de todo, algo trivial (o brinquedo “The Toy” de Charles Eames será produzido dez anos mais tarde). Além disso a complexidade geométrica das peças e das combinações possíveis demonstrava a vontade da autora em sensibilizar a criança para o conhecimento geométrico e compositivo através da brincadeira ou, em geral, da ocupação. Sentiu esta necessidade no duplo papel que tinha e que era, na altura, algo de muito raro: arquitecta e mãe.Versão inglesa deste artigo.
Fontes:
http://www.philadelphiabuildings.org/pab/app/ar_display.cfm/21436
http://www.upenn.edu/gazette/0107/feature1_3.html
http://daddytypes.com/2009/10/13/holy_smokes_its_the_tyng_toy.php
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