alexandre enjalric

7/29/2019 Alexandre Enjalric

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Architectural toys - Processos complementares de reproduo disciplinar em Arquitectura 10 | 18

The building sets such as the laboratory of

architecture of the child.

Name: Alexandre Enjalric

key words: the idea of build, imagination, flexibility, destruction, evolution by

handling

summary / problem: What similarities can be seen between the design of the

architect process represented by the model, and the apprehension of the

construction set by the child ?

Building set :

Building set is a general word for commonly call boxes that contain

prefabricated elements, that the child assembles like he wants or according to

the instructions of a workbook of models and thus, creating with his hands, an

original toy that should remove to build another. This type of game, there are

countless. For this reason, this theoretical work will mainly rely on two of these

toys, which have their own specificities and commonalities.

The toy City:Girder and panel building set" by Kenner toys company.

This toy represents the classical definition of the construction set. The child

should assemble prefabricated elements, similar to real-life elements. The child

built, through various actions and choices to mimic what might be the reality or

the future, it identifies the various items offered him, understand their duties,

the child can play alone or with other people. It represents the rational and

constructive since it mimics the construction of a building. It is what we

architecture could call the technical part.

The architecture of cities toys holds both the real and the imaginary. They are

based on real places, real building or romantic visions. These miniature cities

have architectural consistency and aesthetic harmony that would often challenge

the existing cities toys have a moral dimension in relation to the education of

1. Girder and panel building set box


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the children. Construction games are designed to encourage children to play

with architectural shapes that make up the urban landscape. By changing the

items in place, they can constantly remake the city. The manufacturer of the

Spear's Model Village, designed in Germany circa 1905, assigns a "civilising"

influence, stating that this game is:

a great antidote against the natural inclination of children to the destruction

and demolition.It teaches them the joy to assemble, build.

Playgrounds:Imagination Playground" by the Rockwellgroup's

According to me, Imagination Playground is not a real playground, in the

classic sense of the term, but a life-sized construction game, intended to be

used as a playground. In other words, this game is adjustable by the different

nesting among its prefabricated elements, but also by its transposition among

other place (gymnasium, playground, etc...)And it is this characteristic that

marks the difference with the Girder and panel building set. In fact, this game is

intended for groups of children, representing the side creative construction set,

indeed children playing elements can be combined among themselves and

adapted to their age. For example, children can imagine to build castles and then

indulge in games of imitations. But the most important aspect and the

communication between the child, group work, leaving free course to their

imagination, as we said the game designer David Rockwell:

We are helping to build a community including parents, educators,

caregivers, researchers, and leaders united by a belief in the importance of

creative free play to help our children grow up happy and healthy . 1

1Rockwell, David ; http://www.imaginationplayground.com/

2. Spear's Model Village

. Child playing withImagination Playground


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The architect design process: the model

The model shows the valor of the visual dimension of the project. The

Renaissance, it was the way popular to represent the architecture. Just unveiled

their proposal to the general public, architects waited often the last moment to

lift the sheet that covered the model. It appeared as the miniature of a future

reality object. One way of magical artifact which could suffice in itself to see

the project in all its space complexity. It comes to see. Which is very different

to look at.

"The eye is a such sharpness that it surpasses all other senses."2

It accompanies the architect throughout the various stages of the project: model

of volume for the concept, model for the openings and the integration into a

site, technical and structural model, etc... It allows not only to the back and forth

between a technical and codified the architecture vision, which are the graphics

documents and an imitation of reality or a future reality, the model. In addition,

it be given a real educational value for the student in architecture as by its

power of representation, it appears as the way to pass to the act, a project thatwill never be built (schools of architecture projects).

Communication:

The model does not override to others tools at my disposal. It cannot represent

all the properties of a building. The plan, the cut and elevation are present. It is

the way of the architects specific expression. The model is the object that is

simply to do the project, so that it is understandable to all. It represents for the

means of communication on the project architect, it puts into play by its

materiality, the body. It is physically there. Very few other tools can match the

power of seduction of the model.It seduces. it is convinced from an illusion of

reality. In fact, they have always fascinated by their attractiveness. The model is

attractive. It is understandable to the general public. Perhaps by the playful side

that it conveys.

2Alberti, l'architecture [De re aedificatoria] (1485), Livre II, chapitre I,

4. Pierre De Meuron in front of the model of

the new stadium of Bordeaux, with the

supporters of the team of bordeaux.


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Architectural models fascinate us by their magnetism.3

We can understand the entire project simply by turning around or moving. And

it is precisely this kind of models particularly wich is popular beside owners of

projects. They want a model. In Japan, for example, the model is contractual.

The architect of the models are required. Similarly, it never happened to a

student in architecture project discussed with his teacher around his model? And

in this discussion, the model fully fulfils its role: understanding directly the

spatiality and the role of the project in its site. Is this not the role physical,

accessible to all, which tends to facilitate communication with others, which

gives the model all its necessity when it comes to its competition with the

virtual image? In the case to its sustainability and freedom offered to the

observer ?

Handling:

"manipulation of the model, nothing is impossible, nothing is excluded."

To some extent, the model is for me the work instrument that allows me to stay

the course. Through it, I understand the challenges and the ambitions of my

project. The reading is clear. It helps me to develop thinking and design" from

beginning to end my project, the model will undergo processing. It will be torn,

cut, painted, reversed, repaired...It will be tortured. Sometimes, these are

teachers who are going to be the actors of these transformations. It is this true

work of manipulation of the object, and in this process of manufacturing that is

the benefit of this tool. With this manipulation, new forms are emerging,

problems arise. It is in this unexpected docks to the richness of the spaces

created throughout the manufacturing process. Already, space story, but it is

also the witness of the evolution of the project.

"A cutter in a piece of cardboard is measured in the same way that a pencil line

is supported or not. It is in the study models that docks to the this method. They

are the steps of the thought of the project. It's like writing. A writer makes an

idea on paper, it shall evacuate it. This allows him, released, to have a new

3Manfred Schuller, professeur l'universit technique de Munich, colloque

international : ''La maquette, un outil au service du projet architectural'', 20 et

21 mai 2011, Cit de l'architecture et du Patrimoine, Paris.

Model of the Casa da Musica by Rem Koolhas


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idea. The study models is similar. A model of study is an idea that, when carried

out, gives rise to new ideas. The process is repeated throughout the design, to

the rendering of the project. From this, it is a real world of forms that will open

to me. I enter somehow into a childish universe. But it is precisely plunged into

this world that I will be able to multiply the study models. Hasn't - we do not

need to return to that State of the child to produce in any unconsciousness? And

so to awaken our senses? 4

Comparison of model and construction sets :

What extent we compare construction sets and model of architecture ? An

article in archiseek.com illustrated it theory that construction toys have the

power of feedback in the real world. It is clear that a construction set such as

Girder and panel building set is proof of industrialization of architecture, and

that the child will easily identify the elements that made up the toy to the

elements that makes up a real building. But on the other hand it may agree to

the paradox that represents this toy. And after Roland Barthes:

The child cannot assume the role of owner, user, but it will never be the

creator." It uses the world of the adults preparing them for future actions,

without adventure, terror and joy.

5

For him the game of imitation is a source of sterile awakening for the child, it

serves only to accept the society in which it will grow. The device away from

children don't learn, do create not, it somehow, already "aldulte" Although he

knew. But this is the game of imitation which the Girder and panel building set

may be part. But Roland Barthes brings us still a shade:

"Any game of construction, if it is not too sophisticated, involves the learning of

a very different world: the child with it creates no important objects; "they care

little if they have an adult name, it create formulas: walk, run, it gives a life to

objects because it got the owner, the operator and the creator."6

4Comment la maquette maide-t-elle concevoir le projet ? - Rapport dtudes - MILLEFIORI

Aurlien

5Roland Barthes, article in http://architoys.blogspot.pt/

6Roland Barthes, article in http://architoys.blogspot.pt/


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There is difference with the model of architecture. It is an imitation. Although

of course, the architect is the creator of the project, it remains not the comp is

the thumbnail representation of the reality, of the adult world. It provides

understanding, it brings information, allows it to communicate with others but it

does not learn. Even if we can say that the Imagination Playground game joined

the model on some aspect, such as the order of children between them or a

certain logic of construction, reflection of reality still omnipresent, in remains

nonetheless that the construction set learns, and by an infinite number of ways

to toys, and of possible constructions he opposed to the packaging of the child

in its future society. It causes him to understand the world that all around and

develop his creativity. This comes in part from its owner, because the student in

architecture or the architect himself are already gone through the process of

childhood. Their logic, their creativity the pulls of their childhood and their past

experiences. These are things already inked in them (notably gace toys), in

contrast to the child who is a virgin of all these things.

Source of pictures :

1. http://architoys.blogspot.pt/

2. http://www.icollector.com/Spears-Model-Village_i51570723. http://www.imaginationplayground.com/

4. Google image ?5. Comment la maquette maide-t-elle concevoir le projet ? - Rapport dtudes -

MILLEFIORI Aurlien

Sources :

http://architoys.blogspot.pt/

http://www.imaginationplayground.com/

Comment la maquette maide-t-elle concevoir le projet ? - Rapport dtudes - MILLEFIORI Aurlien


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Summary

The interest of this theoretical work is of shows by a confrontation between construction toy (represented by Girderand panel building set"by Kenner toys company and Imagination Playground" by the Rockwellgroup's) and the

model of architecture, the importance of the toy in the world of the child compared to a-like object, but

apparternant to the adult world. Because often confused with a scale model or an imitation thereof, who violates the

child and sterilizes his imagination, making him accept the ideas of the future society world adult by the logic of

construction positioning miniature item that exists in the real world, manipulation of objects - what is part of the

appresion and the understanding of the world that surrounds the child the toy, and more particularly the

construction toy brings as much as this. But it provides also other beneficial effects on the psychological and

psychomotor human - component of life creativity, communication with others, development (build/destroy, life

and death), acts and choices that passes through the manipulation ("education should not be limited to knowledge,

but it must go through the action. Man must learn how to build forms and figures, substance and life. ("Friedrich

Froebel). Although sure some aspect of construction toy joined the comp and the still pervasive reflection of

reality, remains, the construction set to learn, and by an infinite number of ways of toys, and possible constructions

he opposed to the conditioning of the child in its future society. It causes him to understand the world that all

around and develop his creativity. Because unlike the adult, the child remains a page that has not yet was written.

alexandre enjalric

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