100 Objects from Century of the Child

Nigel Henderson. Untitled, from Chisenhale Road Series. 1951 In 1953 architects Peter and Alison Smithson collaborated with photographer Nigel Henderson on this influential visual statement of their new approach to urban planning. As seen in this mapping of urban experience—from house to street, and district to city—it is children at play who embody the Smithsons’ guiding principle of social connectivity that underpins the concept of a “cluster city”. The Smithsons were critical of the prevailing modernist orthodoxy of the rational, zoned city; instead they searched for new architectural equivalents to the more intuitive unfolding of spatial relationships that they observed in children’s play. Their approach brought them together with Aldo van Eyck and other dissenting architects within CIAM. Learn more at MoMA.org/centuryofthechild

Nigel Henderson. Untitled, from Chisenhale Road Series. 1951

In 1953 architects Peter and Alison Smithson collaborated with photographer Nigel Henderson on this influential visual statement of their new approach to urban planning. As seen in this mapping of urban experience—from house to street, and district to city—it is children at play who embody the Smithsons’ guiding principle of social connectivity that underpins the concept of a “cluster city”. The Smithsons were critical of the prevailing modernist orthodoxy of the rational, zoned city; instead they searched for new architectural equivalents to the more intuitive unfolding of spatial relationships that they observed in children’s play. Their approach brought them together with Aldo van Eyck and other dissenting architects within CIAM.

Learn more at MoMA.org/centuryofthechild

10/11/12
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moma  Century of the Child  cotc  child  kids  art  design  play  photo 

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Get your daily dose of design from the MoMA exhibition Century of the Child: Growing by Design, 1900–2000. During each of the 100 days of the exhibition we will showcase an object featured in the show.

To find out more about Century of the Child visit MoMA.org/centuryofthechild.

Purchase the exhibition catalogue on MoMAStore.org or get the digital edition for the iPad on iTunes.

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