100 Objects from Century of the Child

Bruno Taut. Dandanah – The Fairy Palace. 1919-20. Following World War I, at a time of severe material shortages and inactivity in the building industries, Bruno Taut and a Berlin group of radical German architects and artists turned to more modest undertakings, such as the design of toys. Taut’s colored glass blocks recalled in microcosm the prismatic form of his Glass House pavilion at the 1914 Werkbund exhibition in Cologne. They allowed children to build free of real-world constraints, relying instead on imagination and artistic intuition. The simple shapes could be reconfigured endlessly (the set came with six colored sheets showing a variety of assemblages), and this malleability fit with Taut’s conception of the new spirit in architecture as dynamic and mobile. Learn more at MoMA.org/centuryofthechild

Bruno Taut. Dandanah – The Fairy Palace. 1919-20.

Following World War I, at a time of severe material shortages and inactivity in the building industries, Bruno Taut and a Berlin group of radical German architects and artists turned to more modest undertakings, such as the design of toys. Taut’s colored glass blocks recalled in microcosm the prismatic form of his Glass House pavilion at the 1914 Werkbund exhibition in Cologne. They allowed children to build free of real-world constraints, relying instead on imagination and artistic intuition. The simple shapes could be reconfigured endlessly (the set came with six colored sheets showing a variety of assemblages), and this malleability fit with Taut’s conception of the new spirit in architecture as dynamic and mobile.

Learn more at MoMA.org/centuryofthechild

10/25/12
  1. animalsandoperas reblogged this from centuryofthechild and added:
    Berlin, still love it. waaaaant!
  2. orchidsun reblogged this from centuryofthechild
  3. centuryofthechild posted this

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moma  Century of the Child  cotc  child  kids  art  design  toy  play 

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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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