What will be the toys of the future? Children just love playing with building blocks, being able to create new forms and structures from a range of shapes, hence the success of LEGO. Many children, who may be future architects or engineers, will try to pile them up into towers that challenge gravity until they collapse, much as medieval architects did with the towers and spires of Gothic cathedrals.
As part of the London Design Festival, Re-assemble set a design challenge to several designers to create the new building blocks of the future. Some recycled old materials such as old plastic toys (Astrid Vanhuyse) and timber branches (Kyohei Mori). Others added creative twists such as Kenji Abe’s inside out soap bubbles and Kazuya Washio’s building blocks with human attributes, while Ryo Fukumaru created transparent plant pots in which small plants can live and thrive as building blocks into a natural future.
Initiated by Yamaha Design Studio London and Keech Design and sponsored by Novum, Re-assemble was one of the more fascinating design initiatives on show at King’s Cross as part of the 2019 Design Junction last week, proving that large things may come from small steps. It is always interesting to see what new ideas designers develop with challenging briefs.