We love wood blocks and were pleased to learn that we’re in good company. Last Sunday, Designer Tucker Viemeister came out with his affection for wood blocks, in the New York Times. Viemeister is partial to Friedrich Froebel’s blocks (which Frank Lloyd Wright cut his teeth on, as well).

[ photo credit: Patrick Andrade]  

Writer Lawrence Weschler swears that wood blocks help him work on book structure. He writes, on Transom:I procrastinate. I play with blocks. I have lots and lots of blocks, wooden blocks, and you should see the palaces I construct. Not giving the subject the slightest thought. Awash in pure formfulness. Puzzles and revelations surrounding structure. Days pass. Weeks, (Obviously somewhere in the back of my mind, I am sorting out structural issues regarding my writing as well, but not consciously.) At length, palace-building all the while, I begin to thrum around about structural questions in the piece: what if I led instead with X? And, hey, wait, it’s weird, but that P section rhymes with the T, S could go before P, and we could flip M and N… . Hmmm. And this sort of thing becomes more and more interesting to me. Presently compellingly interesting. (The polarities reverse, and now the empty page is magnetized north and the rest of the world south: The house is burning down? Who cares.)  

Here are some beautiful sets: 

Brio’s 50-piece natural block set. 

 Muji’s New York City in a Bag, at MOMA

Technorati Tags: ARCHITECTURE, Frank Lloyd Wright, Friedrich Froebel, Viemeister, wood blocks

Tags: , ARCHITECTURE, Frank Lloyd Wright, Friedrich Froebel, Viemeister, wood blocks