A brilliant and insightful cultural history of how the design of toys, clothes, furnishings, and other physical surroundings at school and at home affect a child’s development.
Alexandra Lange is a design critic whose essays, reviews, and features have appeared in design journals, New York Magazine, the New Yorker blog, and the New York Times. She received a Ph.D. in 20th century architecture history from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University in 2005. She is the author of Writing About Architecture: Mastering the Language of Buildings and Cities (Princeton Architectural Press, 2012), the e-book The Dot-Com City: Silicon Valley Urbanism (Strelka Press, 2012), and co-author of Design Research: The Store that Brought Modern Living to American Homes (Chronicle Books, 2010). This is her first book geared toward trade readers. She is based in Brooklyn, New York.
Lange, an architecture critic, shows that the desire to foster
children’s creativity is not always served by the increased
sophistication of playthings . . . [She] details the transformation
of homes, schools, and cities to include space for play
*New Yorker*
[A] captivating design history.
*Nature*
As expected, the book contains chapters devoted to charting the
history of important toys, such as wood blocks and Lego. But Design
of Childhood casts a wider, more ambitious net, looking at the ways
in which attention to children and their needs has helped shape
design at large . . . Lange’s work brings together topics that are
generally covered in isolation. You’ll find plenty of books on
playground design, school design or toy design. It’s much harder to
find anything that weaves those strands together for a broader view
of how design has contended with evolving ideas of childhood . . .
In this regard, her book is essential.
*LA Times*
Lange skillfully explores how the design of children's toys and
built environments reflects evolving philosophies of child-rearing
and development . . . Powerfully remind[s] readers of the
importance of constructing spaces that make all people, including
children, feel both welcomed and independent.
*Publishers Weekly*
An informative road map for those who want to maximize their
children's material environment . . . Parents and educators will
discover a wealth of information to inspire and help 'make
childhood a better place.'
*Kirkus Reviews*
[Lange] might be the most influential design critic writing now.
She brings her considerable powers, both as an observer of objects
and spaces and as a writer of sentences, to The Design of
Childhood, which provides history and commentary on toys, houses,
schools, playgrounds, and cities . . . [and] reveals some
significant social inequities . . . We all survived our childhoods.
I think the real lesson of the book is that it’s possible to do
more than that. Here, Lange seems to argue. This. These are the
tools--no, the toys--that we can use to grow up into the people we
most want to be.
*Los Angeles Review of Books*
[A] fascinating look at how our surroundings shape our childhoods,
both today and in the past.
*BookPage*
[Lange] writes with both an academic’s expertise and a journalist’s
hooks and accessibility . . . Lange’s survey shows how kids learn
to be creative, social citizens in these different spaces.”
*Booklist*
A fascinating and sobering story . . . With Lange’s historical
perspective, though, solutions emerge. Most fundamental, perhaps,
is that children should be considered citizens, not consumers.
*Scientific American, Mind Matters blog*
[W]e are lucky to have a writer like Lange putting children’s
environments into context, to help us see the responsibility we
bear, and to make better decisions about what and how we build for
children in the future.
*Metropolis Magazine*
An eye-opening look at how well-meaning designers, operating under
the influence of ever-shifting philosophies, have long attempted to
foster children’s motivation and competence while, at the same
time, keeping them safe, entertained, and out from underfoot. We
applaud Lange’s insight that — even if it inconveniences or worries
the grownups of today — kids of all backgrounds deserve toys,
school buildings, and playgrounds that will help cultivate the
active, creative, inquiring grownups of tomorrow.
*Joshua Glenn & Elizabeth Foy Larsen, authors of UNBORED*
From the Lego-covered living room rug to the contested streets of
our contemporary cities, one of our greatest voices on design and
architecture casts her eye, and critical acumen, on the spaces that
children inhabit — and the way children inhabit those spaces — and
the results are nothing short of spectacular. The Design of
Childhood is like a secret guidebook to a landscape in which we all
dwell, but so often fail to see
*Tom Vanderbilt, bestselling author of TRAFFIC and YOU MAY ALSO
LIKE*
In a world in which stealthy corporate marketing and the allure of
devices are consuming our children’s attention and spirit,
Alexandra Lange’s learned and original perspective reveals the
impact of enlightened design in stuff and spaces, old and new.
*Wendy Mogel, PH.D., New York Times-bestselling author of THE
BLESSING OF A SKINNED KNEE*
The Design of Childhood is an extraordinary book. Peering through
the lens of children’s play, Alexandra Lange deftly reveals the
remarkable connection between freedom, creativity, and fun.
*Debbie Millman, host of Design Matters and author of LOOK BOTH
WAYS*
Like a fairy tale with the capacity to enthrall adults, Alexandra
Lange’s wonderful book about design for children is, in the end,
the story of design for all of us. Lange’s account of the way kids
play, learn, and live has lessons for anyone who cares about the
crafting of products, places, and experiences
*Michael Bierut, partner of Pentagram and cofounder of Design
Observer*
With curiosity and a satisfying thoroughness, Lange examines the
decisions—however seemingly minute—toymakers and architects make
and how these can affect children’s behavior, values, and health in
subtle ways.
*Surface*
The Design of Childhood is as revelatory with lessons about the
history of design as it as with lessons about childhood . . . The
book achieves the rare trick of staying relevant and compelling to
an audience of planners and urban designers even when the subject
ostensibly on matters of smaller scale than what we think of as the
built environment.
*Planetizen, "Top Ten Urban Planning Books of the Year"*
It's normal for parents to obsess over their children: which school
should they go to, which kids should they play with, what sport
they should play. Design critic Alexandra Lange makes the case for
the importance of objects and design in this canny new book,
arguing that the way kids play (and the objects they play with)
play an essential role in their development. Is there a difference
between wood, plastic, or digital toys? What can kids learn from a
see-saw or a slide? It may seem trivial but the way we play, Lange
argues, reflects the way we live.
*ArchDaily, "The 2018 Gift Guide"*
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