2 Min Lesezeit

From play idea to building culture: at the Deutsches Architekturmuseum (DAM) in Frankfurt am Main, building blocks become contemporary witnesses. From 25 October 2025 to 8 February 2026, the ‘Architectural Building Blocks 1890–1990’ exhibition will show how building blocks have shaped imagination, design, and technology for over a century.

In the 1970s, the Norgut company launched its ‘Raumordnung’ (spatial planning) construction set. Consisting of 49 wooden building blocks, it enables a wide variety of urban planning scenarios to be created in relief on a basic grid. | Photo: Claus Krieger Collection

Everyone knows Lego. But long before this classic Danish toy triumphed, there was an enormous variety of architectural building sets manufactured by hundreds of companies worldwide. The Deutsches Architekturmuseum (DAM) in Frankfurt’s exhibition, ‘Architectural Construction Kits 1890-1990’, is based on Claus Krieger’s private collection and presents around 60 historical sets. What makes this exhibition special is that many of the sets can be played with at eight interactive stations. By doing so, the museum deliberately breaks down the usual distance between object and audience.

Students at Stuttgart University of Applied Sciences (HFT) enlarged and replicated original building blocks from the ‘Ingenius’, ‘Bâtiss’ and ‘Skyline’ systems to make them playable as large building blocks. Other modular systems, such as ‘Minibrix’, ‘Tetek’, ‘Dusyma’ and the GDR classic ‘Kleiner Großblockbaumeister’, also encourage creative construction. Visitors can immerse themselves in a virtual model world with the aid of VR glasses, developed by another group of students from the HFT.

In addition to offering playful experiences, the exhibition provides a scientifically sound examination of the development of modular construction culture, which is documented in the accompanying catalogue, ‘111 Architekturbaukästen’ (111 Architectural Construction Sets).