Playplax!

Recently, on our way to a wedding in Italy, David and I (and our two friends Will and Vera) made an overnight pit-stop in München (also known as Munich), Germany. I had never been to the city and thought, along with the others, that it might be nice to spend a day of our long weekend in the city.

We flew from Berlin to Munich Airport - which has a lovely new (?) arrivals/departures area, complete with a vitra. lounge! - picked up our car and headed to our rooms at the funky Wombat Hostel. The next day we took advantage of the beautiful weather and out exploring.

We hiked around the city for hours taking in the amazing architecture and historical buildings (if you go, you must check out the Theatiner Church), we also spent a good amount of time watching the surfers (click for video) in the beautiful English Garden. It wasn't until we were heading back to pick up our car that I spotted the Haus der Kunst Museum. Not one to pass up a museum gift shop - I had to head in.

I really wish we'd had more time to explore, I would have loved to have visited the exhibits in this beautiful museum, but, that day, the shop would suffice. I love exploring a good museum shop, the design objects, postcards, nicknacks and art books are great fun to look through and even more fun to take home. This museums shop definitely didn't disappoint. There were your, of course, your TASCHEN books, your art postcards and your tote bags, but this shop also had some great items I'd never seen.

Sitting in a back area, along with a small sampling of HAY products, was this shiny, colorful little tower, it caught my eye due to its odd shape. To my surprise the object wasn't one object, but in fact it was many colorful square polystyrene chips. It was a display of Patrick Ryland's Playplax building set.

Designed by Ryland in 1966, these crystal clear colored squares fit together and can form anything you can think up. The set (this one included 48 pieces in yellow, red , blue, green and crystal) was Ryland's first to be produced and has gone on to sell over 1 million boxes.

The new company producing them, Portobello Games, found the original manufacturer with the original color recipes and has recreated this building set exactly as it was made back in the 60's - only changing the box they come in.

I had fun playing around with them in the shop and figured they'd be just as fun to have out on the coffee table back home. The bauhaus-like colors and shape remind me a lot of work by Max Bill and Josef and Anni Albers. I can imagine they were a popular toy in the 60's and I'll bet they become just as popular today.

This beautiful building set, which is a pretty great piece of design, is on permanent display at the Victoria and Albert Museum of art and design in London and is currently part of the Century of the Child exhibit at the MoMA in New York City (you can also buy them in the MoMA online shop here).