Fabrik von Prof. Josef Hoffmann [toy]. [ca. 1920]

ArchivalResource

Hoffmann, Josef Franz Maria, 1870-1956. Fabrik von Prof. Josef Hoffmann [toy].

Fabrik von Prof. Josef Hoffmann [toy]. [ca. 1920]

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/82288525

Designed by Josef Hoffmann and hand-made by members of the Wiener Werkstätte, Hoffmann's "Fabrik" is more a factory town than a factory, with office and living-quarter components included amongst the industrial buildings. Like Ladislav Sutnar's "Factory Town" building blocks of about the same period, the toy is far from austere, although for entirely different reasons. Sutnar's ten blocks, in three basic geometric shapes (cubes, cones, triangular wedges), are painted in cheerful primary colours with door and window patterns in white. Hoffmann's twenty-nine factory pieces, although painted pale grey with darker grey roof tops, are nonetheless light in feeling with their graceful arched elements and their thousands of tiny, hand-painted windows. The delicate floral sprays which adorn many of the pieces are carried forward in another form to decorate the box.

1 set of building blocks : painted wood ; various sizes in cardboard box 11 x 35 x 29 cm.

Centre canadien d'architecture, | Canadian Centre for Architecture | CCA