2024-11-23T19:51:31-05:00 https://archinect.com/news/article/72308546/architecture-as-child-s-play Places Journal 2013-05-01T19:31:00-04:00 >2013-05-06T13:28:40-04:00 <img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/iv/iv1v5lj8e9s0ekf0.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=1200" border="0" /><em><p>At university, students from other courses felt that we in architecture weren&rsquo;t really studying at all; to them the studio seemed like some kind of uber-kindergarten, legitimated for academic credit.... The architecture profession seemed from the outside, and perhaps even to us on the inside, to promise an idyllic eternal childhood of balsa and glue and gee-whiz drawings on computers.</p></em><br /><br /><p> On Places, Naomi Stead discusses the popular conception of architecture as a kind of "child's play."</p> <p> What do dollhouses and architectural models have in common? Why should we care about Lego Architecture and Architect Barbie and the romantic depiction of architects in Hollywood movies?</p> <p> She concludes: "If the profession of architecture is constructed from the outside as an escapist daydream, available for the idle fantasizing and wish-fulfillment of all, then this leaves the whole profession operating inside a doll&rsquo;s house: idyllic, hermetic and controlled, but largely powerless to act in the actual world."</p>