MA Design Research, Writing and Criticism presents a talk by design critic Alexandra Lange on her new book, The Design of Childhood: How the Material World Shapes Independent Kids, which reveals the surprising histories behind the human-made elements of our children’s pint-size landscape. RSVP here.

Parents obsess over their children’s playdates, kindergarten curriculum and every bump and bruise, but the toys, classrooms, playgrounds and neighborhoods little ones engage with are just as important. These objects and spaces encode decades, even centuries of changing ideas about what makes for good child-rearing—and what does not. Do you choose wooden toys, or plastic, or, increasingly, digital? What do youngsters lose when seesaws are deemed too dangerous and slides are designed primarily for safety? How can the built environment help children cultivate self-reliance? In these debates, parents, educators and kids themselves are often caught in the middle.

Alexandra Lange is an architecture and design critic whose essays, reviews and features have appeared in design journals, New York, The New Yorker, The New York Times, Curbed, Design Observer, Dezeen, and many other publications. She received a PhD in 20th century architecture history from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University. She is the author of Writing about Architecture: Mastering the Language of Buildings and Cities, the e-book The Dot-Com City: Silicon Valley Urbanism, and co-author of Design Research: The Story that Brought Modern Living to American Homes. Research for the book was supported by a grant from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts.

Talk

Alexandra Lange, "The Design of Childhood"