Finally, the glorious summer is here (not that I could tell by looking out of the window since it's been pouring for the last three days) and with it the chance to waste our precious free time creatively. I combined this fact with the current pregnancy »trend« among my friends and colleagues, my undying love for all things geeky and decided it's time to check out some brain-teasing toys and gadgets, ready to shape our little ones into future architects, artists and builders. Or make the bigger ones grow down, whichever comes first. Below are the 5 most interesting thingamabobs I found, in no specific order.*

Possibly the greatest product out there this moment is the LEGO Architect series. In May, the Frank Lloyd Webber collection came out, enabling people of all ages to create their own Guggenheim and Fallingwater. A pretty sweet addition to the Landmark series, although it would be fine in my book if the series would also include some more non-American landmarks that aren't just Eiffel Tower and/or Tadj Mahal. Perhaps even fictional ones, similar to the totally-easy-to-build Minas Tirith that a very patient man named Patrick Acton is building from, in my estimate, about a gazillion matchsticks. A good idea for all you »matchstick men« out there who like to plan your activities for the following 3 summers :)

Another cute product is the Frank Gehry in pop-up book.  Similar to the Modern Architecture Pop-Up Book , these products offer fun times to the more lazy-oriented people who might find looking at pictures and facts more exciting than the above-mentioned activities. Frankly, I do not discriminate and oh, did I mention my birthday is coming up? *wink wink, ahem*

Then there's this Young Architect kit. The not-so-positive comments on it made me laugh hard. Even harder than the weird photoshop job they did for the cover. Also, as the commenter shared my immediate thought: if the makers decided to push the stereotype of a bespectacled architect, they should make sure the kid wears black for the photoshoot. Geez.

Ah, the kids nowadays have everything. I remember playing with cardboard boxes and introducing my dolls to their new shrubbery homes. Today's kids have modernist dollhouses! Wow! I changed my mind, I do want to grow up and be a pretty Barbie.

Finally, an idea that is not directly connected to architecture, but does involve fun and construction. Here's a guide on how to build a wooden dinosaur in your own back yard with simple ingredients like small dino model, Photoshop/projector, plywood and common household tools. You're welcome. And I hope I'm welcome too - on your dino's back. Where you will »surprise« me with one or more of these proposed gifts. Awww, thanks, you shouldn't ;)

* Please note I found the products below by pure chance and do not wish to promote anyone or make fun of their work. But if you want me to do either of that, feel free to send me the promo stuff, thanks :)

Apparently there are some joker-architects out there. This made me laugh today – architect Jakob Tigges submitted a proposal into an international competition over how to develop a site of a Nazi-built airport near Berlin, suggesting a mountain should be built there. As he comments, he »chose the idea of a mountain precisely because it can't be done. Instead it'll awaken people's imaginations.« What can I say, good luck Mr Tigges! :D

And they complain about some houses standing out...                   (source: spiegel.de)

In other competition-related news, we finally managed to get through all the submitted projects and the final number stopped at 147. Impressive work you guys. I'm eager to see what your creative minds have conjured up, especially since the projects came from countries that are no stranger to interesting architecture. Sceptical? Well allow me. For your Friday viewing pleasure, I give you: Italian Jubilee Church, Serbian plastic bottle house, Slovenian honeycomb housing complex, Czech dancing building, Polish drunk house, probably the first european pyramid in Bosnia, Hungarian boat-inspired building, the notorious shopping centre in the UK, Croatian modern-looking church and its sci-fi inspired "rival" from the USA, some examples of Danish building ideas, a Portugese music house, the Macedonian telecommunications building that raised some eyebrows, an office building in Germany, crazy "floating" building from Singapore, a lovely national assembly building in Bangladesh and... well... don't even get me started on Japanese examples.

As you probably figured out, those were the 17 countries that the students submitted their projects from (as far as we can tell from the postmarks). In less then one month the race will get more exciting as it will be known which ones made the shortlist. But, let's not jump ahead of ourselves yet because we might break a leg – and since it's practically weekend, we wouldn't want to stay in bed all the time, right? :) See ya!

If someone walks in on you browsing through the October issue of slovenian Playboy, you can finally use that age-old excuse »But I'm just reading the articles, really!«.

There is an interesting, an almost poetic interview with Boris Podrecca (sorry guys, just in Slovenian language), a well-known, Vienna-based architect »with an austrian passport who is a Slovene, a Croat and an Italian at the same time«.

In the interview he discusses his work (»I never designed a football stadium and that is my life's tragedy«), his life experience (»… I was cleaning boats, then I had an exhibition in Trieste with Èernigoj when I was seventeen, I was a gardner in Sweden for six months, some time later an older waiter, an Italian, persuaded me to pass the exam for a cook. I started as an assistant chef in the largest elite restaurant in Stockholm, a former theatre.«) and his many views on architecture (»What's new in architecture is that it became a label, a brand.«).

Check it out. But be sure not to get carried away, exclaiming »Wow, look at those balconies!« because, well, there are no photos of his work in the article so you might have some awkward explaining to do.