From Kindergarten to Modern Architecture

Most people today accept that childhood is a big influence on adulthood, so it should come as a surprise that the “inventor” of structured childhood is all but forgotten.

The man in question is Friedrich Fröbel. He was a school teacher, and developed the Kindergarten – he founded his Play and Activity Institute in 1837 and coined the term “kindergarten” three years later.

Fröbel designed his own educational play materials called Fröbelgaben (which are known in English as Fröebel Gifts), which included geometric building blocks and pattern activity blocks. Understanding the importance of activity of the child in learning, he came up with the concept of Freiarbeit (in English, free work) establishing the educational aspect of games, and how the game is the form that life takes in childhood. Activities in the first kindergarten included singing, dancing, gardening, and self-directed play with the Fröebel Gifts. All of which may appear unexciting today, but at the time – this was a revolution.

Fröbel died in 1852 knowing his work was being trashed by his government, which banned kindergartens in 1851. What Fröbel would never know is that this ban resulted in a great many German teachers fleeing to other countries, and taking with them Fröbel’s kindergarten.

Fröebel College is now a constituent college of Roehampton University and is home to the university’s department of education. Fröbel’s ideas are now worldwide, and well established.

Fröbel influenced beyond education, naturally influencing children who would become adults in time. His building forms and movement games are accepted forerunners of what has become known as abstract art.

He is cited as a major influence in the Bauhaus movement, where Walter Gropius designed the Friedrich Fröbel Haus in his honour.

Famously, many children who grew up in kindergartens and with Fröbel’s ideas about geometry, became famous modernist architects such as Buckminster Fuller, Frank Lloyd Wright, and even Le Corbusier.

It would be difficult to find a more influential person on Western Civilisation than Friedrich Fröbel – we all live in a world of kindergartens, of modern buildings, of thinking about learning and teaching methods to make people and the built environment better. Friedrich Fröbel ought to be recognised more as the cause of all this, don’t you think?

Cool Dentistry

Many people are scared of a visit to the dentist, some are scared of the drill, others of the needle, but everyone is scared of the pain.

BioMedDevice Limited have developed a flexible dental mouthpiece (called gumEase) that is stored in a freezer, and which after only a couple of minutes, numbs the mouth for up to 20 minutes at a time.

The manufacturer has produced a rather graphic video depicting a hypodermic-free tooth extraction on YouTube.com:

FP Journe

I have attempted to draw attention to the wonders of hand crafted wristwatches, the most exclusive, valuable and prestigious being those made by the likes of Roger Dubuis, Patek Philippe, Parmigiani, Girard-Perregaux, Chopard, Blancpain, Audemars Piguet, Breguet, Vacheron Constantin, and IWC, all of which draw on a long tradition of precision engineering, ingenuity and intricacy.

In 1999, Richard Mille seemed to herald a new chapter to this horological history, using new techniques and materials to threaten the established “big boys”.

• But these “big boys” were already under threat — from FP Journe!

François-Paul Journe is the man behind the “Chronometre à Resonance” and the “Tourbillon a Remontoir d’Egalité” (launched in 2000), and is one of the most talented and exciting watch maker of his generation. A true maverick.

His Geneva factory is

USA v The World!

The Imperial System is illegal. It officially died in the late 1960s — along with the Metric System as a matter of fact. Yes, for decades there has been only one legal

Foster

I am going to argue here that Sir Norman Foster is the number one architect in the world today, with an unprecedented track record of instantly recognisable buildings that enrich and excite and basically go against the grain of the present architectural and planning trends.

It all started when, in the mid-1980s, Norman Foster became famous.

What Is Wrong With Car Design?

CARS were originally “horseless carriages”, and so the coachwork design was naturally based on horse-drawn carriages. Then came aerodynamic and futuristic, with space-age fins and lots of chrome. You would be forgiven for thinking that we have seen it all from sports-cars to people carriers, from smart-cars to stretch limousines.

However, the sad fact is that each wave of automotive design has completely overlooked the user. Incredible as it may seem, this is patently true!

The A-Z

‘From Aaron Hill to Zoffany St’ — An article by Claire Heald of BBC News:

No one thinks twice today about reaching for a map to navigate their way around a town or city — but do they stop to consider how the street atlas came to be?

What Ever Happened to…

Back in 2003, there was a story on Ananova about a Telephone Language Translator. This seemed like a brilliant invention, but what has happened since then?  It seems to have vanished!

A report in February 2004 informed the world of Shoes That Generate Electrictity! This seemed like a good way to keep the mobile cell phone charged up — but I have yet to see a pair on sale… wonder what happened.

Back in July 2003, I read about an amazing invention, but was sceptical about it even being possible: a new type of bullet-proof glass that allowed bullets to pass ONE WAY only — so Police could shoot out, but were protected from gunfire from the other direction. Amazing — but was it true?

I loved the story from January 2004 of the new vegetation that changed colour to identify landmines — that is a wonderful, wonderful invention… where’s the Nobel Prize when you want it? It seems to me to be vaguely similar to the paint that absorbs pollution. I love that sort of genetic modification that PICADA do.
In the middle of 2003, I read an article on intra-ocular retinal prosthesis (eye implants), and one day hope that this may be developed to become a common procedure to help people all around the world. (see -New Eye Implants Looking Good on Clipped News).

The Anti-Snoring Bed seems to have vanished! How sad; I know quite a few people who were interested in buying this bed!

Mechanical Powers

Mechanical Powers are the six elementary parts of machines. There are Three Primary Powers and Three Secondary Powers.

PRIMARY MECHANICAL POWERS:

• Lever
• Inclined Plane
• Pulley

SECONDARY MECHANICAL POWERS:

• Wheel and Axle
• Wedge
• Screw