The Design of Childhood: How the Material World Shapes Independent Kids

by Alexandra Lange

From building blocks to city blocks, an eye-opening exploration of how children's playthings and physical surroundings affect their development.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.Now, prominent design critic Alexandra Lange reveals the surprising histories behind the human-made elements of our children's pint-size landscape. Her fascinating investigation shows how the seemingly innocuous universe of stuff affects kids' behavior, values, and health, often in subtle ways. And she reveals how years of decisions by toymakers, architects, and urban planners have helped--and hindered--American youngsters' journeys toward independence. Seen through Lange's eyes, everything from the sandbox to the street becomes vibrant with buried meaning. The Design of Childhood will change the way you view your children's world--and your own.

Genres: Nonfiction, Parenting, Design, Education, Architecture, Urban Planning, Psychology

411 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Note: There is more than one author with this name in the Goodreads database.

Alexandra Lange is a journalist and an architectural historian. She is a contributing editor at New York Magazine and writes articles about architecture, design and urban planning for Metropolis, Domino and The New York Times. She received her PhD from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University and has contributed essays and articles to peer-reviewed publications such as the Journal of Design History and the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians. Alexandra has taught architectural criticism at New York University and delivered papers on her research at the Society of Architectural Historians 59th Annual Meeting and the 2005 Buell Dissertation Colloquium at Columbia University.

Reviews

[Maura · Rating 3 out of 5]

The sub-title is what grabbed me, but it turns out to be the most minor part of the book. It's divided into chapters on Blocks, House, School, Playground and City. Mostly it's about design, both good and bad, and some that the jury is still out on, that affects or is affected by children. Although this is an interesting history and analysis of design, it never really supports the sub-title, as she never really explains how some of these designs lead to independent kids. For that matter, she never really defines what she means by independent kids. Even though it disappointed me a bit in this way, I still liked it for its discussion of design, whether of toys, houses, neighborhoods, or schools. The School chapter struck me the most as she lays out how educational theory affected building design so heavily. I attended or worked in schools that dated from the 1930's to the 1970's; I could see how the buildings (classrooms, furniture, finishes) matched up to whatever theory of educations was in vogue at that time.

[Leah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a delight! I got it because I heard the author interviewed on The War on Cars and was pleasantly surprised that the book's topic is much broader than city planning. It's hard for me to sum up this book because I think it does so many small things well, for example, making a very clear and compelling case around "free range parenting" that this is an issue of policy, not individual parent choice. On the other end, I learned a lot about legos too.

[Louise · Rating 3 out of 5]

This took me forever to finish because while it's not really a page-turner, there were some great passages in there. My favorite chapters were the ones about parks and cities. Maybe just read those if you're at all curious about child-friendly design. Mostly, this book made me sad about the how the world we live in isn't really designed for kids to be independent, which in turn typically requires the female care-taker to take on the added responsibility.

[pea. · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book is dense with tidbits from history, social interests, literature, art, politics, and so on.
if I owned this book, it would be covered in highlights, underlines, dog-eared and margin comments..
but alas, I only found this book it one of my library wanderings.

tho it made me realize I could've and should've raised my children so much differently ... but that is a usual parental feeling.

the major wish I had for this book is that the author would give it as a semester long course. She would make a brilliant professor.

[Alicia · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fascinating societal look at childhood that mixes scientific, psychological, artistic, architectural, sociological (and more) perspectives though Lange's primary focus is from her own career in architectural design. I'm most awestruck by how she chose to organize the book aside from the introduction and conclusion into 1) blocks, 2) house, 3) school, 4) playground, and 5) city.

She is super specific and very academic in her descriptions to chart the course of the design of these spaces where children are concerned. It reminds you of your own "historical" snapshot as a child and where it fits with the arc of design in this space plus where you live (city, rural // apartment, house // playground or personal yard // etc) while also pointing out some of the reasons behind the choices and the people behind them as well.

Some of my biggest takeaways are related to, as with my contemporary readings of books about adolescence, that childhood is a period of time and how acutely people have looked at this time period when there was an absence of it before. Plus, also to value and cherish the imagination and learning by play that exists most fervently during this time period.

While it is dense, there was still so much I could have taken away without a background like hers (nor working in the field).

"The kindergarten was to be 'a commonwealth or republic of children', she wrote ... 'a sufficient society of children' was 'the indispensable thing'."

A study conducted found that the kitchen, whatever its size, was the most used space in the house (108).

What makes a house family-friendly may actually be storage (117).

"Today we have the Common Core, which sets an educational norm for students from K through 12 across the states. But I think we may be on the brink of a 1970s-style revolution, and for the same reasons: The skills children need for the economy of the future don't come from writing down what a teacher says but from research, discussion, exploration, and tinkering, skills children can only learn by doing (182)."

And yet history shows us that the design of childhood is cyclical, and I think we are on the verge of another revolution. The makers of new toys, digital and physical, are building them out of blocks. Parents sick of stuff have created a sharing economy that has nothing to do with apps and everything to do with proximity (342).

[Beth Gardiner · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an absolutely fascinating read! Alexandra Lange is an elegant writer, and while her book is packed with information, it is also highly engaging and very readable. In chapters that focus on toys, schools, playgrounds, the home and the city, she traces the history of the stuff that shapes our kids' lives, and shows us how we got to the consumeristic excess that defines today's world. I came to the book less as a design person, and more as a parent wondering how material surroundings are shaping my daughter's experience of childhood. Lange gave me a deep appreciation and understanding of the central role design plays in the lives of kids (and adults!), and she made it very enjoyable and easy to digest. Highly recommend this book!!

[Ingrid · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, I love this book. This review is going to long af because I took legit took notes so this is my brain dump/essay. So if you don't want to read my review (because you're a sane person) - Read this book if you're interested in 1) Design especially of social spaces/for kids 2) How does society and economics impact how kid spaces and objects are made and decided.

The big tldr; (what I got from each section) * SPOILERS *
Blocks
- The creation of blocks was partly driven by commercialism and partly from the changing societal expectation on what a mom does and raises her child. But this is more related towards upper/middle class American women who stay home vs super wealthy European family with maids who raise kids

Home
- The layout of the home changed a lot especially after the war and with the baby boom. Children now were thought of as individual beings instead of accessories
- This spurred a lot of accessible and adjustable kid appropriate furniture (I actually had one of these tables growing up so this was wild for me to read about)
- The difference of house layout also depends on race/culture. The book gives a shoutout to my hometown Arcadia which is a weird neighborhood with 2 kitchens to accommodate chinese style cooking lmao

Schools
- Remember Little House on the Prairie (what a throwback) and that 1 room schoolhouse? People realized it was better to divide kids up into 'grades' based on level instead of just placement in a single room (this blew my mind tbh)
- This section also discussed the design of different types of desks/chairs in the classroom from stiff benches, metal chairs with those half tables, to rolling chairs designed by IDEO (which I actually had and used in college). This was also not only from user (student) observation but also how schools went from rote memorization way of learning to a more collaborative direction (hence the moving of chairs)
- BUT it's important to remember that schools are largely dependent on socioeconomic needs. Eg. you can't put in a fancy open floor plan school in a neighborhood that needs to over enroll kids
- Discusses/critiques tech eg. Alt School for introducing yes a good platform but doesn't solve the core /related problem of the space. You can't have a good school without the teachers' style meshing with the classroom physical space - "The lesson I draw form history is that the curriculum and its container must ever be complimentary"
- A lot of discussion on open floor plan vs classrooms. I can see the argument for both even though I've only experienced classrooms. It think it really is dependent on teacher's style, number of students in a class

Playground
- Historically influenced by sand gardens in Berlin (for poor children) since the wealthy had their own yards and country kids had, you know, space
- The idea of physical playground mimicking the virtual (Minecraft) now is super interesting. Would love to read more on this topic if anyone knows of resources
- The idea of structure vs free play and exploration - are playgrounds now too safe (for legal reasons) which inhibit our children to not be able to make mistakes and actually explore
- Creating playgrounds accessible to all is very important. NYC has a park on the west side that apparently does this

City
- By orientating the city to be accessible to children, it would help everyone overall. Talked a lot on children being the indicator for everyone else
- The idea that women and men use city space differently (safety)
- The idea that cities encourage a wider more diverse friend group for kids vs structured playdates in the suburbs
- How places likes LA without public spaces now build artificial spaces like Disneyland and the Grove for people to walk around in. But imo doesn't create the same atmosphere as Washington Sq Park for example since it's not a organic/spontaneous connection

And if you want another tldr here two quotes from the conclusion I really like:

The future of design of childhood has to be public and accessible or it becomes just another product, traded among middle-class parents as a sign that they have given their children the best possible start on life, like the stocked suburban play room of the past.

The best technologies build on the past in specific, positive ways, acknowledge their debt, and ensure that spatial freedom is available to children of all races, abilities, and socioeconomic backgrounds.

---------------

I don't buy books usually since I read a lot and it's economically not great so I borrowed this book from the library. This book is $30 at bookstores and I want to buy it now so I can highlight things and read it again. Also, I want to read all the books listed in the references section. Wow, I want to work in this sector some how in the future. That's how much this book impacted me. (Note to myself - I'm going to try to work in the education/public spaces/urban planning space in the future.)

(Side note - even though it's implied you don't have to have previous knowledge, there are a bunch of references she makes especially to specific object structures and buildings in which she describes in words and you're just expected to know what they look like? She does include a handful of photos but they're all so low resolution I don't know what I'm looking at. I had to stop and Google some things from time to time).

[Barnaby Haszard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lange's key purpose is to promote a more child-centric view of society and have us adults consider children as we build and create new places or environments, from the playroom to the classroom to the wider city. Most of the examples are American, which is a little alienating at first for the non-American reader, but I only had to think for a few second about my own society to see that her lessons extend across the globe, or at the very least, the English-speaking world. In NZ, playground designs are becoming increasingly homogenous; discarded single-purpose toys accumulate in children's closets before moving on to landfills; and residents on my perfectly wide street increasingly take to parking their vehicles on footpaths intended for prams and young feet. All of this could be better, and Lange makes sure you realise this -- not by beating you over the head with the bad, but by presenting the best examples of design inside and outside the home that allow children to develop into independent people at their own pace and in their own way. In a lot of cases, it seems like they are capable of getting there a lot faster without our efforts to shoehorn them down a particular path.

Once in a while you read something that fleshes out your understanding of the world around you that your whole way of thinking is altered. For me, this is such a book.

[Ashley Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alexandra Lange offers a broad perspective on the evolution of childhood, a period designed by adults for children. Since the late nineteenth century, there has been an everchanging idea of what a child is and should be. Lange analyzes five contributing factors that have shifted the way adults design the world for children.
Lange does an excellent job analyzing how adults, particularly those with power, have altered the design of childhood. From first being treated as assets to recently as dependents, Lange now pushes for their independence. The idea of children as real, individual people is not new. I recently stumbled upon the work of Bell Hooks, a writer and activist best known for her work on feminism, race, and class. In her book All About Love: New Visions, published in 1999, Hooks argues about what is and is not love when raising a child. She says, "When we love children, we acknowledge by our every action that they are not property, that they have rights—that we respect and uphold their rights." I am honestly surprised Lange does not reference Hook’s work in ‘The Design of Childhood’. I strongly recommend researching Hook’s philosophy about how we love, particularly children, to Lange’s readers. Both Lange and Hooks’s philosophies share exactly what ‘The Design of Childhood’ is about. Children are the only people on this earth who are not included in the conversation about their own liberation. They are not considered valuable until they are contributing to society as adults. This book argues for a world where their opinions and feelings actually matter.

[Cat · Rating 4 out of 5]

I agree with Lange's view. Childhood has changed in sooo many ways since I was a child. We were all free range and yet somehow survived! I look back in horror at my schools sliding board (12 ft high?) that kids would climb to top of and stand up before slide down the slide, or climbing over the slim, low rail, to slide down one of the poles! All on concrete playgrounds no less. I don;t recall anyone ever being injured.... By the 80's times had changed. Concrete was replaced with mulch and playground equipment was made considerable smaller. I can recall a few accidents tho'. mulch could still break and arm when hit right, and, of course, teeter totters could still cause injuries with kids hopping off them or running into them. Now I see playgrounds with some kind of soft asphalt and enclosed playground equipment. AND accidents still happen! Can't protect kids from everything. Young, dumb, and clueless. What can you do? Wrap the kids in bubble wrap and make sure they only crawl, I'm guessing! Fun and fascinating read. If you have children in you life it's worth a look/see.

I received a Kindle ARC in exchange for a fair review from Netgalley.

[Jeff Lewonczyk · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sweeping and inspiring look at some of the many ways design does (and doesn't) serve the unique needs of children. Starting right at children's fingertips ("Blocks") and unfolding in complexity to encompass the world surrounding them ("City") each chapter looks at the history and possible future of the design elements intended to help children grow and thrive. Lange's grasp of the material is encyclopedic, sometimes to a fault - several passages (particularly in "House" and "School") feel like lists of architectural features that never fully differentiate themselves, but when she goes deeper into particular case studies, especially with a focus on the individual child (as opposed to the group), in chapters such as "Blocks" and "Playgrounds," her writing takes off, and the book is galvanizing. The book opens up any number of exciting new paths to explore, and as such makes a good intro to a very broad subject.

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really fascinating survey of how the design of toys, schools, homes, and cities has morphed over the last century-and-a-bit, and some of the effects it has had on childhood, although there isn’t a ton of content about that. I wish there had been hundreds more illustrations and found myself googling for a lot of photos to get an idea of exactly what the author was describing. Part of me also felt annoyed at all the problems being brought forth about the way we currently design cities/our lives against the best interests of children with few concrete solutions for the ordinary citizen to do something about it, but I had to remind myself that 1) politics was kind of out of the purview of this book and 2) there actually is a ton of information in here about environments that children DO thrive in, so if nothing else it has armed me with a precise idea of the kind of community and schools I need to advocate for as a parent.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is about design and architectural history relating to children. The chapters take the reader from the smallest part of a child's world and progress in increasing order of size: blocks, house, school, playground and city. As other reviewers mention, the subtitle is misleading. I am not mad about that, as I really appreciated the design and architectural background, especially in the school and playground chapters. (Lange's strongest chapters, in my opinion.) Makes me want to read more about Aldo van Eyck and Isamu Noguchi in particular. Fun fact! Pittsburgh has it's own modernist piece of playground equipment the Lozziwurm, which is installed outside of the Carnegie Museum and which my children have enjoyed playing on! I think the City chapter is a little clunky and misplaced here; while it makes sense in terms of the next logical place to explore in Lange's chronology, but it feels like it could have been its own (separate and expanded) book.

[Nadejda Katzarska · Rating 5 out of 5]

"A serious book about childish things" is author's quote from the conclusion which is a modest description of this gem of a book. It represents a thorough research and wisely introduced historical facts on how a childhood is shaped by the surrounding material world.Both inspiring and revelatory for me as a parent and maybe even more for those readers engaged in architecture or education.

"in any environment, both the degree of inventiveness and creativity, and the possibility of discovery, are directly proportional to the number and kinds of variables in it.” Children’s environments, he (Simon Nicholson) goes on to say, “are clean, static, and impossible to play around with"

"However, children’s play is not what the adults see, but what the child himself experiences."(John Bertelsen)

[Ellen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lange has collected many examples of creative solutions in housing, playground, and school design going back more than 100 years, and I appreciated her presentation of their context, relative strengths and weaknesses, and the challenges in their implementation. It is a thoroughly researched book that extends beyond design for children to urban design in general.

In the second chapter, on housing, Lange acknowledges that many innovations are destined for middle and upper class whites, and she reminds the reader of the ways that racial discrimination and segregation limit access to benefits. This is an important reminder that applies to all of the book's content and therefore would have been appropriate to include in the book's introduction.

The book is long -- parts of it are very engaging, and others are more like a traditional textbook.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredibly thorough. I did glaze over in a few parts, but I also learned some things I'll never forget (Roxaboxen is REAL!?). Of the sections--Blocks, House, School, Playground, City--the most relevant to my newfound preschool career (Blocks and Playground) held my attention most. The other chapters were more focused on architecture and urban planning, which doesn't appeal to me (or read as well imho) as more general design.

Looking forward to investigating more 99 Percent Invisible books in the future but will be using my next nonfiction read for something zippier.

[Matias P. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesantísimo, accesible, inspirador, creativo.

El libro se estructura en cinco capítulos: bloques, casa, escuela, parque y ciudad. En cada uno de ellos se propone un recorrido histórico, ilustrado con múltiples ejemplos, de cómo han ido evolucionando a lo largo del tiempo los espacios de la infancia en nuestra sociedad.

Alexandra Langue analiza muy bien cada referente que usa, considerando aspectos sociales, culturales y económicos. No escatima comentarios críticos y saca multitud de ideas potentes que nos ayudan a aprender del pasado, entender el presente e imaginar el futuro.

9/10

[Jonathan Cassie · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are interested in education at all, this should be a book you read straightaway. It is commonplace (in American society at least) to give no more than a cursory consideration to the role the material world plays in the lives of children that Lange does such a great job in explicating here. The needs of kids deserves a pride of place in our decisions about how to design built environments. So many spaces nominally designed for children are designed in ways that spectacularly fail their needs and encourage or reinforce parenting instincts that do children no help.

[Bethany · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was fascinating on a number of levels. I currently work in elementary education and found the history of educational practices quite helpful. The design thinking element was also very interesting; I was prompted to discuss implementing a number of things at my school. If you are at all interested in primary and secondary education, interior design, psychology, architecture, or history, check out The Design of Childhood!

*I received a digital ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.*

[Bonnie Tesch · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really interesting book that could have been much more accessible. The parts about toys and playgrounds were the clearest and seemingly most targeted to parents and educators. The chapters on school architecture got bogged down in a who's who of mid-century modernism. I wish it had had more pictures and bullet-lists of recommendations (for toys, for playground design, for all-ages neighborhoods, etc.).

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting observations and a good deal of historical fact-finding to put together some compelling analyses and trends of child-centered design. Some chapters run off topic, however. As an educator, I think this book was actually written with architectural and urban design planners in mind as the audience. I was left wanting more direct links and explanations of how design influences child development and learning and vice-versa, but Lange mostly stays at a blueprint level.

[Nathan Storring · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an accessible, lively history of how designers have conceived the multifaceted experience of childhood, from toys to homes, schools to streets. And the writing is a joy to boot. Each chapter begins with a children's story, which acts as an extended metaphor for the topic at hand. For example, The Borrowers offer insight into the world within a world that children occupy in the home.

[Melissa Stuart Barnett · Rating 3 out of 5]

How should we design the world of our little ones? While some of the particulars here could get a bit dull for me, I found the question intrigued me and the myriad answers ranged from silly to sublime. The best part, for my kids and neighbors, is that this book led me to some ideas about turning part of our forested acre into a junk playground.

[Maeve · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lange provides the history surrounding designed objects that children interact with daily: toys, the home, school, the playground, and the city.

I was expecting more of a critique about the items and how they impact children currently and how you can create spaces that foster independence. But it was really just a history about the design. Tedious and boring.

[Melissa Cripps · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting analysis of the intersection of childhood and design with chapters about blocks, houses, schools, playgrounds and cities. It took me a while to make it through this one because it is pretty dense with architectural history and references, but overall, it’s an interesting take on the built world.

[Riah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting non- fiction about toys, play and social expectations on children, parents, and the toy industry. Worth reading a physical copy as the historical development is full of pictures.

[Victoria Hanley · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you work with children, have children, have anything to do with city planning and construction this is a must read. If you homeschool, believe in free range or are a helicopter parent read this book.

[Jesse Richards · Rating 2 out of 5]

Essentially just a list of childhood objects throughout history and how/why each one was designed. Like walking through a museum and reading each placard separately, there seemed to be no unifying theme or point made.

[Aniebiet Abasi Akpan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not a pop-science book this proper theory which doesn't bother me since I usually like design history and theory books but this one didn't really grip me. Beginning of each chapter was good but then it got dry. Will circle back if I need it for research though.

[Rosemary · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a teacher I was mostly interested in the chapter on schools.