‘Body Blocks’ helps children explore the many human forms
The designer creates toys with sustainability and durability in mind.
Beirut-based designer Davina Atallah has adapted the familiar building block typology to create a wooden toy that allows children to explore complex ideas related to body image. Atallah’s Body Blocks system comprises painted beechwood heads, torsos, and bottoms that can be stacked and flipped to create different characters.
“While most building sets are designed for constructing houses, skyscrapers, or abstract structures, Body Blocks shifts that focus toward constructing the self,” Atallah told Dezeen.
“The work starts from a simple question: how can play help children explore their relationship with themselves, their bodies and the world around them?”
The set includes a variety of shapes that help children appreciate the diversity of human body types and shapes that make each person unique.
Some blocks feature anamorphic elements that further stimulate the imagination, allowing human body parts to be combined with wings, tails, or hooves to create fantastical creations.
Children can stack the blocks in various configurations, then rebuild them in different combinations when they fall. Atallah suggested that this regenerative process “encourages persistence and experimentation”.
When creating the product, the designer worked closely with children, observing how they do best playing with basic body shapes, which reduces restrictions and preconceived notions about what the result should look like.
“It was essential not to overwhelm the design with meaning or symbolism, but to leave space for interpretation,” she explained.
“This was achieved by stripping the forms down to their essence, reducing socially recognised visual cues while retaining just enough familiarity for imagination to take over.”
Some blocks make abstract references to wheelchairs and prostheses, promoting an understanding of different physical realities within the overall game framework.
Body blocks come in standard building sets for unlimited character play, or larger and more sculptural versions for use as displays or practical bookends.
The blocks are made from PEFC-certified solid beech wood, hand-stained using organic milk paints and finished with a water-based sealant.
Credits:
All images courtesy of Davina Atallah.
