The Collapsible and The Modular
Who hasn’t built an indoor fort out of sheets or chairs as a child? However, looking at the Tukluk, designed by Benedikt Kirsch+ Katharina Schildgen makes me wish I had this as a kid. A rough translation from the German website the Tukluk is featured on describes these triangles as microfiber, with sewn-in magnets running along the sides of each piece, enabling a child to reconfigure these triangles to their hearts content. The website demonstrates uses ranging from a play mat to a cave or fort structure.
This product makes an excellent collapsible and modular product, considering the amount of space children’s play equipment can potentially take up. The Tukluk can be easily disassembled for storage or for travel. Some potential uses could be extended beyond the home into the daycare classrooms with limited floor space. The equipment’s soft material also lends it to being safer than traditional wood and metal play sets on outdoor playgrounds. The fact that this system allows children to build whatever their heart’s content is without requiring a parent to assemble it for them gives children further options to explore and imagine with the Tukluk triangles. The modular aspect of the pieces permits children endless configurations, which can change depending upon how they are using them, whether they are imagining themselves behind a castle or simply using it as a soft surface area to play on. The simplicity of the Tukluk system and the potential to endlessly expand with more than one set makes it a clever space-saver for adults and interactive entertainment for children.
The Learning Research Institute of LEGO explains thoroughly how open systems are an important part of providing opportunities for creativity to grow in children. From this form of play, children are able to learn through the combination of preexisting ideas to create new ones, exploration of what interests them, and change the way they see their world through their eyes. LEGO and K’NEX, along with Tukluk, are excellent products that have potential to instill creativity in some and help other individuals better fine-tune and explore the creative skills they already have. This in turn helps children also develop problem-solving skills which are applicable in daily life and occupational directions. One can think of Tukluk as large building blocks with which children are able to more explore how they can change their physical surroundings. Since the pieces create structures that children can actually play on, they can take part in physical activity that might not be possible in other open systems that are available.