Move over, Lego: these historical construction kits are waiting to be discovered

A new, interactive exhibition at MAK in Vienna encourages play beyond the Lego brick. ‘Architectural Construction Kits 1890-1990’ (until 14 March 2027), presented by Deutsches Architekturmuseum, is spread across several of MAK’s rooms, with 70 architectural construction kits formed into fully assembled models to showcase the variety of historical toys.

Discover these vintage architectural construction kits

The foundation of the exhibition is the private collection of graphic designer Claus Krieger. The kits on show, which date from 1880 to 1960, encourage exploration of materials – at play stations around the exhibition – including wood, metal, rubber, and Galalith (an early type of bio-plastic).

‘There is a whole world beyond Lego waiting to be discovered,’ says guest curator Oliver Elser. ‘In our exhibition, you can start playing spontaneously, without having to book in advance. We have eight play stations and a VR installation. You can pick up bricks that look familiar at first glance, only to realise that they are made of rubber. Can you imagine Lego made of rubber? There are so many lovely building pieces to discover that hardly anyone knows anymore. And that makes building with them quite a challenge. Everyone knows Lego, and everyone knows how to build with it. These kits are different.’

One of the main highlights is the cathedral made of 4,000 felt building blocks, on display in the MAK Columned Main Hall.

The kits seem complex and serious, which poses the question that Elser also battled with: Were they aimed at children or adults?

‘The children on the packaging often look highly concentrated – and not particularly happy. Building can be hard work! The building instructions are usually highly complex. So are these toys really for children, or were the boxes actually aimed more at adults?’ Elser muses. ‘And yet the packaging and instructions are clearly addressed to children. They are presented as little adults and encouraged to become “little builders” or “little architects”. With a few exceptions, girls appear only as bystanders. This changed only gradually from the 1960s onwards,’ he says.

‘It is remarkable how [very un-] “educational” these kits often were. Some of the pieces fit together so tightly that playing with them must have been genuinely frustrating. On the other hand, this is understandable. There were around 900 companies in Germany, Austria and Switzerland alone producing this kind of construction toy. That is an incredible number. No wonder that not every product behind those boxes was a really well-functioning toy. Quite simply, these were toys that adults had devised for children, within the possibilities and limitations of what were often very small manufacturing companies.’

On this basis, Elser had to create an exhibition which made these historical kits ‘playable’. ‘Normally you are not allowed to touch things that are old, precious, and therefore kept in a museum. To reactivate the kits for our visitors, we worked closely with Professor Andreas Kretzer from Stuttgart University of Applied Sciences (HFT Stuttgart) and his students. We made replicas of three building systems. The most creative play station is called the Cathedral. We wanted at least one model to be larger than life, so we asked the students what they would build if they had an unlimited supply of building pieces. A childhood dream we all probably share. They came up with a highly sophisticated [replacement] of wooden pieces [with] a recycled material made from old PET bottles that feels almost like felt. We cut more than 4,000 pieces, and voilà: the Cathedral is 2.6m long and 3.2m high.’

The exhibition gives insight into childhood during the previous two centuries. Today, Elser wants to encourage play for all: ‘I would love our visitors to leave the exhibition with a smile on their faces. They will have had so many wonderful experiences with their own hands – at a time when museums tend to appeal primarily to our eyes and our brains. Some of these building pieces are so satisfying to play with that you might want to ask for them for Christmas, if only they weren’t out of production.’

'Architectural Construction Kits 1890-1990 Plenty to Play With!’ is on display from 7 October 2026 until 14 March 2027 at MAK(Museum für angewandte Kunst, Museum of Applied Arts), Stubenring 5 ,1010 Vienna