Built on a Fun Idea

“My children wanted a clubhouse, so I asked them to draw some sketches,” remembers Los Angeles architect Alla Kazovsky, who’s also the founder of Kids’ Studio, a children’s furniture design firm. And so, from the needs of her two daughters, Mia, 10, and Nastya, 7, came the start of the idea of Buildin’ Box.

Coincidentally, Carolyn Adams, Kazovsky’s partner on Buildin’ Box, had been developing a similar idea for a puppet theater. “After I had my daughter, I wanted to work on a children’s project,” says the Seattle-based Adams, who is also an architect. “I was really looking for ways to combine architecture, my theater-design background and parenting.” Adams’ first prototype for the theater was large and heavy, and too specific, as it turned out. “My 5-year-old daughter, Anne, loves anything to do with animals, so she wanted a horse barn or a pet hospital.” Kazovsky and Adams collaborated on a marketable version, with input from their children, and eventually decided to make a versatile tabletop playhouse of cardboard that would be easily portable. “We wanted to be sure it was truly creative, so that children could use their imaginations. What we’ve done is provide the framework, and then the children can transform it thousands of different ways,” Kazovsky says.

The playhouse targets children age 4 and older; putting it together for the first time takes about 15 minutes. “After that, kids can make it into whatever they want it to be that day--a cafe, art gallery, store, snack bar,” Kazovsky says.

The structure is derived from basic architectural forms and includes a doorway, fabric curtain entrances, a puppet-theater stage, signs and more. An enclosed design tool kit has more than 100 graphic elements that kids can use to change the structure. “They can collage and paste on all sides and change the look of the box,” says Kazovsky. “This is a very functional toy that can grow with them. It is not the theme of the day.” At 27 inches high, 18 inches wide and 191/2 inches long, Buildin’ Box can be placed on a tabletop as well as on the floor.

In addition to input from her own children, Kazovsky got ideas through children’s architecture workshops she conducts. “My philosophy is always to help children create a world of their own,” says Kazovsky. Children all over the world, she says, “have similar needs: independence, yet closeness to a parental figure, and access to the outside world for exploration.” With that sense of safety, she says, “they can build a tunnel to China or create a spaceship to visit outer space and still feel safe.” Kazovsky is particularly interested in freedom of expression since she grew up in the Soviet Union. “No one ever showed me the possibilities of what I could be,” she says.

The Buildin’ Box is the first toy Kazovsky and Adams and their entrepreneurial partner, Los Angeles resident Susan Purcell, have created, and they say they are hoping to make more.

Buildin’ Box is $49.95 and is available in the gift stores of the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Los Angeles Museum of Art, the Orange County Museum of Art and selected toy stores. Information: (323) 655-4028.

Kazovsky will conduct her next Children’s Architecture Workshop from Jan. 12 to March 16 for children ages 6 to 12 at 518 Sunset Ave., Venice. Sponsored by the Southern California Institute of Architecture, the workshop’s theme is “Design in Nature: Learning About Design From Mother Nature.” The fee is $315 ($35 per daylong class). Information: (323) 655-4028 or www.sciarc.edu.

The Pacific Asia Museum is having a holiday sale through Sunday of Asian antiques, porcelain, celadon objects, Philippine hand-blown tea-light candles, and Thai and Indian textiles. The museum is at 46 N. Los Robles Ave., Pasadena. Store hours are noon to 5 p.m. Monday through Sunday and noon to 8 p.m. Friday. Information: (626) 449-2742, Ext. 20.