When I first entered “Architectural Construction Kits 1890–1990—Plenty to Play With!,” I didn’t realise it was an exhibition at all. Tucked behind the first-floor reception—down a corridor—it felt like an extension of the participatory museum zone, where the bookshop dissolves into the café, then into a lounge and a children’s area—pick the order yourself. That impression was reinforced by the rectangular layout and the brightly printed curtains hanging around. A row of tables held assorted materials, with motley ottomans nearby and a child absorbed in play. I hurried through this colourful area on my way to the “real” exhibitions upstairs—only later realising that this was one, too.

Architectural construction kits from Claus Krieger’s collection extend the DAM’s series of exhibitions on models. Curator Oliver Elser set out to challenge the museum’s familiar “please don’t touch” atmosphere and the glass barriers separating exhibits from visitors. Considerable effort went into making this a “big interactive show.” Students from HFT Stuttgart recreated several kits at an enlarged 3:1 scale, and these reproductions became hands-on play stations where visitors could build for themselves. The kits were chosen for their distinctive connection systems, most of which were eclipsed by LEGO in the 1960s. The research is intriguing: it reveals, for instance, that the Ingenius connector was invented in the 1920s by the architect Wilhelm Kreis, who also designed the Götterdämmerung model for Bismarck Towers—47 of which were built across Germany.

This juxtaposition, prompted by the research behind the show, suggests that participation cannot replace everything exhibitions do. Some things can only be found in text. And although colourful curtains carve the space into a playful heterotopia, the glass barriers have not disappeared entirely: they still cover the original kits, arranged in rows of tables that continue to give the show its structure and foundation.

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