form-bank

Van der Laan sometimes calls his form-bank “De blokkendoos”, a childs toy box with wooden blocks. Indeed, the educational tool for clarifying shapes does look a lot like the box of blocks which has left many children occupied quietly for hour on end.

The form-bank consists of 36 different shapes, obtained by combining eight measures from the measure-system. Each rectangular shape consists of three dimensions: length, width and height. The height is kept constant in this form-bank, or is it the width? It all depends on how you place the blocks. The shapes can be conveniently arranged and one will notice that different groups can be identified. One group of blocks (red) has little variation in length width and height. Another group, the bars (yellow), distinguish themselves with a variation in one direction. In the third group, the plates (blue), measurements are extended in two directions relative to the smallest size. In the middle remains a fourth group (light gray) which Van der Laan calls the blanc shapes. These last shapes have properties of all the aforementioned groups: block, bar and plate.

In each group one “core” shape could be pointed out from the middle of each group (slightly lighter in colour). These four powerful core shapes are the “representatives” of their group. A whole range of 36 different shapes is available for you to build, discover, observe and… play!

Measure-system in this form-bank: 16 (1/7), 21(1/5), 28 (1/4), 37 (1/3), 49 (3/7), 65 (4/7), 86 (3/4), 114 (1)