Work: 16 animali

Description

“So one day, I had the quirky idea of making a puzzle with 16 animals, all different and recognizable at first glance—an elephant, hippopotamus, snake, bear, giraffe, rhinoceros—which all fitted together perfectly.” — Enzo Mari

16 Animali is a masterful jigsaw puzzle featuring a complex, interlocking structure. It is cleverly manufactured from a single rectangular board of solid oak using a single, continuous cut to form various animal shapes: an elephant, a kangaroo, a pig, a goose, a snake, a rhinoceros, a camel, a giraffe, a cow, a fox, a hippopotamus, a crocodile, a parrot, and several other creatures.

Designed by Enzo Mari and first produced by Danese in 1956, this puzzle remains one of the world’s most celebrated examples of educational design and is still in production today (measuring up to 38 cm in width). By observing his own children, the designer realized that play is an essential tool for young minds to discover and test their own potential. As with many of his creations, Mari sought to design a game that empowers children to reinvent and reinterpret their own play experiences. To achieve this, the individual wooden animals are crafted with enough thickness to stand independently on any side—allowing children to stack and arrange them both vertically and horizontally, or flip them from front to back.

“Play is not for passing the time, but for understanding the world.” — Enzo Mari

16 animals – duration:  1:12
Sonic evocation of the object created by Paolo Ferrario

Further information: 16 animals on Danese website