italian artist and graphic designer federico babina converts his signature illustrations into 3-D with his new series of collectable figurines, ‘arch toy.’ each design encompasses the aesthetic of a particular architect with a touch of fantasy, humor, and the artist’s imagination. the abstracted style, reminiscent of many of babina’s earlier works, integrate elements of the architect’s built forms and repeated geometric shapes found throughout his body of work. 

babina arch toy 
italian artist federico babina has created three ‘arch toys’, each representing a specific architect
all images © federico babina

 

 

‘I studied the faces and architecture of some of the most well-known protagonists of contemporary architecture to be able to do a semi- abstract portrait, by breaking down and dissect his projects to detect and select the hidden features,‘ describes babina. ‘in these sculptures each architect is made of his architecture.’ the artist has completed three figurines representing le corbusier, frank gehry, and oscar niemeyer and sells each of the handcrafted, ceramic representations on his website. each edition is limited to 70 pieces, measuring about 6.5 inches tall. 

babina arch toy
corbu, ceramic and hand painted (16.5cm x 10cm x 8.6cm)

babina arch toy
babina describes corbu as an artist with skills in 5 point of architecture and an interest in concrete

babina arch toy
each of the figurines comes with a postcard illustration of the 3-D design

babina arch toy
franky, hand painted ceramic (16.5cm x 12cm x 11cm)

babina arch toy
babina describes ‘franky’ as having an interest in japanese art with the skill to create rotating geometric forms

babina arch toy
nye, hand painted ceramic, (16.5cm x 13cm x 11cm)

babina arch toy
babina integrates the sensual curves of niemeyer’s architecture into the figurine

babina arch toy
each figurine is one in an edition of seventy

babina arch toy
the artist has created a collection of three semi-abstract portraits