I remember when I was a kid, my grandma used to have one of those plexiglass photocubes, and it always mystified me how to open it. Then I grew up and found myself in the CD generation, and while I sometimes struggled with CD cases, for the most part, they were no problem at all. The technological and spatial challenges that confound one generation turn out to be second nature--no, first nature--to the kids today.

Which is why I shouldn''t be surprised by Thomas Maitz's 2005 design for Max In The Box, a pair of 14-inch birch ply boxes [natural finish with red and blue seats] which can interlock to form a cube, or which can pull apart to form a desk, some tables, some chairs, or whatever. They're shaped like the photocube I couldn't figure out as a child. And yet here they are now, toys for children who will be beating Wookies at 3D holographic chess by the time they're five.

I first saw Max in the Box at Yoya, who has itonline, too. It's also available online at ModernSeed, a site you may recognize from it's fine advertisement right > over > he-ah>. It's $245. [modernseed]