The visual memories of childhood can be powerful. For some reason -- I know it's a stretch! -- this reminds me of the Froebel blocks that Frank Lloyd Wright played with as a kid:

Wright, who died in 1959, often spoke and wrote eloquently about the influence of the blocks in his understanding of design. In his 1957 book, ''A Testament,'' he wrote: ''I sat at the little kindergarten table top and played with the cube, the sphere and the triangle. I soon became susceptible to constructive pattern evolving in everything I saw. I learned to see this way, and when I did, I did not care to draw casual incidentals of nature. I wanted to design.''

Some architecture observers have noted the similarities between the block structures Froebel designed and the eminent architect's buildings.

http://www.nytimes.com/1985/10/13/style/the-froebel-gift-tak...