27 NOVEMBER 1993, Page 32

Building blocks

Sir: Having recently discussed the place of architecture in general education, I found your review of the Architecture and Child- hood exhibition interesting (Arts, 13 November).

But your reviewer was less than fair to Bayko. The earlier 'brown' version was splendid, and lent itself to all kinds of crenellated fantasies. To my chagrin, I could not create the buildings of my twin brother, and when many years later I saw Culzean Castle I realised that something very like that had once stood on a nursery floor.

Minibrix is worth mentioning, and it was much easier for duffers like myself. Inter- locking red rubber bricks were interspersed with 1930s bypass doors and windows, or a Gothic look could be achieved with church doors and mullioned windows. For Queen Anne revivalists, there were white rubber balustrades and string courses. But in terms of accuracy, scale and grandeur, Bayko stood alone.

Jennifer Balfour of Burleigh

5A Belford Park, Edinburgh