DOLLS' HOUSE (Guusjes Poppenhuis met Stof en Stiksels)
REONALD® was invited by architect Peter Masselink to design a Doll's House for children with mitochondrial disease. Peter, father of a son with mitochondrial disease, initiated the Doll's House-project to raise money and awareness for this rare disease.
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The brief asked for a doll's house that addressed at least one of the encumbrances a child with 'Mito' encounters. The only other required was that it would fit on a 75x75cm base.
A total number of 18 architects have taken up the challenge of designing a doll's house. ​All 18 doll's houses will be exhibited and auctioned hopefully raising a lot of money to support research into better treatments for mitochondrial disease.
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We started with the observation that a child with 'Mito', because of the symptoms of the disease, often simply is not able to actively get to the doll's house and play with it. Therefore we came up with the simple idea to make a doll's house that could come to the child, e.g. when lying in bed. We wanted the doll's house to stimulate the senses like touch and sight by using soft materials with a contrast in colors, textures and detail.
The design was inspired by my 3 year old daughter Guusje. When Guusje plays 'house' she lays down all sorts of rugs, towels and shawls through out the living room. The entire space becomes here doll's house. Every piece of cloth is turned into a specific place: over here her baby gets a bottle, over there daddy is cooking and on that one at the end her cuddle is sleeping. And if you dare to disrupt any of these places or think about clearing them away at the end of the day her fantasy world collapses and all hell breaks loose.
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Our doll's house is a colourful set of 19 60x60cm felt cushions and a 'roof. Stacked up they take the shape a typical house. Every cushion is embroidered with a architectural symbol representing the different functions of a house. The project is made in collaboration with fashion designer Solange Hagenaars.