The 'Open House'

The cubby house evolved from a childlike sketch of a house – A simple rectilinear form with gable roof and chimney - a form that children readily identify as a house. Like a monopoly house the materiality is singular yet the cubby house is a readily identifiable object.
We liked the idea of the cubby being like an oversized toy that gets packed and unpacked depending on how many children are using it. By providing a flexible and changeable environment, children are able to create a myriad of real and imagined spaces. Elements therefore take on multiple identities – the wall that folds down to open the ‘house’ up to the garden also becomes a deck, or maybe a drawbridge, or maybe a shop window. When opened up the cubby house can have many children playing in and around it as there are three points of entry or exit with the top opening flap giving a further visual and audible connection to the outside. In its closed form, the internal spaces of the cubby are child scaled, intimate and warm.

Colour was carefully considered in the conception of the design rather than an applied afterthought.
The use of a singular material reinforced the notion of a ‘big toy’, whilst the addition of colour added a playful element that immediately differentiated it from other similar scaled structures.
Pre painted timber lining boards in two greens were built in during construction. The intent of the greens were to be bold and fun whilst being sympathetic to a variety of garden settings. The ribbons of colour flow from inside to out providing a sense of movement and blurring the line between interior and exterior.

Children have unclouded imaginations that create play and scenarios out of the most simple things. We saw the cubby a little like an empty cardboard box that can be turned into anything.