Dolls houses

An overview of projects, products and exclusive articles about dolls houses

Project • By HLM Architects • Exhibitions

Sound [Play]ce

Sound [Play]ce is an interactive tower which focuses on the movement of a body through both urban and domestic spaces by creating a series of unique environments to which the body will respond acoustically. The differing sounds generated by a marble running through this system highlights a responsive design that aids visually impaired children with the often difficult process of forming global spatial images - be it during play or in the urban realm. More

Project • By Guy Hollaway • Exhibitions

Jack in a Box

Jack in a Box is a design solution which makes the imaginary reality so that the child can live within their fantasy, becoming 'Alice'. They are confronted by a simple box. When switched on, the inflatable structure inside begins to fill with air powered by an integrated fan. In a sequence of events, the dolls' house roof opens and the walls collapse to allow the organic structure to grow out of the box. More

Project • By Glenn Howells Architects • Exhibitions

The Extra-Ordinary House

The Extra-Ordinary House has been generated by 2 ideas. Firstly, the most important house type in the UK is the most ordinary one, the terraced house, this simple idea has produced some of the best and most durable accommodation we have. Secondly, that our dolls' house will be a robust timber construction that explains how this house works through touch and feel rather, so enabling a child with impaired sight to understand how its volumes relate to living. More

Project • By FAT Architecture • Exhibitions

Tower of Fable

Tower of Fable is a fantasy about a very real piece of architecture: a toy sized remake of the Balfron Tower. This transformation brings out qualities of Goldfinger's architecture that lie just beneath its surface. Brutalism here is revealed as exciting as a country cottage. High architecture joins with the imagination of inhabitation and fantasies of play. Which of course, is exactly what architecture should always be. More

Project • By Duggan Morris Architects • Exhibitions

Multi-story

Multi-story has been designed to aid early intervention strategies for children with developmental disability Autistic Spectrum Disorder. In consultation with Christina, mother of high functioning autistic Louis (5), the house swaps the visually noisy cross section of the typical dolls house with a set of rooms arranged in either a stack or plan form. Each room can be used in isolation or as part of a sequence to provide a focused platform for learning and role play. More

Project • By dRMM • Exhibitions

House for a Deaf Child

House for a Deaf Child has been designed around the consideration of a deaf child. It's an object to play and learn with, but also is a space to inhabit, designed to support visual communication through sign language. The exterior has adjustable pieces to give colour expression on the outside, and control of light and views from the inside. With further discovery these pieces can be reconfigured into new spaces and furniture. More

Project • By DRDH • Exhibitions

Play House

Play House is a toy theatre, based on the 18th-19th century paper Theatres Popular. The dressing rooms, scenery and lifts can be enjoyed as a dolls’ house for imaginative play, or as a true theatre for children to stage performances. The theatre features working scenery lifts and curtains in the fly tower, making all floors accessible to its actors and audience. We hope that future owners might have fun creating their own worlds and stories within it. More

Project • By dexter moren associates • Exhibitions

Haptic House

Haptic House is based on the concept of 'sensory play', the dolls' house encourages children to look, listen, touch and feel. A series of components, identical in character, which aim to inspire children, bring the house to life by stimulating the primary senses. Unlike conventional Doll's House design, the 360-degree access means there are no defined rules of how it should be played -inviting the option of group play or individual discovery. More

Project • By Coffey Architects • Exhibitions

Inside Out

Inside Out is an inclusive dolls' house for all children whatever their needs and abilities. One element is a concrete house with a bonsai tree and herb garden which sits outside. The second, a series of elements that are individual oak rooms, hollowed out in bright colours that can be inserted into the house. It is fun for children and encourages outdoor play and most importantly raises a critical housing issue for families with disabled children. More

Project • By AMODELS • Exhibitions

Elvis’s Tree House

Elvis’s Tree House is based on a real playground in Southampton. The simple concpet was to be as physically challenging as possible, because kids learn for themsleves faster that way. So why Elvis, well that’s a long story. More

Project • By Allford Hall Monaghan Morris • Exhibitions

Compass House

Compass House has been designed for children with visual impairment in mind, we expanded our use of colour and texture to bring the house to life for them. It's a weekend retreat - a place of escape that acts as a backdrop for ever changing scenarios More

Project • By Studio Egret West • Exhibitions

Puzzle House box

Puzzle House is a house with 2 distinct embodiments, when not in use it's a tidy colourful rectangular box and when in play mode, the construction explodes into 7 separate pieces, which are hollow spaces. Each space contains a jewellery-like object designed by artist Andrew Logan: a stair of mirrors, a ladder, a diving board, a few thimbles, a chain, a propeller. The house avoids any inhabited formal space and instead stimulates play focused on performance. The emphasis is on imagination rather than re-enactment. More

Project • By shedkm • Exhibitions

Outside/In

Outside/In is a collection of exterior-like spaces that celebrate the sensory experience of being in the landscape. A house that is elemental in its experience, with colour, light, shade, reflectivity, long-distant views being important stimuli. It rotates like a Rubik puzzle around a spiral stair. We have considered a house that could provide escape for a visually impaired child. This house is about looking through and beyond. More

Project • By Studio Myerscough • Exhibitions

A dolls’ house

There’s a place out there to the west of town, where nobody pushes no one around A place where birds and fishes play, on a giant coral far away Where the sun is warm and the breeze is cool, and the sea is bluer than a swimming pool You can play music and dance all day, on a giant coral far away A house on a coral in the deep blue sea, a house on the coral in the deep blue sea Just imagine you could be, in a house on the coral in the deep blue sea More

Project • By Make Architects • Exhibitions

Jigsaw House

Jigsaw House is inspired by one of the oldest and simplest games,the jigsaw puzzle, a large house was created, made up of many small houses. Each partner in the practice was encouraged to invent their own house filling each room with their own sensory expressions of play and colour. The result is 26 fully designed houses with a further 20 empty houses to combine and complement the Jigsaw House. More