The 3DuxDesign crew was thrilled at the opportunity to work with the team at Grace Farms to create an interactive Open Arts Studio project the entire month of June. Young artists were invited to participate in the design and building of a cardboard community that supports the key Grace Farms Initiatives:
Nature • Arts • Justice • Faith • Community
The project was designed as an ever-growing interactive display that highlights what it means to be a part of community. The construction was made using only recycled cardboard and thus supported Grace Farms' and 3DuxDesign's common mission to treat the environment responsibly.
photo credit: Grace Farms website
Grace Farms is a remarkably beautiful and serene architectural environment and made for a truly inspiring backdrop for the sustainable city that grew over the month.
Here are some highlights...
Children drew inspiration from the books in the art room. Here is a young designer's vision of what a person would look like as a circle (with feet so her circle could stand upright).
The future of transportation.
Once they created people and transportation, it was time to design the residential facility. Ayana helped these siblings design a home. They were quite focused on the details of the home and took time to think about the entire family and how they use the space.
They designed the home for a family of 4 (the baby is in the room to the left because she cries a lot at night). Note the lovely swing set and treehouse in the back yard. This was a nice opportunity to discuss scale. This student did a wonderful job with scale in the house, the people, house and furniture were all very well done. We did take an opportunity to review the swings and treehouse. In the end, our your architect decided the tree house was better served for the pet cat. In our programs, we like to avoid discussing "right and wrong" We were prefer to ask our students to reflect on their designs and continually rethink and redesign. 
This ranch style home features a kitchen and bedroom with lovely white rugs, and a fully stocked kitchen cupboard; for a 6 year old, she got some pretty good fine motor practice between cutting each plate in the cupboard, the pillows on the bed and building the furniture. She also used a human-centered design process when deciding on the layout of this home. On the left image, the living room sofas face each other, not a screen. They also offer a nice view of the outdoor patio.The children's bedroom features an end table for each person and also a nice view of the outdoors. The right image shows an eat-in kitchen, a wise choice for this smaller scale home.
One of our favorite things to experience is when parents are actively engaged with the kids while they build. Dads (far left), grandpas (center) and moms are all working side by side with their children as they build. Part of our mission at 3Duxesign is to bring people together through hands on creative play. At this open arts event, we saw families working together, children working with educators, and children collaborating with other children they had never met all working to create a single unified community for all to enjoy.
This activity was adapted from the 3DuxUniversity Architecture and Urban Design curriculum, a 6-12 hour program that is ideal for in the classroom, home school programs, maker space, after school enrichment programs. Even birthday parties!
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