About the Giant Dolls’ House Project

The Giant Dolls’ house project is a social arts project. It engages participants in thinking about their home and environment and raises awareness for homelessness and refugees. The aim of the project is to make people aware of the importance of a home and community for all and to celebrate a united diversity. 

Since its start in October 2014 the project has been to Dubai, North Carolina, Goa, Jordan, Bournemouth and has been part of the London Festival of Architecture for five consecutive years. The installations created can be used as conversation pieces, to tell stories, or just to look at. Each installation is very dependent on the different collaborators over the years and demonstrates the diversity of groups involved in the project. We found that the dolls’ house can be used to explore ideas of identity, both shared as well as personal, and that the dolls’ house project is always a good reflection of the different people who have created it.

Furthermore, the idea of ​‘just making’ has been a great success. What could be called casual craft; finding out by making, tinkering, using your hands and everyday materials, has been an important theme in the different installations. Thinking through craft and making has resonated with the wide range of participants who have participated in the project.

The project is the initiative of Catja de Haas who has conducted research into miniature and the home as part of her PhD by design. The project is run as part of her architectural practice.

Miniature

‘The world is my imagination. The cleverer I am at miniaturising the world, the better I am at possessing it. Through imagination only, we can change the world.’ 

Dolls’ houses and miniature have been part of life since the Egyptians, who used miniature statues to communicate with the gods and who made miniature houses. By making their ware in miniature, traveling salesmen could travel light and show samples. Artisans to this day show their skills by making their wares in miniature. Think of the art of writing one’s name on a grain of rice. 

In the Netherlands in the 17th century women made dolls’ houses so beautiful that people from other countries; scientists, kings and queens came to visit them to learn about the way the Dutch people should live. The most famous of these was the house of Petronella Oortman and can still be visited in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

Through miniaturising (making things small) you can see the world differently. If you shrink, everything around you becomes bigger: chairs turn into buildings and a rat can become as big as a monster. But if you shrink the world around you, you become a giant and the houses around you become dolls’ houses. In such a miniature world we can imagine what happens. Through the project we can tell these stories and share our ideas. Whatever you can think of, you can make it happen in your dolls’ house.

Connect

The making of the giant dolls’ house is always an event: in a room, an art gallery, a shopping centre or any space where there is a wall to hang the installation. At the venue we, from the Giant Dolls’ House, collate all the boxes onto a black canvas and with your help, connect them with ropes, ramps and ladders so all the boxes are connected and come together to create a giant dolls’ house.

The Giant Dolls’ House is a patchwork of the identities, ideas and feelings expressed by all its makers. The individual dolls’ houses are pieces of art, joined to one another with ropes and ladders becoming a collective installation. Can you tell a story about the houses you see? How would you travel through the dolls’ houses? Follow the ladders.