Come Up to My Room

Attention all young designers! Invention Squad is featured at the alternative design exhibit: Come Up To My Room  at the Gladstone Hotel next weekend. Our workshop will invite participants to design their own dreamscape and add it to our growing hotel. Come build with us in the ballroom on Friday from 1-3pm, Saturday 11-3pm and on Sunday at 9-11am. The rest of the exhibit features rooms filled with installations and fantasy exhibits from a host of artists and will engage audiences of all ages. A great way to spend your PA day.

My Place….

…..has an open concept kitchen, a loft bedroom (with a ladder to go up) a bedroom and an office den with a desk and laptop computer.

……is a spooky funhouse, with a hanging skeleton, a bouncy bunk bed and various resident ghouls.

…is a witch doctor's palace, with a central elevated spell platform and fenced off nook rooms for each family member.

…has a video game table with room for the console and three controllers and an attached jumbo screen.

….has a platform bed with a window view, a computer desk and wall mounted screen and a shower unit.

……is a fashion-themed penthouse with a lipstick shaped bed and chair, a large walk-in closet and a room for cats and dogs (with a central dividing wall).

---has a comfy lying area with two stuffed pillows, a storage area and a sink and can fold up!

…is actually a jet plane with a steering wheel and reinforced seat.

---has a multi-legged table which is sturdy enough to hold a person! After dinner, it can be flipped over and can be used as a hoop throwing carnival game!

…has a trampoline, a boxing set personal trainer, a 32" TV in the bedroom, a velvet cushion armchair on wheels, a cheetah-sheeted queen-sized bed with a skylight over it, lots of plants on the balcony, a free food service, a disco-shower with a built in mirror ball and boom box unit and heated bathroom floor.

…has an inside treehouse, a pool table, a chalk room, a purple and pink bunk bed, a trampoline, a flat screen TV, skinny boxes, a make-up room, separate walk-in closets for the girls and the boys,a play kitchen and a hot tub.

Life in the trees

One of our challenges this week was to plan and build an animal treehouse. After picking a creature -real or mythical, the kids started off by drafting a plan. This was a 2D bird's eye view or a side view. Every creature needs a good lookout and somewhere to stash their food, so we encouraged the addition of windows, doors, connecting stairs or corridors and furniture to define the different rooms.

                                         Here are some of the ideas:

This dragon den includes a surround view flying dome.

Many of the plans had modular components connected by tunnels. 

These lucky ants have an amusement park on hand.

"Hang-outs" featured prominently on many of the plans. 

This locust house has a hotel add-on for guests. 

This rabbit tree-warren connects to the ground-level burrow and has a nursery area for baby rabbits. 

A multi-level cat treehouse with climb zone, scratch post walkways and a relaxing lounge. 

Alternative sketches for hanging squirrel dens

At the end of this landscaping session we challenged the kids to transform their blueprint into a 3D model of their treehouse. Architectural prototyping requires spatial perception, mathematical thinking and basic crafting skills. Offering a limited selection of found materials to build with (in this case picnic ware: plates, cups, forks, spoons and coffee stirrers) makes this modelling task a little trickier. It requires exploration of how the materials connect, flex and balance. As play-doh and tape were involved, also a lot of fun!

Some students enjoyed experimenting with the materials to move beyond their 2D plans :

How high can this squirrel house possibly go? 

This student decided to plan an underwater treehouse. Here's her fish fountain. 

A cascading slide will connect the swim layers.

Ramps and spring-boards featured in this attractive squirrel-drome. Interesting geometry!

Construction team.

Working it out together