OPEN CALL / DESIGN LAB / KATARÍNA (VESA) KREVOVÁ: CASAVESA PLAYSHELF.DOLLHOUSE

Wooden shelf. Playshelf. Dollhouse. Bookcase. Slow concept. Sustainable. Gender neutral. Modifiable. Lifetime use.

The CASAVESA toy shelf is created as a multifunctional piece of small furniture that accompanies a child from kindergarten to adulthood, even for a longer period of time. The prototype was born out of the „desperation“ of two architects who, when they became parents, were unable to find a dollhouse for their daughters that corresponded to their aesthetic sensibilities and the need for sustainability and multifunctionality. Katarína designed and created all the „features“ on a cardboard model, and her husband Ivan built the first prototype from plywood. Thus began the story of CASAVESA Playshelf.Dollhouse.

Playshelf.Dollhouse, however, is not just a one-level house for dolls. Over the course of 3 years, more than 20 children of different age groups have tested it, using it as a shelf for books and school supplies, a night light, a shelf for pencils and writing utensils, an exhibition of a collection of stones, a showcase for ceramic crafts, a „make-up desk“, a shelf for a collection of manga comics, a garage for cars, a hospital, a hotel, Rokfort, a fire station and a police station, a school, a shelf for cacti and succulents… The imagination knows no bounds.

Playshelf.Dollhouse has dimensions: height = 76cm, width = 62cm, depth = 20cm. It is made of plywood with a matte, colorless finish suitable for children's toys. The main body has 3 floors (shelves) and 6 separate light circles with mini switches and etched LED strips with opal diffusers. The dollhouse also includes 6 separate, color-changing cubes and 6 separate, removable ladders.

The cubes can be rotated, pulled out and moved within the levels, so the CASAVESA Playshelf.Dollhouse is never the same. By placing the cubes on the top floor, we get 4 levels. If two children cannot agree on playing in one house, a completely separate house #2 can be built from the cubes outside the house.
However, there is definitely an alternative that we haven’t yet come across. It grows along with the children and fully supports their imagination.