Elvis’s Tree House
Elvis’s Tree House is AMODELS’ response to Cathedral Group’s invite to design a doll’s house that is suitable and stimulating for children with disability.
Christian Spencer-Davies, founder and director of AMODELS says: “I based my approach on a real playground that we modelled in Southampton a few years ago with landscape designers LDA Design. The Danish concept was to make the park as physically challenging and literally deliberately dangerous as possible, because kids learn for themselves faster that way. Spark Park includes a rope bridge with no hand rail and a whole hill of polished stainless steel to slide down, all wheel chair accessible. I also wanted my doll’s house to be what a kid might dream of, rather than an architect, so it has slides, tellies, a pool, a diving board. Not a concrete and glass minimalist bungalow. So my doll’s house is physically challenging in that it is a tree house. We started by choosing a doll to dictate the scale and Playmobil was suggested. I took an intern to Argos to buy some figures but they come in random secret / surprise bag and we got a pirate, a red indian and Elvis. Well, inspiration struck, Elvis was a big kid with so much money he could have anything he wanted. Cars, motorbikes, planes, swimming pools, televisions and guns to shoot them with. Welcome to Elvis’s Tree House”.
Elvis’s Tree House has been sold at an auction hosted by Bonham in support of children’s charity Kids on 11th November 2013, together with doll’s houses designed by selected London-based architects and designers.
