Architecture Crafts Project

When a person thinks of architecture in terms of a house, one of the first things that may come to mind is Frank Lloyd Wright's Falling Water or even houses in your neighborhood. Yet, a house in the woods or on the street corner are extremely normal and it takes a real dreamer to make a real fantasy house come to life. The idea of a house hanging in a canyon may seem far fetched but the human imagination can overcome any obstacle. So, just imagine for a moment that you are walking through a canyon and find the most perfect, secluded place on the planet. Imagine you fall so deeply in love with the area that you want to build a house; however, knowing that most canyons are flood ways, you decide to build a house that hangs down from the cliff faces above. How would you do it? How would you build it? What would it look like? A flying saucer? An airplane? A cloud? A house? This is what I came up with:

The concept for my canyon house is an upside down tree. I thought that a person walking through a canyon, looking up, and seeing a house would be extremely excited. But I wanted my house to stand out in their memory as the most extraordinary house they had ever seen. A person looking up and seeing a structure that looks like an upside down tree might be more tempted to remember it. To make my concept come to life I used several forms including circles, leaf shapes, triangles, rectangles, pentagons, and arches. I also used a variety of household tools, including string, popsicle sticks, small wooden circles, foil, markets glue, cardstock, paper mache, and tissue paper. All of these elements brought the imaginary house into a small model.

The house’s primary function would be to provide a place to live in a canyon-like setting. It would have enough space to roam around in freely and a staircase is provided to allow its inhabitants easy access from the wires supporting it from above. In addition, the house is divided into 4 major sections. There is a central hub and 3 wings extending out from the center hub. The central hub is a living room area, one of the 3 wings would serve as a kitchen and dining room area, and the final two wings would each be a different bedroom with a different tree theme. Even though it is a house, it would look like a large propeller from the bottom or the top.

I wanted the space inside the house to use the lighting. A hanging house has light shining at it from all angles; therefore, I allowed for plenty of window space and even put in different colored glass to make the affects of light more dramatic. The use of natural lighting would also cut back on electricity costs and pollution. In the green paper mache wing, I wanted the variety of light colors to play gleefully along the house floors and walls. It would be like walking into a bedroom colored by rainbows and the best part is that the light is constantly changing color and position with the change in direction of sunlight. The other two wings and central hub would have more natural lighting, than colored lighting, like a traditional house.

The model is primarily supported with wood because I wanted to bring out the tree element of the house. This is also why the color green is quite prevalent throughout the house. The walls are made of cardstock, a manufactured tree product, again to make the house more tree-like. In the central hub, the string is used not only to hang the model but can also serve as electricity, water, and gas lights. String was also to create a crosswalk from the hub to the dining and kitchen area in a sort of jungle bridge way. I thought it made the house look more exotic and, naturally, the holes between the rope and the wooden popsicle sticks would be filled with glass to see through the structure. This is why the markers, foil, and cellophane are used to create the window effect in other places of the house. Using these elements, I believe the elements of a tree are incorporated nicely.

Although I know it may be childish, the idea of using your imagination to create anything you want to is an amazing gift. Every invention in human history began with a thought, that led to a plan, that led to something being built or written, and this is your chance to show what your imagination can do. Just stop and think for a minute what your mind can come up with and what new worlds you can build all on your own. The human brain is unique because we can actually make our ideas come to life. I had fun making a hanging house model. What can you come up with? What is your dream? What is your vision? Do you dare to bring it to life, even if it is in just a simple model?