Mini Playhouse - Museum of the Home

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We want children to have a say in how they play at the museum. Together with children at Randal Cremer Primary School and architect-educators MATT+FIONA, we co-designed and produced an interactive playhouse.

How we co-designed the Mini Playhouse

The children mind mapped and shared experiences of their own homes, before looking at the Rooms Through Time for inspiration. Then, they designed models which were taken away by MATT+FIONA and turned into a modular, accessible playhouse.

During summer 2023, a weekly residency programme was delivered for families to test out the resource, build dens, use tools such as hammers and drills, and create their own model designs.

I left the museum so happy – this project hit so many of the curriculum needs! The children are so proud of this space and speak fondly to visitors about the partnership with the museum.

Teacher feedback

A young child pulls a pink ribbon towards a bright green pegboard playhouse frame. Clothes drape from the interactive structure. — MATT+FIONA Mini Playhouse Build & Play workshop at Museum of the Home

A series of cardboard house-shaped panels, stapled together into an elongated strip, each “room” fitted with blue paper cut-outs forming chairs, tables, lamps, and a green vase of flowers. Drawn sketches and glue sticks lie scattered on the table beneath as a child works with a small piece of paper in the background. — MATT+FIONA Schools workshop, Photo by Museum of the Home

Two children stand at a green pegboard playhouse frame, looping bright pink cords through the holes and securing patterned ribbons; an adult in the further background guides fabric piecesas more cloth panels drape from the interactive structure. — MATT+FIONA Mini Playhouse Build & Play workshop at Museum of the Home

A small child looks at the camera as they play in a green wooden modular house — Museum of the Home Lunar New Year Family Day. Photo credit: Hayley Madden

A young child clips a patterned fabric panel to a bright green pegboard playhouse frame, reaching up to secure the cloth through one of the round holes with a green clip; in the background, more fabric pieces hang from the colorful, interactive structure. — MATT+FIONA Mini Playhouse Build & Play workshop at Museum of the Home

Since then, the Mini Playhouse has taken on many different forms for our family days – from a puppet theatre to a recording studio.

We want to say a special thank you to all the year 4 students at Randal Cremer Primary School, Allysha Jandu, and the MATT+FIONA team for helping to realise this project.

We loved our visit – the playhouse provided HOURS of fun/imaginative play.

Family feedback

About MATT+FIONA

MATT+FIONA is an architecture education organisation that trusts and supports young people to create more inclusive and representative spaces. There are three strands to their work: BUILD, LEARN, and CONNECT.

BUILD projects inject creativity into school and cultural organisations’ programming, with a real-world output: A new temporary or permanent space made by and for young people.
LEARN gives teachers and youth workers the skills, knowledge and confidence to design and deliver their own ‘build’ projects with young people.
CONNECT gives built environment teams the skills, knowledge and confidence to work with young people to build constructive dialogue around placemaking.

Since 2016, MATT+FIONA have worked with leading community and cultural organisations, universities and schools to create and deliver more than 25 buildings, installations and meanwhile spaces, collaborating with more than 4,000 young people and 200 volunteers across the UK.

A blurred figure walks across a room in front of weathered looking panels and windows showing a model of a city.

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