Ground Plan for a Dollhouse: A Tool for a Workshop in Creativity

March 7, 2015

I finished making this knitted ground plan for a dollhouse, to be used in a creativity workshop that I am conducting for "disadvantaged" children in Singapore.

In the mid-70s I was enrolled for an M.A. in Clinical Psychology, and most of my practicum was in leading play therapy sessions for the emotionally disturbed. I had a four-foot dollhouse with an elevator and, of course, a lot of the smaller ones. All of them were culture-bound; some Filipino children had difficulty relating to them. Moreover, the dollhouse roofs always were visual obstructions, and it was rather awkward to rearrange dolls and dollhouse furniture inside the rooms while tending to knock down everything else.

In my knitted dollhouse, portions can be folded under as the workshop facilitator or therapist deems right. Rooms can also be elevated by placing books beneath the knitted work.

From bottom, there is a street (the social image) and a strip of grass leading to the entrance to the lot, which is bordered by a pink rose hedge (the defense mechanisms). The living room on the right is in old rose (the persona), a visual transition from the rose hedge. The dining room (willingness to share) on the left is in orange; above it is the kitchen in pale pink (management of resources) on the left and a study in yellow (solitude, mental activity, experimentation) on the right. A portion of the study room is lined in pale pink; the subject may be informed that it is either a wall of bookshelves or a secret vault. There is a midpoint of the cross-shaped blue passage (the center of consciousness). The grass and the passage turn darker in shade above, signaling the approach to the unconscious--the realm of the Shadow.

Above left, in magenta, is the parents' bedroom; to the right, in pale blue, is the children's bedroom. Between them is a T/B, which, like the kitchen and the bookshelves/secret vault, is in pale pink.

The rose hedge turns darker and the grass fades into earth above. The swimming pool (or pond, if the subject prefers) is a 1950s kidney-shape which I deliberately made to somewhat look like a fetus (regression).

Beyond the rose hedge (the defense mechanisms) is an empty lot on the left, in dark blue (the collective unconscious) and a public playground on the right in brown (a stage for the Shadow or for fantasy personages). Again, the boundaries here are in pale pink.

This work is washable, foldable, highly portable, easy to store, and measured to accommodate standard dollhouse furniture, which I did not bother to include in this photo. It can, by the way, double up as a small blanket, a sofa throw, or a shawl.