It’s that time of year – the 2011 ORIX Parade of Playhouses benefitting Dallas CASA.
The Parade of Playhouses, hosted by NorthPark Center, provides an opportunity to help abused and neglected children realize their dreams of finding safe, permanent homes. In its 14th year, the event raises public awareness about child abuse, the plight of children in foster care in Dallas County and ways to help.
During the two-week Parade of Playhouses, visitors to NorthPark purchase raffle tickets for chances to win one of many extraordinary, custom-built playhouses. The playhouse drawing is held during the event’s closing ceremony. I have participated in this event 3 consecutive years and I have had a great time with it.
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The concept for this years playhouse is that it’s a entomologist’s scientific station for examining bugs (because that’s what entomologists do). Maybe this is because I asked for some input from my daughter and she had just spent the day collecting and sorting bugs that we discovered in our backyard while planting bushes. I still have my personal rule for designing follies like this – it has to be something that I would want in my backyard and not a disposable building.
All in, I have spent about 60 hours coming up with this design, vetting the construction details out in SketchUp, and creating these construction drawings. I was able to put together the drawings for last years design in about 4 hours … these took twice as long (uh-oh). I have a great deal of interest in expressing the design of this playhouse through how it is built.
Scale is another very important item for me. Just like last years design, I think that is you look at these drawings without paying attention to the dimensions, you would think that this is a full size building, rather than the kid sized version. Not to toot my own horn (too loudly) but that’s a lot harder than it sounds. With that, here are the construction drawings:
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So there you have it – the construction drawings for my playhouse design. It seems laughable to say that there is a lot of information not decided or indicated on these drawings looking back over them. I still have to work on the final materials and color scheme, plus I know that I need to remain flexible with the design considering the contractor I have tapped to help make this design a reality is donating everything it will take to build this playhouse. That contractor is none other than Barry Buford with Buford Builders, Inc. I have worked with Barry on several of my residential projects over the last 8 years and this will be the 3rd consecutive year that I have “forced” him to build my design. Considering that this is my 3rd consecutive year to do this … well, you do the math. Barry is a good guy and asked to work on this project – I didn’t have to force him to do anything.
The delivery date for this playhouse is August 4th so there will be one or possibly two more posts on the construction progress in the coming weeks. Let me apologize now if you get sick of seeing these playhouses – I think this is a great cause and I wish more architects would get involved. I’m not going to get up on my soapbox (I did that Tuesday) but anyone who is in the Dallas/ Fort Worth metroplex, I am going to expect you to come up and say hello, maybe even buy a raffle ticket or ten. I’ll let you know the particulars as soon as I know them.
Cheers.
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Hi,
I am helping a playhouse fund raising effort for the CASA that is north of Boston. Can I possibly obtain the drawings you show in CAD form so I can modify them to meet our site needs. We would be so grateful for this. I can take .dwg or .dxf formats.
Hi, Bob. Very nice website, congratulations!. U have a question: what is the name of the font you used in this project? Thanks
Nice
Why won’t Bryce look at the playhouse?
hey bob, nice project! one question: what is the nama of the font? i love it.
thank you dennis
So Bob, what program did you use to create the drawings and the model? Were they one and the same or was the model built and rendered in SketchUp and the construction drawings done in AutoCAD?
Not one and the same. I could have used the exported files from SketchUp but I am fairly particular about line weights (a nod to the years I spent hand drafting).
Nice little set of plans Bob. Someday when it’s time for you to decide on a career you ought to think about becoming an architect!
Seriously, nice set. I probably missed it but one thing that appears to be missing (and it’s critical to the design) is the eave overhang dimension. You have it on the gable ends but not on the wall sides.
And here, if you do give that info, I’d “Think like a carpenter” and not simply give the horizontal dimension for the overhang but actually draw the template for the entire 1X4 rafter (birds mouth cut, dimensions to get the ridge angle, dimensions to get the oblique overhang angle, etc.) and not worry about showing the horizontal overhang dimension at all. Because if your template is correct, the horizontal overhang will be what you want. And with the template you wouldn’t even need to indicate the roof pitch. all the caprenter has to do is cut the lumber according to your template. Right now the carpenter has to take all of your dimensions and make a template so you might as well do it for him.
Doug
Oh, I just saw you have a dimension up from the bottom of the base. If I’m a carpenter the whole rafter cuts are going to be very tough to figure out. Looks like a screw up wating to happen. Go the template route.
Doug
a walk in the park compared to what the same people did for me last year:
http://www.lifeofanarchitect.com/japanese-playhouse-the-construction-documents/
Doug – all excellent information and observations. I do have a dimension string that will give you the elevation from the ground to the eave but you have to add up the string to get it. Truth is, this set of “construction documents” is way overkill since I have some of the best people craftsman ever building this playhouse. One thing I’m not worried about is the contractor taking a shortcut.
Cheers
The hardest part I see of this design to do in reality is the mitered corners of the lap siding. That will be the time sucker but a good place to test a trim carpenters skills on. Nice design!
Don’t I know it. Despite the fact that I try and detail the jeebus out of these things, resolve every little detail and condition – and – make it so the whole thing can be built by a trim carpenter to keep costs down, that mitered corner detail is important. I know Barry can pull it off but if it proves to be too much of a time suck, I’ll put my design ego aside and modify the detail.
Thanks for taking the time to comment Chris, I appreciate it.
I most definitively agree with the look. The only way to make it easier and keep the curve look is to bandsaw a 4×4 to match the curves on each side (mind you I don’t think this would look as good) Although not a problem for the competition, the other issue you may have is the expansion/contraction in the wood at the miters causing gaps after some time in the elements. Another option would be to bring the screen into the corners somehow.
After thinking about this and how I would do it…I have a solution for you. This will actually make it easier to build as well. After looking at how big it was you can make panels with the siding on a sheet of plywood with a furring strips for the curve and once panel is sided cut a 45 degree angle on it with a table saw. I can sketchup what I am thinking if I am not wording it right. You can tell the builder you thought of it. Total construction for building would take a day tops and details another day.
what you are describing is how we have already decided to build it – except those aren’t curves. The panels cant out of plumb by 5 degrees and we are planning on installing the 5/16 lap siding onto the plywood before cutting them to fit.
I am meeting with Barry today at 3:00 to go over the nuances of construction – soon I’ll have progress photos so stay tuned!
Looking forward to seeing more Bob of this project & my hats off to you & Barry – great cause
Thanks Sean, I am building an online library with these playhouse posts so that every year I can direct people to my site when they want to know what I am asking them to do.
I put together a competition for architectural interns and young architects where they design a playhouse and I find the money and contractors to build the winning designs. This year we had around 50 entries and we are building 4 playhouse (mine isn’t included in the 4). I do this because I think it is a great cause, all I have to do is look at my daughter and think about the kids that get helped by Dallas CASA. How can you not do something?
Have a great day
You know, those 60 hrs, I’d guess, are earning major respect points from your daughter. Don’t think for a moment that she isn’t thrilled to pieces that you took the time required to design what she recommended. Awesome….and, yes, I do love that it seems like it would be a full sized cabin in the woods.
As far as my daughter knows, this process happens over night because she goes to bed when it’s just an idea and when she wakes up – viola! – there’s drawings and 3d models.
She thinks my job is super easy – and I’m glad that she does.
I love how you have made a design that looks sophisticated but has a great dash of whimsey to it. I love how the walls bow in. It’s very childlike without alienating adults.
Thanks Alexandra – that was exactly what I was going for. It’s a difficult line to walk between designing something that kids will respond to and giving the adults something that isn’t a pink/white & purple castle that makes you groan every time you look at it months after the kids are bored with playing with it.
Cheers