Design Your Own Space: He-Shed/She-Shed

DESIGN YOUR OWN KID CAVE

Special Places for work or play can go by many names: “She Shed”, “Kid Cave”, “Home Office”, “Game Room”, “Clubhouse”, “Workshop” … most of us want or need one.

Here’s your chance to design your own special space and model what goes into it. Whether you become a professional architect or builder, or use what they produce, thinking about what you want in the space around you is an exercise for a lifetime.

Design Prompts:

While you design your space, answer these questions:

  • What will you call your Special Place?
  • Does it have a Theme? Is it a quiet reading room, a place for you and friends to play games, a place for you to work and build things?
  • What do like to do? Think about what will you do in your space and what you need to do it.
  • Will you be doing more than one thing in your space?
  • When will you be in the space? What times of day?
  • How long will you be in the space at any given time?

Draw a floor plan for your space:

  • How big is it?
  • What is it’s shape? A box or rectangle? A circle? Something more complicated like an “L” or an “H”
  • Is it part of another building or a building of its own?
  • How do you get into and leave your space?
  • Does your space have windows? How many?
  • Which direction(s) do the doors and windows face? North/East/South/West
  • What furniture do you need in your space?
  • Is your space big enough for the furniture you need?
  • Can any of your furniture be used for more than one purpose?

Design Challenge:

Make a scale model of your space and at least one piece of furniture in it.

You have 45 minutes to design your space, build your model, and present it for review.

Resources:

Design: Paper, pens, pencil

Build: Paper, craft sticks, soda straws, Bobby pins, paper tubes, modeling clay, tape, Lego bricks

Tools: Scissors, diagonal cutters