Canfor’s Playhouse Challenge is an annual event at Vancouver’s Pacific National Exhibition. B.C.’s top wood suppliers have teamed up with local architects and builders to design and realize imaginative playhouses for kids. The playhouses will be on display in a special themed area for the duration of the 2013 Fair at the PNE, Aug. 17- Sept. 2.
Following the Fair, the playhouses will be sold to pre-registered corporate buyers for donation to communities and charities throughout the province. This year, the funds raised will go to the B.C. Children’s Hospital’s ‘Child Health B.C.’
The architects at Office of McFarlane Biggar worked with Kindred Construction. They decided to showcase the beauty of the wood and to see how playful they could be within the confines of the requirements (the playhouse was limited to 8’x8′ so that it could be transported to the fair on a truck).
Their response was to build their playhouse from a minimal palette of only 2×3 pieces of spruce-pine fir, protected from the elements with a clear coated varnish, and to break their structure into two parts, thus enlarging their playhouse with an additional rope climbing frame in between. The twin structure, which they’ve named ‘Sam + Pam’, was built in a factory and constructed on the site in one day.
Sam + Pam offers children new spatial experiences and suggests new forms of play.
Here is the project statement from OMB:
Sam + Pam are twins. They are very much the same, only different.
The big day is here: they are ready to leave their lumberyard in Vanderhoof.
Swinging their rope bridge between them, they trundle off, in search of fun.
Suddenly, the quiet is broken by shrieks. Children play, adventure reigns, imaginations soar.
“Sam, why are you laughing?”
Sam blurts, “I-I-It tickles!”
MORE ABOUT THE 2ND ANNUAL CANFOR’S PLAYHOUSE CHALLENGE
British Columbia’s top forestry companies are teaming up with some of the province’s most innovative architectural firms and talented builders for the 2nd Annual Canfor’s Playhouse Challenge, a unique undertaking that will ultimately entertain thousands of B.C. children while providing funding for B.C. Children’s Hospital Foundation.
Canfor’s Playhouse Challenge will see the building of several unique and imaginative children’s playhouses that will eventually be auctioned off to corporate donors. Each playhouse is a collaborative project, with a BC forest products company donating building materials, an architectural team contributing their creativity in design, and a local builder providing their expertise in design.
“Building on the incredible success of last year’s event, we are very excited to launch the 2nd Annual Canfor’s Playhouse Challenge,” says Don Kayne, president and CEO of Canfor. “This challenge not only brings joy to thousands of children and families across the province, but also showcases the vast array of local sustainable forest products, creativity and talent that British Columbia has to offer.”
Finished playhouses will be on display in a special themed area at the 2013 Fair at the PNE where they are expected to draw hundreds of thousands of little visitors throughout the 15-day end-of-summer event.
Following the Fair, the playhouses will be sold to pre-registered corporate buyers for donation to children’s charity organizations across the province. Funds raised will go to benefit B.C. Children’s Hospital Foundation’s Child Health B.C. Program to ensure every child in BC has access to consistent and first-rate standard care, no matter where in the province they live.
For more information on Canfor’s Playhouse Challenge, visit playhousechallenge.com.