This dolls’ house is designed to work as a coffee table and children’s plaything. Designed and manufactured by Amy Whitworth of Qubis Design, the house was developed with funding from the Boost product design competition, and launched at the Southbank Centre in 2012.
Based on her own experiences of supervising her daughter at play in a contemporary living room, Amy Whitworth developed a multi-functional piece of furniture which appealed to adults and children. In fact, it was more popular as a toy because “the fact it is always out and in the centre of the room means that it is always played with”.
The demand for this type of object reflects the changing distribution of domestic space in present day Britain. The last quarter of the twentieth century saw children increasingly sharing adult space, and making claims on living rooms with toys and games. In twenty-first century Britain, middle class homes are smaller and increasingly open-plan, with fewer separated play rooms or nurseries.