What would you do with an empty cardboard box? And your children?... our latest projects have been to turn a box side into a ferris wheel (and it was quite similar to that of Estefi Machado), a whole box at home for the cat (with all kinds of details painted on a marker pen), and a stage to reproduce The Angry Birds game, the latter is an unfinished project because we never have time to make the wool pom poms that will be the birds, so don't ask me for more details.
Can you imagine the amount of possibilities to transform a box into other objects? With this starting point at the Chicago Children's Museum they have organized a large semi-permanent exhibition called Adventures in Cardboard. A great way to involve children and adults in the experience of design and play from a very simple element, and with the help of all kinds of accessories (scissors, glues, colors, feathers, etc.).
Families who come to this space can buy their box at the 'toy store', a store that only houses folded boxes. After scanning the code, the screen offers Up to 30 different possibilities of converting the simple packaging into a robot, an airplane, a train…
From there the imagination is activated and children have been able to invent an umbrella, a mask, a bag, etc. I have sincerely loved this experience, and I really like to see the face of satisfaction of the children before something that they themselves have created. Surely it is something unmatched that moves away a lot from the alleged joy with which they receive a plastic toy that after trying it they discover that it only has five functions and they soon get bored of it.
Who among us has never uttered this phrase: 'children open the gift and then they seem to have more interest in playing with the packaging'! This happens especially when they are small, but I love to encourage imagination and creation from unprocessed elements.
This idea of the Children's Museum in Chicago has reminded me of Paparajote's little houses, which are nothing more than 'replicas' of those huge refrigerator boxes that our parents left us to play: the interior seemed so great and so many possibilities to have fun!
