For the second year in a row, CJB Construction has partnered with Archiscapes, LLC to create a Cottage for Kids – a playhouse designed and built as acharity project to raise money for medical care for local uninsured kids. With the help of some greal local sponsors, our team is in the middle of designing and building this cottage, which will be unveiled in November at Rosemary Beach. This year’s cottage is designed as a submarine broken in half and being dragged underwater by a giant Octopus. We hope the kids have fun scaling the ship’s inside, playing with its nautical instruments and sliding down the Octopus’ giant tentacles. We know we certainly will.
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PRESS RELEASE
by Dr. Mary Konovsky, executive director, CVHN
A children’s charity event may seem the last place to recreate an eerie underwater scene … but then again, what’s more fun than sliding down the tentacle of the giant octopus that is eating your submarine?
Architecture firm Archiscapes LLC and builder CJB Construction have partnered to create “Fury from the Deep,” a playhouse for the 2008 Cottages for Kids charity event. Cottages for Kids is a fundraising effort that benefits Children’s Volunteer Health Network Inc., a faith based non-profi t organization that facilitates free access to medical, dental and mental health care for uninsured and underinsured children.
In an effort to raise money for this cause, builders and architects come together to craft “cottages” or playhouses that are subsequently auctioned off with the proceeds going to the charity.
The Archiscapes and CJB Construction team, however, appear to have taken the charity’s directive of creating “cottages that look like they have popped out from the pages of a fairytale” in an entirely different direction. Instead of recreating a classical fairy Godmother’s home, the team is set to recreate an underwater voyage reminiscent of a Jules Verne novel.
“We wanted to create something that stood out from the rest,” said Chris Stoyles, principal architect and owner of Archiscapes LLC. “I think this will do the trick.”
The Fury from the Deep “cottage” is the firm’s attempt to recreate the image of a submarine being dragged underwater by a giant octopus. The suction-cup lined tentacles curl around the submarine, which the octopus has broken in half.
The idea is for kids to climb up into the broken submarine, discovering knobs, pulls, cranks and whistles to pull, push and turn along the way. Hidden nooks inside allow them to climb into the submarine’s window bays and look through periscopes to the view outside. At the top, they can slide down one of the octopus’ tentacles into a pit of blue-colored plastic balls – in imitation of the ocean.
In the spirit of building green, many of the materials used in building the cottage will be reclaimed materials from various sources including left over construction materials, scrap sheet metal, and reclaimed submarine and nautical equipment.
Builder Craig Baranowski said team members dreamed up the idea when they realized that all of the cottages architects and builders created in previous years were based on the good guys’ side of the fairytale.
“We thought, why not turn this around and do something unique,” Baranowski said. “What kid wouldn’t think it’s cool to defend their submarine from a giant sea monster?”
Fury from the Deep and the rest of the cottages will be unveiled at the Cottages for Kids grand opening on Nov. 8, on the East Long Green at Rosemary Beach. The auction date is set for Nov. 29. The cottages will be open for kids to play in between those dates.
This is the second year Archiscapes and CJB have partnered together for the Cottages for Kids charity. In 2007, the team designed and produced a “Pineapple Under the Sea” cottage for the event.
This article was contributed by Dr. Mary Konovsky, executive director, CVHN.