Background

Big Toy is an ongoing side project I’ve been working on with my niece and nephew. We wanted to build a play house one day, and I suspected it might be more fun if they never had to stop building it. The system is an attempt to simulate the real design and build process, and the parts are meant to represent the essential components of building science: the foundation, post, beam, deck and wall.

There’s a model scale toy, a digital modeling app, and a full scale modular climbing apparatus at the children’s scale. So far we’ve built a prototype of the full scale Big Toy, and have started mocking up the model scale toy and the mobile app.

The app will work like a 3D modeling program, and will suggest possibilities based on the modules the child has already selected. Kids will be able to save their designs to share with others or to reference as they reproduce them at model scale or full scale.

Model Scale

The model scale toy will work in the same way the full scale climbing apparatus does, and can be used to build anything kids might otherwise build at this scale with similar toys like blocks or legos. I’m interested to learn if the kids are more comfortable designing this way or with the app.