ArtCenter Valedictorian Invents Paper Playset to Foster Creativity, Sustainability

A sustainable children’s playset invented by an ArtCenter College of Design valedictorian is challenging our perspectives on toys by using realistic examples.

Archamelia, The House of a Thousand Stories, is the brainchild of 2018 ArtCenter Product Design graduate Charlie Neshbya-Hodges, according to the university.

The “transforming paper toy house” includes five different playsets that can be configured in more than 20 ways, ArtCenter said in a written statement. 

“Designed to accommodate a child’s favorite toys and figurines, the gender-neutral toy expands to ten times its size and folds neatly and beautifully back into a bookshelf, providing hours of screen-free play inspiration for kids of all ages,” the statement said.

The invention has its origins in Neshbya-Hodges’s work at ArtCenter, he explained. During a course sponsored by toy giant Mattel, he and his classmates were given the task of redesigning the Barbie Dream House.

“One of my big issues with the Barbie dream house is that it was a 27-pound behemoth that was 96% plastics and metals,” Neshbya-Hodges said. “In my playtesting, what I’ve heard from parents is that they feel incredible guilt. They buy plastic toys and their kids like the toy for sometimes just a couple hours before it’s over.”

When tasked with re-envisioning the Barbie Dream House, several issues jumped out right away, Neshbya-Hodges said. It was heavy, it was expensive, it was primarily plastic. It depicted only lavish homes, and it carried “the social stereotypes that plagued Barbie, especially through the ‘Me Too’ movement and beyond,” he said.

Seeking to make a playset that represented a wider array of children, including those who have no houses to call home, Neshbya-Hodges said he reached out to Journey House Foster Care and refugee families from the Mosaic Church to understand what truly makes a home.

“I don’t think it’s appropriate anymore to tell kids that everybody can have a three-story mega-mansion with a pony and a swimming pool,” he said. “It’s not financially, environmentally, or socially possible.”

Each room was inspired by a different experience Neshbya-Hodges had when he was visiting the different foster homes and refugee families. 

“For a foster kid, home is where the artifact might be, such as ‘this was my dad’s sock or a picture of my mom, and that inspired one of the rooms, which was a drawer to hide your keepsakes, your special items,” Neshbya-Hodges explained. 

“For the refugee kids, home was the smell of mom’s cooking, so the kitchen became a really critical place for their sense of home, and that inspired the salt and spoon cafe, which is the second room in the house,” he continued. 

And the development process included plenty of expert testing by children.

“It was definitely inspired by my play testing with these kids and trying to listen to what they wanted to do, instead of forcing them to do what I thought they needed to do,”  Neshbya-Hodges said.

Sustainability was also an important goal, he said.

The playsets are all hand-assembled locally, sourced from responsibly managed Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified forests.

“Ninety percent of parents believe in climate change,”  Neshby-Hodges said. “They know that this plastic is bad, but they feel guilty because they don’t know how to take care of it. What shocked me was they believed it was their fault when it was the people giving them toys that are not thoughtful, expecting them to deal with the emotional grief of what to do with it.” 

Neshbya-Hodges already has 200 customers for this Christmas, and he has hand-delivered the first half of his products to the residences. 

Neshbya-Hodges said he spent decades as a professional dancer before studying product design at ArtCenter.

“Now I’m kind of dancing through design trying to communicate with an audience,” Neshbya-Hodges said. “This time, instead of manipulating my body, I’m going to manipulate an object, but the goal is the same; to create something that is entertaining and transportive.”

More information on Archamelia is available on the company website at archamelia.com.