House 4 House
Basic information
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Full project title
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Project Description
House 4 House sets aim to teach children about sustainable design through play. Designed by architects in Denmark, every H4H set is inspired by the ways families build in different climate zones around the world. All elements of the product are sourced, manufactured and hand finished in Portugal. For every toy house set sold we have committed to donate 1/3 of our profits to help upgrade real houses in disadvantaged communities through a microfinance platform. H4H Tropical will launch in 2021.
Project Region
EU Programme or fund
Description of the project
Summary
House 4 House is a range of educational toys designed to teach children about sustainable construction while helping to upgrade a real house for every toy house sold.
H4H aims to disrupt a toy market dominated by short-life plastic products to teach children about environmental sustainability through play. Our construction sets are designed in Denmark by four architects, inspired by the ways families build in different climate zones around the world. All materials in the set are sourced, manufactured and hand finished in Portugal to reduce the product’s environmental footprint.
Housed in a recycled cardboard ‘toolbox’ printed with organic dyes, each H4H set contains over 60 building blocks including walls, floors, stilts, doors, windows and animals. Pieces can be connected in an unlimited number of combinations using our simple filleted slot joint, to create anything from houses to towers, bridges to villages and provide the flexibility for children to explore their creative potential. Each set also contains an illustrated guide and access to our online platform where kids can share their creations.
The H4H ethos is carried beyond the design of the product into our business model. For every toy house sold, we have committed to donate a third of our profits to help upgrade a real house, the origin of our name ‘House 4 House’. We work with a microfinance platform to offer loans for homeowners in low-income communities to finance their self-initiated home improvement projects. Once the loans are repaid, the money will be reinvested so that it can reach more families in the future.
Key objectives for sustainability
Demand is increasing for sustainable toys in Europe, driven by environmentally conscious consumers tired of a toy market saturated with short-life, plastic products. House 4 House aims to meet this demand through providing an attractive alternative: a high quality product made from sustainable materials and manufactured in Europe, which has the added benefit of lowering transport emissions while supporting EU business in sustainable materials and manufacture.
The materials used in each H4H set are 100% natural and are grown and manufactured in Portugal. Roof, window and door pieces are made from cork, a regenerative material made from the bark of the cork oak tree, therefore no trees are cut during harvest. The cork forests of Portugal support over 20,000 plant species, sequester 14 million tonnes of CO2 and protect against fire and soil erosion. Coloured wall, stilt and character pieces are manufactured from Valchromat, a material made from waste from timber mills and recycled pine in a zero carbon emissions production site. Floors are made from FSC certified plywood sourced locally to our manufacturing site. The illustrated guide and box are made from recycled paper and card, printed with natural dyes and packaging material is kept to a minimum. Each set tells the story of where these materials come from and how they are made, with the aim to inspire children’s interest in the circular economy and sustainable design.
Each set aims to teach children about passive climatic design by showcasing different ways of building from around the world, tailored to our target age group of 3+. We plan to launch later in 2021 with H4H Tropical, which explores different ways people construct in hot, humid countries such as wide roof overhangs for shading and raising the building on stilts for airflow. The H4H Tropical set will also include animals found across the tropics and a human character for the children to create and explore their own narratives through play.
Key objectives for aesthetics and quality
House 4 House construction toy sets combine explorative learning with beautiful, natural materials and design, a feature we found appeals to both children and parents from our ‘playshop’ prototyping workshops. Figures and graphics are based around the flora and fauna of the set’s climate zone, teaching children about nature from around the world and giving each set a unique and engaging character.
The materials found in a H4H set have been carefully selected and contain no harmful chemicals and are 100% organic and inert (including binders and dyes). Beyond the sustainability benefits, this approach also acknowledges that play is a multi sensory experience—we encourage children to explore the smell and feel of our toys as a key element of play. In our material selection process we chose materials which had a strong aesthetic merit as well as healthy and haptic qualities, whilst making the toy competitive within our target market. The nature of our manufacturing process means that we can swap in other materials, and we intend to partner with emerging EU sustainable material producers in the coming years to showcase their innovations.
Key objectives for inclusion
House 4 House sets are designed to be gender neutral and fun for all young builders. Our experience working in the architecture profession has highlighted that more needs be done to ensure it is accessible to all who want to practice, and we hope that for some children, H4H might act as a gateway to help rebalance the construction industry in the future. Showcasing a diversity of construction and aesthetic styles from different climate regions around the world, is central to our design concept and is what sets H4H apart from a typical suburban style pitched roof dolls house. We hope that this approach will appeal to customers from all walks of life, and help expose children to different cultures, nature and ways of living. H4H characters and graphic material is also inspired by the climate zone each set represents, which we hope will encourage children to explore beyond the box to find out more about climate zones outside of where they live.
At H4H we think it is important to support equitable conditions for those working to manufacture our products and believe that our target market is willing to pay slightly more to guarantee this. House 4 House sets will be manufactured in the EU, in a factory committed to fair and equitable pay and work conditions.
Innovative character
Early in our design process, we recognised that construction toys which have gone on to become household names have often been based upon a specific and recognisable joining method. We therefore invested significant prototyping time on perfecting our simple and intuitive ‘filleted slot joint’ which allows multiple H4H pieces to be joined securely in endless combinations and different materials. It has been designed to give H4H sets a sense of openness, allowing children to see inside and create imaginary worlds from the spaces within and between buildings. We encourage kids to populate these worlds both with the characters provided in the H4H sets, and to create their own objects from upcycled items found in the house or garden.
The cutting edge CNC milling technique used in the H4H manufacturing process allows pieces to be created with high precision and minimal waste. Utilising this technique means that we can adapt quickly to customer demands, while having the option to create bespoke pieces and limited edition batches. As a manufacturing process, CNC has huge potential in the EU to create high skill level jobs in sustainable manufacturing. Each H4H piece is then hand sanded to create a smooth finish, making it enjoyable to look at, hold and play with.
The name ‘House 4 House’ originates from the idea that every toy house sold will help support a project to upgrade a real home in a low-income community. We plan to do this by funding microfinance loans, which are applied for directly by the people they support. We choose this model as we believe it supports local knowledge and empowers people to make the change they need. Microfinance also enables the money to be reinvested and support more families in the future. We are in the process of building our website and social media platforms so that children, parents or school groups will be able to follow the projects we have supported, and to learn more about other communities around the world.
