Last Refugee Week, over 160 people from across the UK and beyond created shoebox houses, reflecting on their experiences of home in the light of the Covid pandemic. Together, their creations formed a ‘Virtual Giant Dolls’ House’, called ‘Alone Together’. Take a look at the houses on the Giant Dolls’ House website here.

One year on, the Giant Dolls’ House team is again inviting people of all ages to create their own doll’s houses in a shoebox, sharing their experiences of the past year or hopes for the future.

The 2021 edition of the project follows a year in which people all over the world have had their lives and movement restricted due to coronavirus, and many have had to reacquaint themselves with their home environment. All the while, the 79.5 displaced people around the world face few choices about where they live, and when they will see their families and communities again.

At the same time, people everywhere have shown care and compassion, demonstrating that, in the words of the Refugee Week 2021 theme, ‘We Cannot Walk Alone’.

The 2021 Giant Dolls’ House Project is created in solidarity with refugees and displaced people across the world and a way of showing that together, we care.

The project is accepting submissions now until 7 June, and the shoe boxes will again form a giant collective dolls’ house, to be shared/exhibited during Refugee Week 2021 (14-20 June).

Led by architect Catja de Haas, the Giant Dolls’ House Project is part of Refugee Week 2021 and London Festival of Architecture 2021, in collaboration with Oxfam Education. For more information and to submit your house, visit the Giant Doll’s House website.

If your organisation, community or school would like to host a dolls’ house-making workshop by Catja de Haas and her team, email info@giantdollshouse.org​.

Doll’s house pictured by Kudiwanashe