Design Competition – design a home for your favourite fictional character

WINNER - POPPY AGE 8. A house for Lotta from “Lotta says No” by Astrid Lindgren, as I love this book and the character of Lotta Lotta likes wooden houses, the outdoors, woodland and climbing trees! The house would be made of sustainable wood. The author is Swedish, so I think it would look like a Swedish house.

WINNER - SOPHIA, AGE 11. A house and garden for Squirrel Nutkin. My fictional character is called Squirrel Nutkin and I chose him because I think he’s funny and I like squirrels. My house has three floors: the 1st floor is for work and storage purposes, the second floor is the bedroom, with snacks, wardrobe, and lots of books. The third floor is like the entertainment floor, where here is a jacuzzi, table tennis table, darts and a little garden. I think Squirrel Nutkin would like to live here because the house has everything a squirrel could possibly need, like a place to relax and looooooooooooots of acorns! I made the house environmentally friendly by using wood and natural resources, not using any plastic and putting lots of plants on every floor.

WINNER - SOPHIA, AGE 11. Level two.

WINNER - SOPHIA, AGE 11. Level three.

RUNNER UP - ROSA, AGE 5. A home for Zog the Dragon. I chose Zog because he is fun and he is a dragon. Zog lives in my castle and Zog has a big garden and he has sausage trees and he has a very very big castle. His castle has been made out of bricks. The bricks have been recycled and they are very old.

RUNNER UP - AARVI, AGE 8. The name of the character is Olivia. Her talent is science and backing. I chose her because he’s my favourite character in the Lego Friends. Her robot is called Zobo, shown in the picture, who she made by herself, being so creative, just like me! The house is made from Lego, but if this was for real it would be made of naturally coloured bricks that are environmentally friendly. This has a garden and open roof to keep the ventilation.

RUNNER UP - SETH, AGE 12. A home for R2-D2. My design contains 4 rooms and a garden. The first room is a living room with a blank wall. This is more useful than a TV to R2-D2 because he can project any film or TV show he wants to watch out of his built-in projector. Due to his shape and stature he doesn’t need to sit down. However, there is a chair in the living room in case his best friend C3PO visits. The next room along contains a hollochess board as seen in the Star Wars movies. There is also a touchscreen computer in the wall. In the middle of the room there is a conveyor belt which leads upto R2-D2 ‘s bedroom on the second floor. Even though it’s a bedroom there is no bed in the room because R2-D2 can sleep standing up. The next room along is a workshop. It is frequently mentioned in the movies that R2-D2 is an avid mechanic and engineer so this gives him a chance to enjoy his hobby. His garden has a large umbrella so he doesn’t overheat when it’s hot.Instead of making the house out of bricks I chose steel which is environmentally friendly, but suits R2-D2 better as he is made entirely of metal himself. Because R2-D2 does not need to eat or drink there is no requirement for disposable plastic food packaging in his house.

RUNNER UP - RIA, AGE 12. A home for Lord Voldemort. I chose him because he is really evil and cunning. The colour theme of his house would reflect these traits. I also chose this person as I really enjoyed reading about him and watching films about him. Lord Voldemort is one of my favourite fictional characters I have designed a black castle for Voldemort. Voldemort would like to live in the castle I designed for him as the colour theme of the house represent his character traits.Another reason he would like to live here is because there is a snake pen for his snake Nagini. Voldemort loves Nagini and would wish for her to have the best things available. The snake pen is filled with treats for Nagini. The place I have designed has a kitchen which is needed for Voldemort to create potions. Finally, the place I have designed has 29 rooms-28 for his Death Eaters(followers) and one for him. Voldemort often has people coming to stay so these rooms would be needed. Voldemort would like these rooms as the Dark mark is on the beds representing his love for murdering. The only difference between Voldemort’s room and the Death Eater’s room is that Voldemort’s room has a snake basket for Nagini which is needed for Voldemort’s comfort. In my design, there are lots of plants which are needed for oxygen.The house is made out of brick which won’t be wasted and instead of wood floors there are carpet floors. Since we are not using wood, the environment won’t be harmed as we haven’t cut down trees. The carpets will be made out of organic cotton. Organic cotton is grown without harmful chemicals and is considered environmentally sustainable

RUNNER UP - ZARA, AGE 12. A house for Ariel from The Little Mermaid. I chose Ariel because she is a headstrong, free spirited teenage girl. After recently marrying her and her husband might want to get away from the palace. At the end of the Little Mermaid King Triton, who is her father, sees how much she loves Prince Eric and makes her human, so she cannot live in the sea any more and would need somewhere to live. Special requirements: Since Ariel is new to having her legs, she would neither find it easy to walk or to swim. Without her tail swimming would be a challenge but we can assume she learns how to swim quite quickly since she loves swimming. Her home would have to be easy to travel around. Since she loves exploring it would have to be somewhere with a lot of things to see. She would love to explore the landscapes around and could have fun swimming in her home and pool. The sea is right outside so she can always visit her family and friends. I have chosen to use the natural landscape as a general theme. The water is fresh and the made structure is of bamboo. Bamboo has a great deal of tensile strength and can be used in walls and flooring. Bamboo is very sustainable since it grows quickly. It can can be easily painted. Another thing I put on the design is solar panels. Since the house is located in a very warm and sunny area, they can run off the solar power. The solar panels will provide them with electricity.

ROSIE, AGE 7. I chose Miss Conceit, the art teacher in David William's book The World's Worst Teachers. She is a human work of art! I chose her because she is funny. She wants to be the centre of everybody's attention. Everything about her is big, crazy and fabulous. She is boggling. But she also is not modest. She is very very cocky. Ha ha ha! I made a bamboo house for Miss Conceit that will stand on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square. It is called Maison Miss Conceit because she likes to pretend she is fancy and posh. She will be the centre of everyone's attention, not only the children in the schoolyard of Humdrum High. She says in the book she wants to be adored for eternity. This house will make her happy. People will come from around the world to see her in her house in the centre of London. Her house is filled with pictures and portraits of her, just like the famous paintings in the National Gallery next door. (I have a secret. I think also her students and the teachers will like her to live here. She is like a fancy tropical bird. She is locked safe away in a fancy birdhouse. Ha ha ha!) Maison Miss Conceit is made out of bamboo. Bamboo is good for the environment because it can grow again and again. It grows super fast. It is not heavy and is easy to move from place to place. You do not need to use loads of big diggers and cranes to build with it. It is also easy to grow and the farmers do not need to put loads of bad plant medicines on it to make it grow. This is good for the planet. You can grow the bamboo to make special shapes. Maybe more people will come to see Miss Conceit's house and want to build lots more bamboo buildings in London. We can live in them and grow vegetables. More bees and butterflies will come. My mum took me to see really cool bamboo buildings in the museum last year. I enjoyed them a lot. I also liked how a girl was in charge. Girls can be super amazing architects too.

ALFIE, AGE 8. A beach hut for Percy my favourite cuddly toy. The hut would be on a pebbly beach and made from old wood. It’s by the sea because this is where penguin likes to be.

GIACOMO, AGE 9. WALL-E. He inspired the Robot City project. The project is home for many robots like WALL-E. I think that robots need some time to have fun. Because if we make them work all the time, they will start attacking us with all the technology that we gave them. The real problem is that as they become more intelligent they will start making new things up and use them against us. But to have fun they need money and robot's money are batteries. In my robot city, they charge themselves with waste that they get from rubbish bins. That's why the only robot that can go out of robot city are the rubbish collectors. In my robot city there are 15 houses and there are 10 rooms, including my favourite one, were the rubbisher lives. In the rubbish room the rubbisher turns some of the rubbish into blocks. The blocks are posted to the glueing robot that glues them together to make other buildings inside the city. A shell grown of woven bamboo shelters Robot City. I modelled this shell in rattan. I followed the example of the simple shelters like the one of Mongolian nomads, called Yurts. Yurts are round, representing the cyclical patterns of nomadic life. My model expands the circular form to shelter all the 15 houses and 10 rooms within Robot City. Simple shelters are beautiful because at the end of their life they fade back into the landscape with little or no waste. They demonstrate how their inhabitants operate as a conscious part of nature. This is how the rubbisher robots imagine Robot City.

STELLA, AGE 8. A house for Isadora Moon. I chose her because she is a fun character and she is half fairy. I also chose her because she represents diversity. I have designed a castle for her because she likes dark where she can create spells. There are rooms where she can do secret magic. The castle is made with stone floors from nearby mountains. Her mum used magic to move the stone in to place. The gates are metal from a nearby metal facility. The stone is cool in summer but hot in winter. This saves on heating costs and energy. Isadora loves living in her castle and I would love to live there too.

ANNA, AGE 5. I have made a beautiful big garden for Goldilocks, next to her house, so she doesn’t need to go into the woods to pick flowers again. There’s a big tree and lots of tall flowers and butterflies (to help grow more flowers) I think she’d be very happy there.

DORRIE, AGE 5. A home for Dinosaur.

DAIWIK, AGE 6. I have designed an 2D shapes eco-friendly home for Peter Rabbit. I love him because he is intelligent, adventurous, loves to explore and a superhero rabbit who rescues everyone from baddies. Peter Rabbit would like to stay in my 2D shapes house because: Indoor: Spacious 3 Floor House: Peter Rabbit is highly active. He has a big family of five. He and his sisters can stretch, hop, run around the home and have nice family time with their mother. Lots of storage space for food and big kitchen: Peter Rabbit likes to nibble all the time on radish, hay racks, hanging leafy baskets and his mum Josephine can sell the veggies and fruits to other animals in their house shop. Tunnels: To keep Peter active and run anytime to the herb garden, play area, digging area as he loves burrows. Bed: Cosy hay bed with attached litter area. Hiding Places: To keep safe. Safety and Security: Platform: Platform near windows to keep a lookout for predators. Doors/Windows/Basement: welded wire mesh and sturdy bolts for safety and fresh air. Sensors: Motion activated sprinklers and lights to scare predators. Outdoor: Covered Herb Garden and Play Area: Anytime Peter can come with his friends and siblings for playing and eating. They need not worry about the Mr. Tod Fox or other predators as its covered and safe. Play area has wooden seesaw, willow chewy ball, hazel-apple stick knots. and if he gets hungry, he has fresh carrots, cucumbers, fruits, radish, hay hangings, green grass bed, herb plants, water and litter area as well. Secure digging area: Peter Rabbit likes digging the green grass bed. Top is covered and under it is a mesh wire and green concrete that keeps him safe from digging too deep and predators cannot enter his home. Open Lawn with 6 feet fence: Fence to be tall and thorns to be put on them for safety. Green Concrete Home: Home is built using Green concrete which is eco-friendly that uses 3s: Reuse-Recycle-Reduce. It is made from recycled glass, wood ash and others. It uses reused wash water and produces less carbon-di-oxide and is cheap and durable. It helps to slow down global warming. Predators cannot dig through green concrete. Linoleum Flooring: Lino is natural, non-allergic and renewable. Rainwater harvesting: Saving rainwater and using it for gardening, toilets. Filtering it and use it for drinking. Recharges ground water. Solar Panel: Using solar energy for lights and heating. It reduces carbon emission and saves energy. Bamboo Herb Garden/Play Area: Made from Bamboo as it is a grass and easy renewable source. Use non-toxic preservative paint to avoid rabbits nibbling on bamboo. Reuse toilet paper rolls to hang hay and make roller toys. Bio Composite Fencing: uses recycled plastic and recycled wood material, no painting required, stronger than wood and free form toxic materials. Plants: Lots of plants in the garden that helps clean the air, a habitat for wildlife and helps in reducing climate change.

ZOLANA, AGE 7. My character is Star from ‘Star versus Forces of Evil’. I picked her because she lives in a house that is easy and fun to draw. Star would like this house because it’s not any normal house because downstairs is a third jungle, third swimming pool, third stable. It’s an upside down V shaped roof and rooms that look like two garages on either side of the V shaped roof. Slate tiles. Bricks painted yellow. Glass. Wood. Metal.

DIEGO, AGE 9. Diego Age: 9 A home for Beast Boy from Teen Titans to Go. I couldn’t think of a character so my mum suggested Beast Boy. I listed all the things he likes: • Video games • Ice cream • Tofu • Cyborg • Sleep • Pizza • Shape shifting I then listed a few rooms he would need in his house for those things - an arcade with the top 5000 most popular games on - a room with lots of freezers filled to the brim with ice cream - a room with 2 infinite tofu vending machines - a room filled with robots and chargers when a cyborg comes to visit. The house is made of limestone bricks and spruce wood tiles coated in plastic, some black stained glass windows and wooden for door and window frames.

MAYA, AGE 10. A home for Maia from Into the River by Eve Ibbotson, and one of my favourite characters. This is a tree house for Maia - the main character from Into the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson. Maia is an orphan who is adopted by distant relatives in the Brazilian Amazon at the time of the rubber boom. Her relatives are horrid but she makes a friend and loves the Amazon. This is the kind of house she would like - above ground to get a great view and be near the birds and monkeys, and away from the horrid family. It’s made of sustainable materials she can find in the jungle, mud bricks, a straw or dried grass roof, a rope and wood ladder to get her up and down.

LUCY, AGE 10. A home for the Lorax There is a space for the Lorax to rest, to eat. He can get in and out of his treehouse on a rope ladder. He has a pip bucket as a way of recycling - after he has eaten fruit he keeps the pips so he can grow them. He doesn’t have too much stuff because he doesn’t need much. Just the basic of heat, light and air. The house is in a tree so there’s no pollution caused by building the house. Fuel for the house is sticks collected from the woods. There is no need for plastic - he recycles everything including the pips from his food. He is growing more Truffala trees to sustain the forest.

ALICIA, AGE 12. A home for Willy Wonka. I chose him because he has quite an odd personality which is interesting. That gave me some interesting ideas as to how I could build his house. Also, I love sweets and chocolate! The house is designed to look like a top hat, which Wonka is always wearing. It has very tall gates to keep people out, which he would love because he doesn’t want people stealing his recipes. The house is also surrounded by sweets, which Wonka loves. To make this house environmentally friendly, I researched what different materials I could use. The sweets are real, however they are coated in recycled plastic to stop them from going bad. The main house has foundations of precast concrete (a more eco-friendly concrete), and uses plant-based polyurethane rigid foam for insulation. This foam is made of kelp, so isn’t bad for the environment. Finally, the outer walls of the house are made of painted bamboo. Bamboo is a very sustainable material, as it grows very quickly.

RUTH, AGE 11. Katness Everdeen because she is an inspiration to many who have watched the film. Not only is she the female lead but she is also determined, brave, skillful, resilient, compassionate, loving and strong. Through all the trials she puts on a brave face; especially when she volunteers for her sister Prim in the Hunger games, where she will most likely be killed. I love her because she never gives up and it reminds you to do the same. There is a place for Katness to practise archery - stationery and rotating targets. Also there is a corner for her cat Buttercup who helps Katness remember her sister who loved him a lot to rest, drink and eat. As well as this there is a candle corner to honour those who lost their lives due to the Hunger games. Finally, there is an area to relax, with a sofa and 2 beanbags (for Peeta and Katness). On the outside it is designed with painted flames to represent the girl on fire (Katness). She would like to live there because it is an escape from the outside world. Though she can never be relieved of the horrific times she once had, this could at least be a way to bond with those whom she loves most. It would be a relaxing environment where she could do the things she loves most. Wood could be used to make the targets and the sofa. The trees which would be cut down could be replaced with three of the same type to make up for it. Electricity could be provided by solar panels on the roof.

JAFAR, AGE 12. A home for Winnie the Pooh. I chose him because he is one of my favourite characters as he is comedic and somewhat dimwitted! The house is built within a tree, so there are no requirements for walls, the roof over the door is built out of corrugated iron, which is usually a scrap, so it isn’t exactly built for this. Almost the entirety of everything is built out of wood, and they are in a forest. Wood easily decomposes, so it’s not bad if any of it gets broken.

SALLY, AGE 12. I chose Hermione Granger because I thought that it would be fun to design a house for a magician. I like that she is loyal and trustworthy and will always help people that are in need. I also like that she has a lot of books, like me and it would be nice to give her somewhere to store them. My design is shaped like the sorting hat, which plays a part in Hermione and her friends' adventures at Hogwarts. The outside is coloured like a rainbow to show that she always tries to bring peace to the world. I think that she would like to live there because the house has plenty of storage space for her books and enough space to entertain guests and have them over to sleep as well. There is an observatory so that all of the occupants of the house can look at the stars while staying warm, and there is a cat house at the bottom for Crookshanks. My house is environmentally friendly because it is made from recycled plastic, stopping the plastic from going into the sea and harming wildlife. The garden only has grass in it, so that in the spring and summer, it can become a safe haven for wildlife and flowers. The door is made from wood, but it comes from a sustainable forest and did not have to be flown from a different country.

EVIE, AGE 11. Moana. I chose her because she such a fun, interesting character, and the possibilities for her house are endless. My house is made out of wood, and is fairly big inside, so that there's plenty of room for Moana and her pig Pua. It's near the ocean, because she loves water, and it has boat storage underneath so she can go out on her boat whenever she wants. It has trees around it, and none have been cut down to make it. Wood is very common in Motunui (her island home) so it is made of that.

IZZY, AGE 11. The Simpsons family because I enjoy watching the show and I felt that I could really make their house adapt to their personalities. Each of their room are adapted to the persons likes and hobbies e.g Homer Simpson has a mini fridge in his room to put his beer and Lisa has lots of books. I tried to use less wood to reduce the amount of trees being chopped down and use other materials.

AVA, AGE 11. I chose Moana because we both love water and having adventures and I thought she would like the same things that would like the same things that I do. Moana is adventurous so she lives in a tree house and you can go down using a slide. She loves exploring the ocean so she has a boat storage and lives by the ocean. It is also big enough for her, her pig (pua) and her chicken (Heihei) to live in. It is also personalised and unique just like her. It is made of wood and leaves as they are the most sustainable items on her island. This makes it environmentally friendly.

JACK, AGE 11. Harry Potter-Hedwig because she would need a sort of birdhouse-like home, which is quite fun to design. Hedwig may want to live there because it is spacious, comfy, suits a owls's needs and doesn't affect the environment. The main material is wood-very environmentally friendly, and maybe some metal for nails. The interior consists of more wood and hay/straw, which is also environmentally friendly. It is situated on a tree, a natural 'plant'.

MALACHY, AGE 12. Ricky Baker. I chose him because he is a very funny and interesting character in one of my favourite films. Ricky enjoys camping in the woods but likes comfort food which is why Ricky would need a house (for storage) instead of a tent. He also has friends who live in the bush and they ride horses so Ricky would like to have a stable for them to stay in. I would use solar panels on the top of the house, which would also be quite tall so that the trees wouldn't block all of the sunlight. He could use them to have renewable energy for cooking and washing. Materials like softwood could be used for the panelling instead of hardwood as hardwood takes more time to produce.

RONAL, AGE 11. Robin Hood. I chose this character because he is well known. My design is Eco friendly and made from recycled materials. I used recycled materials for the structure and roof of the house.

SHASHIVAR, AGE 12. I chose Simba (From Lion King) because he is my favourite fictional character and lions are my best- loved wild animal. The character would like to live there since the home has all the requirements for Simba and his family. I have chosen Fabric, Rock, Water and Flowers. They are all environmentally friendly because we are not harming them and we are using them for the house to be near and comfortable.

NIAMH, AGE 12. Apollo, because I love Greek Mythology. I also love Rick Riordan's books. Apollo is the god of healing, and I think we need that right now. It is round because a god needs to see everything, and is on a hill. It has a room to keep his Golden Chariot, and a stable for his horses. It has the proper storing equipment for his bow and arrows. Glass is fully recyclable. It has a farm right next to it (Apollo is also the god of agriculture).

ADAM, AGE 12. Charlie in Willy Wonka and the chocolate factory. I chose them because I enjoyed this story when I was younger so I thought it would be interesting to write about it. They enjoy eating fudgemallow delight bars which is why my home for him includes an automatic fudgemallow delight bar maker. As well as this I've given him a storage box to store all his golden tickets and enclosed it in a gold-stained glass pane cube! I used stone bricks, oak wood, the material used to create golden tickets for window frames, doors and the roof. For the roof the asphalt was made from the material used to make golden tickets. It is environmentally friendly by releasing as much co2 as possible with all the machinery.

AKSHADHA, AGE 12. Jack Sparrow from the Pirates of the Caribbean. He has a very unique personality and walks and talks in a very entertaining way, and is therefore my favorite fictional character. He would live there because since he is a criminal, he would need a place to lie low which is quite cut off from other places. The rum storage would also be very appealing to him. It's made of manufactured stone instead of natural stone. This is good because natural stone is provided by the earth, it is finite. The manufactured would be environmentally- friendly and made in a way which doesn't affect the environment.

THOMAS, AGE 12. Winnie the Pooh because I remember watching him when I was little. My designs include a cave with a bed and table along with storage for the honey that Winnie the Pooh loves. I made sure my house is environmentally friendly by building in a cave so that it would not use up as many materials as would be needed when building a house.

MATILDA, AGE 12. I chose Maleficent as she is my favourite fictional character. I designed Maleficent's house out of trees and plants because as everyone knows she lives in the woods with Princess Aurora who is a human being so I have also added essentials that are necessary for humans to survive. As I explained in my previous paragraph my house is only made out of trees and plants and uses no plastic or things that could damage or harm our earth.

RIAN, AGE 12. I chose Skulduggery Pleasant because I really like the book he is in. It is out of the view of ordinary people, it has a garage for his Bentley and he has a huge ego. It is made out of hempcrete and it has solar panels on the roof.

ANISA, AGE 11. I chose Jerry the mouse because I have liked him ever since I was a kid and because he is very funny but kind at the same time. The house that I have made for my character is very spacious for a small animal. The house is underground and is very large. My character would like to live here because there is a lot space so he can be free and run around. I have added solar collectors to my house to provide energy for the house which makes it environmentally friendly.

Ella Beech is a freelance children's book designer and consultant. For the last 15 years Ella has worked for Campbell Books - for four years as Head of Campbell Books, for six years as Head of Design/Art Director and for five years as Senior Designer. She is currently studying for an MA in Children's Book Illustration at Anglia Ruskin University. “I would have chosen to design a home for The Tiger Who Came to Tea when I was younger - and it would have had a very big larder!!"

Lucy Brownridge is a Commissioning Editor at Wide Eyed Editions and Frances Lincoln Children’s Books, and formerly at Thames & Hudson where she helped to establish the Children’s list. She is the author of Illuminightmare as well as the Portrait of an Artist and Art Masterclass series. "My favourite fictional character would be Arrietty from the Borrowers. I imagine her under the floorboards ‘apartment’ would be pretty amazing."

Alisha Morenike Fisher is a design and architecture practitioner and researcher. She is co-founder of Design practice Migrant’s Bureau and the membership network, Black Females in Architecture. Her experience spans across working in project management at Arcadis, Architecture Sans Frontieres UK, HTA Design, UrbanWorks in Johannesburg, Public Practice and New London Architecture, as a teaching facilitator for young people. "My fictional hero would be Okoye in Black Panther/Marvel comics. She’s a really cool warrior and an empowering leader!"

Stephanie Nebbia is an artist and curator. She studied painting at Camberwell School of Art did an MA in fine art UAL. Stephanie has been a lecturer and programme leader for the Foundation at St Albans. She is an examiner and moderator for two awarding bodies and has work in a number of collections both in Europe and the UK. She has won a number of awards; including the Hunter Penrose Prize, RK Burt prize, Bankside open and more recently the Print solo at the Masters One off. "The character I would create a house for would be for Baloo in Kipling’s Jungle book.”

Colin Tweedy is Chief Executive of both the Building Centre Group and the Built Environment Trust from 2012. Previous to joining the Building Centre, Colin was Chief Executive of Arts & Business for 28 years, creating for its President, The Prince of Wales, a new charity, the Prince’s Foundation for Children and the Arts, that pioneered schools to work directly with arts organisations to give children often their first experience of the magic of the creative world. For 26 years Colin was a trustee of the Serpentine Gallery, for 9 years was a Governor of the University for the Creative Arts and is still a director of the Mariinsky Opera and Ballet Company. Colin is a graduate of Oxford University, Freeman of the City of London and has received two national honours, an OBE and LVO. His favourite children’s character is Winnie the Pooh.