Little Cave

ArtEZ University of the Arts

2022

Little Cave is a structure made for the children at Cattotje Pre-school in the Muziekwijk (Almere). It is decorated with colourful tiles and is to be placed on the courtyard of the school. It is a project to welcome international children at their new school, there is also a book telling the story of Little Cave and a set of rituals performed by the teachers with the children.

As a school that follows the Waldorf methodology, Catootje is a place full of rituals, fairy stories and imagination, the classrooms are painted in a peach colour to resemble the colour of the womb. With that in mind I envisioned a project where new and current children would be read the story of Little Cave, a cave who travels the world and lands in Catootje. The children would make little stalactites made of felt and hang these inside the Cave with the saying: “You are Welcome Here” and their names. Most children stay at Catootje for a maximum of two years and so, when they leave, they would take with them the stalactites as a memory of them being welcomed in a new school and in most cases, also in a new country (Netherlands). The structure that sits outside is a place for endless play.

To explore context in architectural field is to literally be inspired by a sense of place. “It can also relate, metaphorically, to one’s personal context, one’s personal background and biography” (Colenbrander, B. Rapp, C. David Chipperfield. The embedded nomad. ArtEZ Press. 2016). I loved working with clay and writing the little book, I was very happy with the results, and as a foreigner living in the Netherlands I had a personal connection with the theme for this project since I was faced with the struggles of being welcomed in a different country.