House and Home — Design Lessons for Life
Inspired by Robert Holdeman’s sculpture “A Dream of Home” located at the Michigan Legacy Art Park in Thompsonville, Michigan.
Miniature-Sculpture by Creative Director, Andy Tyra.
Educational Ideas inspired by the sculpture from Kenneth Stevens, Founding Member of the Art Park and Professor Emeritus at Eastern Michigan University.
“A Dream of Home” DIY Miniature Sculpture Project
If, let’s say, you and some other crazy friends were trying to think of cool activities you could create for kids that might (just might) also teach them something — you could consider the challenge of taking a large monumental sculpture and then shrinking it into a single piece of paper.
That’s what Creative Director and designer Andy Tyra took on when he agreed to try and synthesize this homage to Midwest architectural history and make it possible for you, yes you, to create one for yourself at home.
You’ll need a printer, a pair of scissors, some tape (or glue for the purists), and some time and patience. Here’s the free file designed by Andy to download.
It’s inspired by the artwork “A Dream of Home”, and the artist is Traverse City, Michigan architect Robert Holdeman.
Holdeman’s connections with the Art Park run deep. He was a close personal friend of the park’s late founder David Barr, and he personally made the introductions that gave the park a home at Crystal Mountain Resort & Spa. It’s a partnership now celebrating 25 years serving hundreds of thousands of guests since it began as a crazy idea lead by passionate volunteers like Bob.
This artwork was long in the making and full of challenges and rewards — like the Michigan history it honors, and the people that inspired him to design and engineer and create it.
In the time of this health crisis, the meaning of home (or the absence of one) is now something even more complex than imaginable, and Bob’s expression of these (and more) ideas is powerful and immediate.
Come see the artwork this winter and you’ll sense what I’m talking about, or probably something even more personal to you. — Joseph Beyer, Executive Director
WATCH: Behind the Scenes with Designer Andy Tyra
Holdeman’s sculpture had unique challenges, even at full scale. It is constructed from over 115 individual pieces of Corten steel that were designed in Michigan, forged in Alabama, shipped north to Thompsonville and stored for several months before a combination of construction services could come together to install the work under the unique conditions of the park.
Metal Fabrication by Darin Fetter and Steve Bint, North Shore Iron Works. Angelo Vozza, Avanti Engineering LLC, Structural Consultant. Site Excavation and Sculpture Assembly by Webster Construction (James Schettek, David Webster, Raymond Aprill, Chad Young, Kevin Kelly, Lawrence Martindale). Site Assistance by Crystal Mountain (Kirk Davidson, Steve Kirbach, Jason Farah, Chris & Jim MacInnes, John Melcher). Art Park Management 2016–2018 by Kaz McCue and Renee Hintz. Installation and Dedication Management 2019 by Troy DeShano and Joseph Beyer.
LEARN: Lessons Inspired by the Artwork
By Kenneth Stevens
A key goal of the Art Park is to affirm founder David Barr’s image of a world where everything is knotted into elegant, sometimes invisible, nets and connections.
This reflects Barr’s vision of art that creates “harmony with the environment: natural, social, political, global.”
By design, the park’s projects are multidisciplinary and collaboratively developed by artists, educators and participants. They involve research, experimentation and the creation of art and artifacts.
A Dream of Home is Robert Holdeman’s interpretation of a traditional architectural form. Architecture is by nature multidisciplinary. The work of an architect involves knowledge of design, mathematics, engineering and the physical and social sciences. It offers an ideal platform upon which to develop educational programming.
The following ideas are intended to inspire the development of detailed education programing based on the work, and could be used by teachers, home-school families or the curious:
Lessons in Shelter
In A Dream of Home, artist/architect Robert Holdeman has created a work of art inspired by the “I House” — an architectural form that was used by European settlers as they established agricultural homesteads throughout the American Midwest in the 18th and 19th Centuries.
In its most basic form an I House has two stories with end facing gables (gables are the triangular portion of a wall that forms the roof lines. In architecture the term usually refers to the entire wall).
There are two rooms of equal size separated by a central hall. The rooms on the first floor might be used for general living space and an eat-in kitchen. The second floor would be reached by a staircase in the hall and the rooms used as bedrooms.
The term I House was coined by Fred Kniffen, a cultural geographer working at Louisiana State University in 1930’s. He choose I House because this form of structure was common in the states of Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana.
Lessons in Drawing
Draw a floor plan of an I House. If students are at the Art Park, they can measure the sculpture and draw a floor plan from the work. Experiment with the placement of the stairway to the second floor and insert the appropriate furniture. Research what might be found in a traditional home of the 18th or 19th Centuries. There was no plumbing or electricity. How about fireplaces for heat?
More advanced drawing lessons could involve 3D oblique, isometric and perspective drawing and include the study of angles and the practical uses of each type of drawing. They create an understanding of scale and use of graphs.
Lessons in Geometry and Engineering
Since a gable is a triangle it is the strongest shape using straight lines and can be created using a wide range of materials, e.g., logs, boards, timbers, etc. Students can experiment with comparing the weight bearing capabilities of paper models of triangles and squares.
The strength of a triangle is ideal for a roof, e.g., it will support the weight of snow in Iowa. The space created by the triangles that form the roof is often an attic and the shape of a triangular prism.
This and other forms like those used in the geodesic dome and trusses. They also open a window to chemistry, e.g. the shape created by the triangles in a geodesic dome are the shape of the carbon 60 molecule.
Lessons in Climate and Culture
Discuss the features of the I House in the context of those who lived in it, and the unique climate and culture of the times.
There was no electricity — so having windows on at least two opposing walls provided needed light. It also provided good cross ventilation in warm weather. Fire places were located in the gabled end walls or the central hallway for heat in cold weather. The windows would also generate heat on sunny days. Since there was no plumbing water collection could be accomplished with gutters with barrels at downspouts.
As farm families prospered they frequently embellished the I House with elaborate porches and ell (structure perpendicular to the main house) additions that facilitated specialized use like kitchens or additional living space. Here is an opportunity for researching various design styles, Victorian, neoclassical etc., and incorporating that knowledge in the drawings.
The I House was built by European Settlers and reflected their experience with shelters used in the countries from which they came and on their needs as farmers. They depended on using large portions of land for growing crops and managing livestock. They needed to stay in one place year round and were generally isolated from other farms.
In contrast, the Native and Indigenous tribes built structures that reflected their way of life and utilized the materials available in their location. Often nomadic, many depended on the vast Buffalo herds and followed them as they moved from place to place. For their shelter, they constructed tipis that were gathered in communities and easily moved.
Lessons in Sustainability
Light, water usage, materials and site selection are a few of the essential considerations for determining the sustainability of buildings. Others include acoustics, safety, access, adaptability and landscaping. The study of each of these areas offers the opportunity for a vast array of multidisciplinary learning.
Experiments with different surface materials and their ability to absorb or direct water.
Experiments with different types of window design and placement, reflection or intensification of light and heat, impact on ventilation, etc.
Consider interconnections of roadways, topography, animal habitat, native flora, accessibility, etc. in site selection studies.
Study and experiment with building materials, e.g., resilience, safety, recycling ability, strength, availability and manufacture. Study and assess existing buildings for sustainability.
Provoke and inspire NEW designs for combating homelessness — printed houses, commonweal pod, community micro homes, hostels, etc.
Note: “A Dream of Home” by artist Robert Holdeman can be seen along the in person at the nonprofit Michigan Legacy Art Park, a 30-acre outdoor art adventure located in Thompsonville, Michigan. The park is open every day of the year from dawn to dusk. Voluntary admission is $5 per adult, children are always free, and dogs on leash are welcome to join you.
