Sale of alumnus-designed playhouses benefits children's advocacy group in Dallas

Funds raised from the sale of two playhouses designed by Dan Fletcher, who earned a Master of Architecture degree at Texas A&M in 2007, will benefit Dallas Court Appointed Special Advocates, a nonprofit group of volunteers who serve as a voice for abused children in the court system.

Fletcher, an intern architect with the SHW Group, designed the playhouses with Vandana Nayak, a project manager at SHW. Both designs were named winners by a jury of architects in the [Parade of Playhouses] (http://paradeofplayhousescomp.blogspot.com/) , an annual event that raises funds for CASA.

The playhouses, whose construction was sponsored by the Dallas chapter of the American Institute of Architects’ Young Architects Forum, will be on display Aug. 15 – 21 at [NorthPark Center] (http://www.northparkcenter.com/) , one of Dallas’ premier shopping venues, where shoppers can buy chances to win them.

In one of the structures, the Easel Haus, Fletcher and Nayak created a simple design composed of A-frames on three sides mimicking the form of art easels, which support artwork on the exterior and shelves for art supply storage on the interior.

The framework supports a roof and base finished in plywood, giving children a protected environment to create art, as well as an outer area where kids can draw on the walls of the house.

Fletcher and Nayak also created the Tangram House, an abstraction of the universal concept of a pitched roof structure. It’s open at both ends, allowing children to play all the way through the house while discovering people and animal-shaped openings in the house’s walls.