Imagerie d'Épinal and Grand Constructions

 

During 2021 Cabinet of Curiosity Studio have been busy working on Grand Constructions, an arts project that invites children to explore the architectural and industrial heritage of the North East of England. The project has been commissioned by Creative Darlington as part of their New in Town programme to support original creative projects informed by place and local heritage, and also supported by National Lottery Project Grants. 

The project has involved creating a series of four paper toy-making templates to help children get crafting and start building paper landmarks connected to the North East. The series includes Darlington Clock Tower, Gaunless Bridge, Baltic Flour Mills and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. All the paper templates are designed to be printed at home with the designs finished with playful colours that will appeal to children.

The idea for the Grand Constructions project originates from a short residency undertaken at the V & A Museum of Childhood that involved researching the Robert Freidus Architectural Model Collection, a unique archive of over 140,000 paper models. Our aim was to investigate the educational value of architectural paper models, in particular, how they might be used to engage young people and families in creative design. In addition we sought to uncover paper craft techniques that could be incorporated into our existing skill set. 

A significant element of the collection consisted of work by the French printers Imagerie d'Épinal whose numbered series of beautifully illustrated cut-out card models of architecture called ‘Grandes Constructions’ and ‘Petite Constructions’ inspired us to create our own series of paper toy models for contemporary children to cut, fold and create.

The paper toys can be accessed on our website here: https://www.cabinetofcuriositystudio.com/pages/grand-constructions