Day 26

"The Three Little Pigs"

by Steven Guarnaccia

The story

Once upon a time there were three little pigs who lived in a large house in the woods ... The fairy tale of the "3 little pigs" is set by Steven Guarnaccia among the houses of great architects of the twentieth century.

Frank Gehry, Philip Johnson and Frank Lloyd Wright are in fact the main protagonists of this contemporary fairy tale, together with other famous personalities from the world of architecture, in their houses of scrap, glass and lime and brick. In their renowned buildings and surrounded by objects designed by some of the most representative architects and designers from all over the world, one day they receive the visit of the bad wolf ...

As for Riccioli d'oro and three bears, Steven Guarnaccia reinterprets a classic of fairy tales through the eyes of the architect and designer, creating mixed-technique illustrations with a precise stroke and clear and harmonious colors. Furthermore, in the book's endpoints there is a useful repertoire of the author's objects that appear throughout history, to be found and recognized among the pages ... and they lived forever fed and happy.

Illustrator and designer, Steven Guarnaccia lives and works in New York. His plates are published in numerous magazines and newspapers, including the New York Times, of which he was the art director of the opinion page for three years. Collaborator of MoMA and numerous companies in the field of industrial design, he has designed various models of jewelry, watches (Swatch) and murals (Disney Cruise). He has published numerous illustrated collections of palindromes, children's books and pop-up books. He has long been a collaborator of Abitare and publishes books for Edizioni Corraini. He is now head of the Department of Illustration at Parsons The New School for Design.

(from the publisher's website)

Objectives

To know the materials and their characteristics to understand better their functions.
Understanding which is the best geometric shapes to build solid structures.
Understanding the construction of a building in real life.

Materials

Recycled materials such as straws, wooden sticks for ice cream, unhardened pencils, coffee pods, paper cups.
Connectors such as scotch tape, glue, staples, elastics, staplers.
Scissors, rulers and meter.
Building games like LEGO bricks.
An electric or not fan, or magazines to wave for wind.
Sheets, pencils, markers and crayons.

Activity

Building a "construction" with recycled materials so strong to be wolf proof

Steven Guarnaccia's book offers us the cue to work on a truly exciting design challenge for children. Everyone knows the adventure of the three little pigs, but surely we never stopped to solve the real problem they had: how to build a house that could resist the wolf's breath, which materials and what forms to adopt to make it more resistant.

So here is the challenge for our kids based on a selection of materials, but above all on a design work of the structure.

The first phase of our challenge will be exploratory to understand which of the available materials are more resistant than others and which connectors could be used to put them together and create a solid building.

The choice of materials will lead to a tinkering phase to understand which is the best design for our structure , maybe even understand if it is possible to create a trap outside the house to keep the bad wolf away.

After this brainstorming phase you will have to take action and put together the materials for your construction. It will be very important to observe the children to help them even in their mood if they fail in their intentions, the frustration facing an error or a failure must be guided by the teacher or educator who accompanies the activity to solve it as a moment of growth. In the world of innovation, but in life in general, the mistake is good, because it allows us to investigate and above all to improve.

To continue the activity below a series of questions that can be asked to children to analyze their constructions.

How to make the foundation solid? How windows and doors will look like?
Can the door be constructed in such a way that it opens automatically to allow the three little pigs running away from the wolf to enter quickly?
If the structure does not stand up, what you will change to make it more solid?
How much important was the shape choosed to give the construction its solidity?

The final test will be to use a fan or a nice fan to see the solidity of the constructions made by the children, and in the case it will not work to start again according to the cycle think, create, test, re-create!

Enjoy!

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