Energy metabolism disease. For many an unknown disease and therefore so important to bring to light. Every week in the Netherlands 1 or 2 children are born with an energy metabolism disease. It is a merciless disease and there is no cure yet. As many as half die before their 10th birthday and 70% of these children do not make it to adulthood. Researching a cure for this disease is vitally important, with it comes back survival for all those children and adults who do not have it now.
Doll’s houses with a twist
Mei architects and planners collaborated with twenty other architectural firms on the Doll’s House project; a wonderful initiative of Peter Masselink, who unfortunately lost two of his children to this disease himself. The Doll’s House project aims to generate money and attention for a cure for energy metabolism diseases. The participating architectural firms were commissioned to devise a doll’s house in relation to energy metabolism diseases.
All came up with their own answer in the form of dollhouses that have a completely different meaning and appearance than the showpiece dollhouses of around 1750 or the hard plastic barbie houses that leave little to the imagination. They give children with an energy metabolism disease new possibilities, bring the world into bed or show through a powerful image what having such a disease means.
“My request was to think about having an energy metabolism disease and how a child with such a disease might play. The guiding principle was to express his or her experience in the design. This resulted in very special dollhouses.”
– Peter Masselink
Stronger together
Mei’s dollhouse is all about cooperation and solidarity, reflecting the help between the weaker and stronger that ultimately leads to the best outcome. Cooperation is at the forefront here. This cooperation is present not only in the end result, but also in the process leading up to it. For example, for this project, many hands were used by both Mei’s team and friends to shape the dollhouse. Our project consists of about 5,000 model dolls and about 25 tubes of glue, which were processed into a unique dollhouse with 423 hours of collaboration.
The auction
The Doll’s House project dates back to 2017. Due partly to COVID and Peter Masselink’s personal circumstances through the passing of his son Sverre, the auction, originally planned for 2020, was postponed for several years. Now, 4 years later, we can announce with great enthusiasm that the start of the auction of the dollhouses has begun. An auction module will be placed on the website www.dolls-house.nl including a donate button for people who want to donate. The dollhouses will be exhibited from May 17 to 19 during The Art of Living event at the Autotron in Rosmalen. On May 18, from 14.00 – 17.00 hours, they will be auctioned there under the watchful eye of Jochem van Gelder.
It is already possible to place a bid online for your favorite doll houses. This is possible until May 17, 11 p.m. The highest bidders will then be invited to the live auction on Saturday, May 18. The profits will benefit Energy4all. Through them, research into energy metabolism diseases and the further development of a cure will be supported.
As a team, we are extremely proud of our contribution to the dollhouse and of course hope that our dollhouse will perform to its maximum potential to help resist energy metabolism disease.
