Qianshu Fu

Log Party is a parent-child-friendly living room furniture set that transforms the living room into an environment for free exploration and play, in which parents and children decide together whether to assemble the items into furniture or play props. Consisting of a number of barrels with holes, wooden threaded couplings, handles with wooden threads and fabric-covered sensory balls, they are both furniture and toys or perhaps neither. But what is certain is that the process of interaction they create is full of possibilities: cooperation, education, creation and even conflict and compromise. I hope they will bring more dynamism to the family and more options to the parent-child relationship.

After designing the whole furniture & toy set, I made this instruction booklet for the family in case they want to know how to interact with them.

During the test, I was amazed to find that the children and their parents worked out almost all the ways of playing the games I mentioned without looking at the instruction booklet. They played a mock driving game using handles and stuffed sensory balls of different materials into holes. The children hid in barrels and covered themselves with cushions, using them as a base or turning them down as a tunnel. They even use the round cushions as big blocks to build on or ride on.

The round cushions and barrels can be combined to form a small coffee table that is just the right size for children, on which they can learn how to handle and share food. They can also be combined into toy boxes where children can learn to arrange their toys in the way they want.

When kids are grown up and no longer need to play with them, they can be transformed into beautiful furniture： a coffee table, coat rack, or even a bedside table.

RainbowGap is the predecessor of Log Party, which raised the issue of the disconnection and connection that exists between parents and children in the Chinese context. It illustrates the connection and separation between the work-focused father and his children in a wage-earning family. It consists of two parts: a workspace for the father and a play space for the child. They are oriented in different directions and at different heights to demonstrate the gap between the father who is occupied by work and his child who is eager to play. But the different interactions between the two spaces show the connection that still exists between them. These interactions take place through pieces that connect the two spaces: the desk, footrest, and cup holders. A child who wants to get his father's attention and a father who wants a comfortable work environment need to constantly move these parts for their own comfort while disturbing each other at the same time. This illustrates the never-ending conflict, negotiation, and compromise between father and child in parenting.

And Log Party answers the question that RainbowGap presents: how to release parents and children from this subtle connection and better bring them together. It gives the answer by creating a free and inclusive shared family space.