nothin Boxes Built Anew | New Haven Independent

Boxes Built Anew

Ariela Martin Photo

Caydance and Pearson Hill hard at work building their Box buildings.

One set of builders study at Yale’s architecture school. The others were young kids showing up for fun at a festival. They had the same mission: building something special, perhaps sustainable, from practically nothing.

They both got to work at the Festival of Arts & Ideas on the Green, which began last weekend.

It began with the unveiling of a pavilion designed by the architecture students. It continued with Box City.”

Betsy Ratner, mayor of Box City, signs off on a “Building Permit Application”.

Betsy Ratner and her late husband, architect Art Ratner, initially brought Box City to the festival years ago to inspire kids to imagine and create whatever they like with a few boxes and simple tools.” It became a regular feature.

We encourage kids to bring recycled materials. One kid made a building on a old bike helmet! Kids get really creative, and parents get it into it as well,” said Betsy Ratner. Ratner also functions as Box City’s mayor,” lending kids spare scissors and surveying their progress as they work. By Sunday midday, Box City had over 1,000 creations by young architects on the original nine Downtown New Haven squares.” (Click here to read about previous Box City events.)

Isabella Vailette glues popsicle sticks to her “Box Theater”.

Isabella Vailette.

One of the young architects was Isabella Vailette, who worked busily to construct a Box Theater”, the name given to her three-story edifice.

I am a ballet dancer, so I wanted to make a building especially for dancing,” she said. Vailette glued the final piece to her Box Theater, a fence” made out of wooden popsicle sticks, before adding it to the growing collection of Box buildings, museums, theaters, schools, homes, and more.

The Hill family gathers their materials at the “Building Materials” station at Box City.

Each of the three Hill family children worked side by side independently on their own projects. Cadesha Hill, the mother of Pearson, Caydance, and Carson, said, We could be here all day. They were so excited to come. They’re all doing their own thing.” Pearson worked on constructing a factory, while Caydance built a home, and Carson created a school.

The ribbon cutting of the Info Pavilion.

The Info Pavilion.

Students at the Yale School Architecture had an unveiling and ribbon-cutting ceremony for their new festival Info Pavilion on Friday afternoon. The 300-square-foot Pavilion was the result of a three-month course in the Masters of Architecture II program, which provided students with an opportunity to participate in the hands-on process of completing a piece of architecture from start to finish. Assa Abloy helped pay for the Info Pavilion projects.

We used hundreds of aluminum panels, which were bought in huge strips and then hand-cut by our team. We specifically designed it so there are different views and reflections of the pavilion if it’s looked at different angles,” said architecture student Veer Nanavatty.

The set up of the inside of the Info Pavilion.

Students met in groups, and discussed for the first month and a half, and came up with the final design. It was a collaboration of everyone’s ideas, but instead of making it extremely practical like a house or tent, we wanted it to be both unique and fun. Everyone is extremely emotionally attached to it, and are very pleased with the way it turned out.”

Inside the Info Pavilion.

Arts and Ideas has always been looking for someone to create a Info Pavilion in an extremely artistic way. David Bench, one of the leading students that was a part of the project, approached Arts and Ideas. It just so happened that the Architecture class at Yale was looking to do something similar to what we had always wanted. It’s always been a dream of the festival’s to have a place that really draws people’s attention, because the Info Pavilion is the place for people to buy tickets, ask questions, meet for various tours, and more,” said Art Priromprintr, the Arts & Ideas marketing director. Arts and Ideas hopes to use the iconic Info Pavilion for a few years, because it is able to be knocked down,” added Nanavatty.

Ariela Martin, a student at Cooperative Arts & Humanities High School, is an Independent contributing reporter.

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