Playhouse challenge

Most kids' playhouses are nice and all. But what would happen if 20 funky architects took on the backyard and devoted some spare time to re-envision the classic structure?

Tampa soon will get to see, and buy, modernistic cube playhouses, playful pink polka dot party shacks, blocky panel boxes and jabberwocky dream-houses.

The architect playhouses are part of a project sponsored by the Outdoor Arts Foundation, a follow-up on its successful "BowWow Haus" contest in 2003 to design funkier doghouses.

For playhouses, the foundation partnered with St. Petersburg-based R'Club Child Care and invited about 20 architects from Tampa, Boston and other cities to come up with a more imaginative playhouse.

The only rules: The houses must be safe under federal guidelines, and the participants must actually build the houses for sale at a charity auction.

The price for each is likely to be $5,000 to $10,000.

"As for design, we really did not want to point the architects in any one direction," said Jay Goulde, executive director of the Outdoor Arts Foundation. "We wanted them to be creative and come up with what literally could be a dream house."

For instance, Andy Dohmen and Peter Fertig of Design Styles architecture in Clearwater designed a playhouse with a metal frame at the center and boards that can be rearranged to change its shape.

"We didn't want a playhouse that just sat in the yard," Peter said. "But rather something kids could play with, the object itself, part playhouse and part creative outlet."

In the next few months, architects and builders will construct the houses and put them on display at WestShore Plaza and Tampa International Airport, with an auction in September at the Sirata Beach Resort & Conference Center on St. Pete Beach.

Proceeds will benefit the foundation and R'Club, a nonprofit organization providing day care to school-age kids at more than 40 local sites.