100 Room House ATC Project

The 100 Room House Project is an idea for an art trading project in which each piece of art represents a numbered room in a larger place of connected rooms (ie. house / hotel / apartment / garden maze). A house doesn't have to be 100 rooms! It could be 50, 40, 25 rooms, etc. Whatever you want.

In fact, I like the idea of putting these in a little binder with single pockets, and the one I have has 40 pockets. So I will start with a 40 room house!

Each room card connects to other room cards through doors depicted on the card, which are numbered for the room they lead to.

Basic Rules

1. Each ATC is a room.

Every card represents a numbered room. The room number should appear somewhere clearly on the card. You should always do this on the back of the card in a large number, but you can put it somewhere on the front if you wish also.

2. Doors connect rooms together.

Any door shown on a card must display the number of the room it leads to.

Example: Room 42 might show a door marked 19.

3. A room probably should not contain a door to itself.

Doors depicted on a card should probably not be marked with the same number as the room card.

Example: Room 42 probably shouldn't show a door marked 42.

4. Rooms may contain multiple doors.

A room may connect to several other rooms.

Example: Room 19 might be a hall that shows two doors marked 42 and 26.

5. Rooms do not need to obey real-world logic.

You might have to go through a bedroom to get to a stairway which leads to a garden.

These houses can be surreal if you want them to, and this is likely going to happen if you are trading, because people's creativity could be random!

Of course, you might prefer to construct a house that makes the most sense spatially to you, and if so, you'll want to be clear with your trading partners about what you want.

6. A collector may choose a theme for their house.

Examples:

haunted victorian manor
fantasy castle
carnival funhouse
apartment building
hotel
spaceship
endless library
garden maze

7. Or you might not care about the theme for one of your houses.

The rooms may simply be mixed and eclectic, at the whim of your trading artists.

Trading

Starting out will be easy, but eventually you're going to have specific needs for your house. You'll wind up with rooms that have doors leading to rooms that are not made yet.

So when trading, you might ask for specifics like this:

“I am looking for Room 7. It should contain at least one door marked 26.”

You would do this because you already have a Room 26 that has a door marked 7, so you want something that connects back to this example card:

Or, if you want to give your trading partner more leeway, you could tell them everything you need and let them decide which room they want to claim. For this case, it's helpful to use a shorthand. Write the room number followed by brackets containing the door requirements.

“I need these rooms: 2, 5, 7(26), 8, 11, 17(37), 21, 22, 35(1), 37, 38”

And then your trader will pick a room from this list.

If you are making someone a room card for their house, again, make sure it has the room number printed largely no the back of the card. You can also elect to put "this is room (followed by the room number)" somewhere on the front of the card if you wish.

Include at least one door on the card you make. If there is a number that appears in brackets after the room listing (ie. for 35(1) ) you will need to have a door marked for that bracketted number. If no brackets appear after the room listing (ie. 21) , then you can choose any number from the rooms they still need for your door. In either case, you don't have to limit yourself to one door. You can always add more doors with other numbers that match one of the rooms they still need.

It's REALLY HELPFUL, for you to let the person know which doors you intend to put on that card for their records to inform their future traders. But you know, if you're crafting the card, and you're inspired to put an extra door in there , just let them know you're doing it when you can ❤️

Optional Ideas

Rooms might include the standard livingroom, bathroom, kitchen, bedroom, conservatory, etc, but also openable things like this:

closets
cupboards
wardrobes
stairwells
elevators
trapdoors

...anything that opens or leads somewhere.

As long as everything is labelled with a number that you want to lead to another card, you're golden!

Imagine seeing Door 72, then going to that ATC card in the album and discovering that it's actually a closet stuffed with all kinds of lovely junk.

Starting a House

Room 0 is going to be your entry point.

It's probably best that you make this one yourself, as it will help set the tone for your house.

It will likely have some kind of front entry door marked with a number (not 0). But like any other room, it doesn't have to have just one door.

It could also have:

a side gate
a shed door
a garage door

...all marked with numbers leading to other cards.

Examples

Here are a few example room connections:

Room 19 is a pencil crayon ATC depicting a hallway with doors leading to Room 26 and Room 42

Room 42 is a collage ATC depicting a den with a door leading back to Room 19

Room 26 is a magazine collage ATC depicting a sitting room with doors leading to Room 7 and back to Room 19

Room 7 is a watercolour ATC depicting a bedroom that connects back to Room 26

The fun part is that every artist may interpret the rooms differently.

Some rooms may feel cozy, surreal, creepy, funny, magical, realistic, cluttered, elegant, or completely impossible.

Thanks for exploring the 100 Room House Project!

Web page made by T. Shawn Johnson