over 400 contributors from across goa have got together to create a unique installation comprising 200 dolls houses at the museum of goa in pilerne interestingly while the project in called the giant dolls house each house is a miniature artwork within a shoebox but then the many artists and their sensibilities have created a narrative that connects with goas vast and multifaceted cultural landscape the venture is an international collaborative arts project founded by londonbased architect catja de haas the project which usually revolves around the idea of the home took a different form in goa where different groups here were asked what does goa mean to you the boxes were created in response to the question the project has travelled across the world before it came to goa the team conducted several workshops and invited many to be a part of the project and were surprised by the sheer interest of people from all walks of lifehow the project took shape in goathe project was inaugurated on april 20 by catja where she shared the idea behind it with the audience it was followed by a storytelling session with rochelle dsilva who with her stories led the audience into the world of these miniature boxes and beyond the evening also had talks that included photographer david de souza speaking on his and charmaynes invisible house architect hyacinth pinto speaking on why she loves building with rammed earth and social entrepreneur ricardo rebello speaking on creating a green and sustainable building in panjimthe aim of the project is to make people aware of the importance of a home and a community for all and to celebrate diversity it engages local communities we try to engage with groups that would not normally be involved in the dialogue and the installations can be used as conversation pieces to tell stories or just to look at in goa the experience has been pretty good it was a great place to execute the project it gave me a chance to explore goa in a different way by connecting to people and learning their stories catja told usthe art installation was worked on for over a month and a half in goa weve worked with as many as 400 people we tried reaching out to different communities that form goa people who visit mog women working in selfhelp groups in pilerne architecture students migrant settlers in indira nagar fishermen from cacra people from bookworm community library several schools artists architects the russian community in goa tourists and orphaned children says noreen van holstein who brought the project to goa and facilitated it by connecting with communitiesvaried stories in every shoeboxeach box has a story to tell and all the boxes are connected with ladders to represent one large community that forms goa some of the stories are very simple like a sixyearold created her ideal home her living room with her family however some focussed on more diverse topics like religion culture