Pavilions Of Wonder by Nina Tolstrup at London Design Festival 2024 – Photo by Ed Reeve, all photos are courtesy of LDF.
Architecture. It doesn’t look like it, but Barbie® has just turned 65. The world’s most famous doll and pop heroine aged exceptionally well, boasting female-empowering messages for many generations of women. From here, at London Design Festival 2024, Mattel Inc. teamed up with multidisciplinary designer Nina Tolstrup of Studiomama to create Pavilions of Wonder, three interactive installations revealing the strong link between Barbie® Dreamhouses and Palm Springs’ iconic Mid Century-Modern architecture.
- RELATED STORIES: Read more about the London Design Festival 2024 on Archipanic.
The first doll’s Dreamhouses were inspired by an ideal of wealth and happiness in 1960s America. At that time, the dream was true in Palm Springs, California, where Albert Frey, Frank Lloyd Wright and Richard Neutra created amazing desert-modernist villas. At Strand Aldwych, in central London, Tolstrup teamed up with Californian tourism agency Visit Greater Palm Springs to create three Instagram-friendly pavilions.
“Embracing the architectural wonders of Palm Springs and the vibrant, playful spirit of Barbie, our installation celebrates the vibrant interplay of iconic design and playful imagination, highlighting the connection between these distinctive influences.” Nina Tolstrup told Archipanic.
- RELATED STORIES: The set design of the Barbie movie was inspired by Palm Springs’ Mid-century architecture and beyond.
The first pavilion, Dream: Infinity Garden, draws inspiration from the desert landscape of Greater Palm Springs. Visitors walk into a circular 360-degree structure that mirrors a cactus garden at its centre. The open and airy design was inspired by the tapered colonnade fronts of the Coachella Valley Savings and Loan Bank by E. Stewart Williams. It also incorporates a saturated tonal pink palette and playful, toy-like elements inspired by the Barbie DreamHouse.
A corrugated scaffold grid system wraps Discover: Design Stories. The CNC-cut plywood pavilion features peepholes offering glimpses into the world of Greater Palm Springs and the Barbie DreamHouse design history, transporting visitors into a world of play and travel.
Photo by Ed Reeve.
Mattel Inc. provided the design team with vignettes of Barbie Dreamhouse backdrops to inform the content inside the peepholes. Each of the structure’s openings displays actual Barbie dolls throughout history. The roof shape mimics that of a swimming pool, further linking the installation to the outdoor elements of the Barbie DreamHouse and the lifestyle of Greater Palm Springs.
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Photo by Ed Reeve.
The third pavilion, Reflect: Playful Pauses, is an open structure with a sloping roof inspired by the geometric grid design influenced by modernist architect Albert Frey’s Palm Springs City Hall and the 2023 Barbie DreamHouse. It creates a kaleidoscopic effect of geometric patterns as visitors move around it. The roof’s mirrored underside amplifies the geometric grid, creating a mesmerising visual experience that shifts with the viewer’s perspective. At night, the structure comes alive with lights, adding a whimsical element to the installation.
All photos of Nina Tolstrup’s Pavilions of Wonder are courtesy of London Design Festival.
