Barbie and the Architecture of Play
Things can get ugly. Plus: Bushwick woes and the problem of design writing
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Hype House
On Barbie’s Dreamhouse and the architecture of controversy
by Claudia Ross
Released in 1962, the first Barbie Dreamhouse employed key attributes of West Coast modernism: Its square structure, large windows, and blocky furniture emblematized the era’s optimistic view of the relationship between design and social improvement. These elements distinguished the Dreamhouse from the stuffy Victorian dollhouses of yore; instead of gabled, Rapunzel-ready turrets, they featured open living spaces and indoor-outdoor components that suggested Barbie’s liberated lifestyle. As a result, the Dreamhouse’s transparent, open structure recalls Mies van der Rohe’s modernist Farnsworth House much more than it does Balmoral Castle. “Change the architecture,” goes anthropologist James Holston’s summary of modernist architectural beliefs, “and society will be forced to follow the program of social change that the architecture embodies.” While Barbie’s single-person studio is a far cry from the public housing developments Holston refers to, past and present consideration of the Dreamhouse follows a similar logic, linking Barbie to a lineage of forward-thinking architects. Larger Dreamhouses emerged as American women supposedly dreamed bigger—the floral-pastiche mansion Dreamhouses of the 1990s cost almost $400 and could spread to nearly five feet in width. Progress! Right?
Not exactly.
Fall of the House of Schwartau
Our columnist wrestles with the legacy of his former Bushwick abode.
I was recently forwarded a Brownstoner article about the fight to save several historic mansions built along a stretch of Bushwick Ave. The crux of the piece was centered around the imperiled Lipsius Cook House on the corner of Myrtle Ave. First occupied by the German American beer heiress Catherina Lipsius and later the discredited explorer Frederick Cook, the home fell into disrepair in recent years. Next door, a six-story apartment building rose from the ashes of a historic KFC, dwarfing the once prominent, but now disheveled residence, whose overgrown yard was peppered with trash. Scanning the article further, I clocked another familiar address: 751 Bushwick Ave., the decrepit yet characterful mansion where I had lived for seven decrepit yet characterful years in my twenties, from about 2012 to 2018.
Writing for Dummies
A grand unified take on the task of writing—and why everyone can’t do it.
by Eva Hagberg
This book is what happens when someone thinks the only reason they aren’t a professional writer is that they don’t have the time.
New York Review of Architecture reviews architecture in New York. Our editor is Samuel Medina, our deputy editor is Marianela D’Aprile, and our publisher is Nicolas Kemper.
To pitch us an article or ask us a question, write to us at: editor@nyra.nyc.
For their support, we would like to thank the Graham Foundation and our issue sponsors, Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects and Thomas Phifer.
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