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An installation built around the beloved Barbie DreamHouse was a perfect fit for Greater Palm Springs’ mid-century modern aesthetics.
The annual London Design Festival was launched in 2003 to promote the city’s creativity by celebrating the region’s greatest artistic minds. The festival has grown significantly in scale and scope — in 2019, it hosted a record-breaking 600,000 individual visitors from more than 75 countries — and has become a model for arts-based festivals around the globe.
At London Design Festival 2024 (LDF24), held Sept. 14-22, multidisciplinary designer Nina Tolstrup of East London–based design studio Studiomama showcased an outdoor art installation that merged architectural decorum with fantasy — “Pavilions of Wonder,” presented by Visit Greater Palm Springs and Mattel Inc.’s Barbie. “I was approached with the exciting opportunity of creating an installation inspired by Greater Palm Springs midcentury modern architecture and the Barbie DreamHouse,” Tolstrup said in a press release. “It has been wonderful to work with LDF, Barbie, and Visit Greater Palm Springs to create this installation that embraces the architectural wonders of Palm Springs and the vibrant, playful spirit of Barbie.”
Greater Palm Springs celebrated 65 years of the iconic Barbie doll at last year’s event.
The three whimsical pavilions, displayed during the event on the Strand in central London, immersed visitors in Tolstrup’s vision:
- The Dream: Infinity Garden included elements of Palm Springs’ desert oasis landscape as well as floor-to-ceiling windows, a hallmark of modern midcentury design. Its exterior was inspired by the signature undulating, tapered columns of the destination’s historic Coachella Valley Savings and Loan building and incorporated a saturated pink palette and playful elements that spoke to Barbie’s legions of fans.
- The Discover: Design Stories pavilion’s eight windows gave visitors a peek inside the design history of Greater Palm Springs and the Barbie DreamHouse, with peepholes offering glimpses of playful scenes of Barbie through the decades. The roof shape mimicked a swimming pool to further link the doll’s backyard with the destination’s relaxed, sun-soaked vibe.
- The Reflect: Playful Pauses pavilion structure, an open geometric grid, was influenced by Palm Springs City Hall — a popular stop on the destination’s midcentury modern design tours — and the 2023 version of the DreamHouse. The Barbie pink pavilion created a kaleidoscopic effect of geometric patterns as visitors walked around it, creating a shift in perspective from every angle — further evidence of the “vibrant interplay of iconic design,” Tolstrup said in the release, “and playful imagination.”
Casey Gale is the former managing editor of Convene.