The most famous mansion of all time turns six decades, from the Sixties-style studio apartment to the most modern eco-friendly villa. A toy-sized house that over the decades tells, in miniature, how our way of living and organizing domestic environments has changed

Barbie's dream house turns sixty years, a mansion that in six decades has changed its architecture and furnishings, passing from the Sixties-style studio apartment to the pink castle and glitter from the Nineties, up to the more contemporary eco-friendly building with solar panels and zero kilometer materials from the 2000s.

Because Barbie's house tells us about the evolution of furniture and interior design

A toy-size house that in miniature proposed highly detailed sets of interior design and cutting-edge domestic solutions, anticipating trends and reflecting the evolution of American and global style.

At the same time, the Dreamhouse gives us a timeline of how games have changed, their conception and realization, more inclusive, resistant and engaging educational solutions, which underline how design can make a difference in the imagination of the little ones.

From a Sixties-style studio apartment to an Eighties-style house with an outdoor setting

Barbie, the first true trend-setter and entrepreneur of herself, does not seem to fear Imu, Tari and Tasi, in fact she has dozens of houses, for years she has been renovating and changing them constantly. The famous platinum-plated doll and feminist icon bought her first real estate property in 1962, even before women were allowed to open a bank account, investing in a cardboard studio flat, small in size but very colorful and with an ultramodern style for the time.

In 1979, Barbie moved into the largest and most comfortable Dreamhouse, the A-shaped house, the first entirely in plastic, with a sloping roof and flowers on the windowsill, and in 1984 she also bought the cottage for the holidays, with roof terrace, barbecue, solarium area, table with chairs and parasol.

From the nineties castle to the eco-friendly architecture of the 2000s

Nineties: it is the turn of the super-equipped pink and glitter castle, with luxurious interiors, a fireplace, an open space with kitchen and living room, a bathtub for two, plants, a four-legged friend and sophisticated accessories. Over the years Two thousand, once again in line with interior design trends, the Barbie villa becomes more minimal and the nuances more sober.

Until arriving in 2013 at the turning point environmentalist, with the Aia Barbie Dream House signed by American Institute of Architects on the initiative of Mattel , an eco-friendly house with solar panels on the roof, a low-impact irrigation system for plants, bamboo floors, ecological bathroom drainage, materials by the kilometer zero and class A appliances, a project that would have a value of 3.5 million euros.

The latest version is the new Malibu House, a transforming home that reflects the new contemporary way of living, increasingly fluid and hybrid. An example? The living room, on the first floor, becomes a cinema room if necessary, and the kitchen is an open space-bar where to welcome and entertain guests.

Habitat for Humanity, a real and dignified home for all children

To celebrate the sixty years of the Barbie house, Mattel has promoted a partnership with the non-profit organization Habitat for Humanity to support sixty building projects in favor of families in difficulty.

Over the course of 2022, projects will be funded in countries such as Canada, Poland, Brazil, a new home will be built in Los Angeles, and at an international level, at-risk structures will be repaired, new playhouses built, with Mattel employees active in the field to help in communities first. So that a dignified home is no longer a plastic dream, but a reality within the reach of all children.