What’s Happening: A new book presents the ever-evolving Barbie Dreamhouse, which turns 60 this year, as a curious reflection of its era’s architectural and cultural sensibilities.

The Download: Barbie is having somewhat of a banner year. Teasers for the highly anticipated Barbie movie, directed by Greta Gerwig, are taking the internet by storm ahead of its July release. Barbiecore is constantly trending on TikTok. The millennial-friendly paint brand Backdrop recently launched a line of Dreamhouse-inspired shades ranging from the iconic Barbie pink to “perfect purple and turquoise.” The Dreamhouse itself is celebrating its 60th anniversary—and to mark the occasion, Mattel teamed up with Pin-Up magazine on a limited-edition art book that not only presents the Dreamhouse as an ideal home for single, empowered women, but tracks the evolution of its design sensibilities.

The 151-page tome, called Barbie Dreamhouse: An Architectural Survey, offers six examples of the doll’s ever-evolving domicile as a product of its respective era, shaped by contemporary cultural and architectural forces. It starts in the early 1960s, a time when, Mattel senior vice president of design Kim Culmone notes in an interview, women couldn’t even own their own homes. “But here’s Barbie: a single gal owning her own place. She’s got her hi-fi, she has a closet, she’s got books, a picture of her boyfriend, she’s got multiple careers,” she says. “That to me is what the Barbie Dreamhouse is about: a young woman running her own life, with her own job, doing her own thing.”

The backdrop to Barbara Millicent Roberts doing her own thing has changed drastically over time. The historian Beatriz Colomina, who penned the book’s intro, argues that architects were fixated on play when Barbie launched—take the Case Study Houses in Southern California, or Marcel Breuer and Gregory Ain’s structures in the courtyard of the Museum of Modern Art, which allowed visitors to walk through and let their aspirational fantasies run wild.

Barbie’s early-‘60s bachelorette pad embodied this forward-thinking Modernism, complete with clean-lined furniture and a narrow single bed that, as the editors note, assured “Ken was certainly not sleeping over.” Its foldout cardboard construction also nodded to the growing influence of sitcoms, especially Lucille Ball’s strong female archetype in I Love Lucy.

Barbie “moved on up” in the ‘70s, settling in a three-story bohemian townhouse festooned with psychedelic pinks, oranges, and greens evocative of the era’s singles bars. Later in the decade, the loud aesthetic calmed to a suburban A-frame house whose earth tones signaled Barbie’s maturing tastes and environmentalism following the energy crisis. It certainly nodded to the A-frame’s popularity, courtesy of progressive architects like Rudolph Schindler and John Campbell showing how pitched-roof structures can deliver optimism and leisure, as well as Charles Moore’s Sea Ranch offering an atmosphere of playfulness and ease. She even sports a slouchy sofa not unlike the era-defining Togo by Michel Ducaroy.

The Dreamhouse soon shifted from practical to aspirational, culminating in the 1990 debut of the bubblegum-pink Magical Mansion adorned with Doric columns and Palladian windows reflecting the colossal McMansions sprouting in American suburbs. (Inside, rose-patterned wallpaper recalls floral-friendly romanticists like Laura Ashley.) Though these mansions were increasing in scale, the 2000 dreamhouse dialed things back. The Victorian manse largely eschewed the Y2K era’s blobby, space-age styles, though its castle-like build spoke to the era’s palatial pastiche promoted on MTV Cribs, which debuted the same year. And to no surprise, the most recent edition is a “TikTok-ready tower” whose on-trend touches (disco balls, slides, hanging lounge chairs) allow Influencer Barbie to shoot hours of viral content.

In Their Own Words: “Yes, Barbie’s houses do reflect the transition in architecture from Modernist to Postmodernism to, well, whatever we’re calling contemporary architecture these days,” the architecture critic and Surface contributor Ian Volner writes. “Their stylistic evolution is embedded deeply within other trends exogenous to design as such: television, film, fashion, and the unique way these and other media filter down to the junior set who have fueled Barbiemania through the years.”

Surface Says: Life in plastic has never looked more fantastic.

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If any designer embodies the fantastical spirit of #AccidentallyWesAnderson, it’s Ken Fulk. His cinematic style is instantly recognizable for its ability to transport and incite wonder—attributes that projects like Carbone Miami and Leo’s Oyster Bar in San Francisco share. So it’s only fitting that Fulk was tapped to lead the renovation of The Guild, a historic 1920s theater in Menlo Park. Working with CAW Architects, the bicoastal designer introduced his signature whimsy to the restored Art Deco elements such as the gleaming neon marquee sign and ornate interior lighting fixtures.

New additions include a dramatic velvet stage curtain, two decorative bars in fluted blue granite and glowing pink rose quartz, an updated box office outfitted in custom California poppy wallpaper, and, of course, the 500-seat auditorium done up in rich burgundy and deep walnut finishes. Visiting performers to the theater, run by the Peninsula Arts Guild, will surely enjoy the remodeled green room, lounge, and private dressing rooms. Bedecked in bold-print wallpaper, sumptuous furniture, and splashes of vibrant color, one would be forgiven if they momentarily mistook the back-of-house for Austin’s Fulk-designed Commodore Perry Estate.

On Dec. 13, Magazzino Italian Art hosted guests for a dinner party in Brooklyn followed by a disco soirée at Ciao Ciao. The museum and research center had more to celebrate than revelry in the holiday spirit: in 2023 the organization will welcome a new pavilion and its inaugural Amici di Magazzino—Friends of Magazzino—a membership program for young patrons of contemporary art, design, and architecture. Guests toasted the night with cocktails by Martini, wine by Neal Rosenthal Group, and disco music.

When was it? Dec. 13

Where was it? Ciao Ciao Williamsburg

Who was there? Charlie Jarvis, Hannah Traore, Kathleen Lynch, Giorgio Spanu, Nancy Olnick, Noreen Ahmad, Hannah Gottlieb-Graham, Stefania Bortolami, Stephanie Dockery, and Vittorio Calabrese.

The Loop Lounge Chair is characterized by its distinctive curvilinear design: an organic shape that appears to defy gravity with its wire construction. Its reclined pitch makes it a remarkably comfortable outdoor lounge chair, perfect for soaking up sunlight poolside. Pair it with the Loop ottoman for an irresistible perch equally suited to a patio, atrium, or anywhere else.

Bend Goods has been bending, twisting, and shaping wire for more than a decade. The studio’s craft has redefined the perception of wire furniture. The introduction of their Lucy chair, for example, has received noteworthy recognition with its induction into LACMA’s permanent collection. Their seating has also been featured in John Lautner’s architectural masterpiece, the Sheats-Goldstein residence, in LA.

Our weekly roundup of the internet’s most preposterous headlines, from the outrageous to the outright bizarre.

A Julia Fox Impersonator Is Terrorizing New York [Highsnobiety]

Sotheby’s Has Postponed Its Unprecedented Auction of 100 Pristine Indonesian Islands Following an Outcry [Artnet News]

Former White House Chef Says Coffee Will Be “Quite Scarce” in the Near Future [Food & Wine]

Why Microplastics Are Literally Falling From the Sky, Even in Remote Regions [Core77]

London Police Barge Into Gallery After Provocative Sculpture Is Mistaken for Person in Need of Help [ARTnews]

Toilets Are Naturally Dirty, but Their Design Makes Them Even Dirtier [Fast Company]

This Artist Is Exhibiting a Nightmarish Display of Intestines Around the World [CNN]

A Man Who Spent 20 Hours in the Open Ocean After Going Overboard on a Cruise Ship Was Only Able to Survive Because a Bunch of Factors Went “Perfectly,” Coast Guard Rescuer Says [Insider]

Public Records, the Brooklyn nightlife destination beloved for its exceptional sound systems and plant-based cuisine, has transformed a former guitar shop into an “acoustic vessel” for cocktails and community gatherings. Co-founders Francis Harris and Shane Davis are now ready to unveil Upstairs, a gathering space for and by the Public Records community.

With some acoustic help from Arup and interior design by DLSV Studio, the pair has reconceived the former home of the cult guitar repair and supplier Retrofit, just upstairs from Public Records, into a lounge that functions as a speaker. The space will open in 2023 with walls that fur out to direct the soundwaves with intention, while also forming crisp angles for banquettes; those waves are also elegantly shaped by expanses of acoustic fabric panels that soften the ceiling. Davis designed the low plywood-and-steel lounge chairs, and the columnar chrome tables, with Red Hook’s Joe Cauvel. The main attraction, of course, is the sound, and for Upstairs, Devon Turnbull has outdone himself, embedding subwoofer speaker cabinets directly into the walls to transform the entire envelope into what they call an “acoustic vessel.”

Submaterial creates thoughtful and precisely handcrafted design pieces for modern interiors. In their simplicity and beauty, these works explore the territory between objects of art and objects of design. Submaterial has always focused on natural and sustainable materials such as wool felt, cork, wood, and leather. These materials are fashioned by hand into beautifully surfaced wallcoverings, panels, and screens by skilled fabricators using environmentally conscious and lean manufacturing processes.

Surface Says: Submaterial harnesses the inherent elegance and beauty of natural materials like wood, leather, and wool to create its selection of contemporary handcrafted artwork and decor.

Americans are flocking to Europe to embark on a holiday shopping binge.

Alien minerals never found on Earth have been identified in a meteorite.

Elon Musk’s garish Twitter Blue logo embodies the platform’s problems.

Here’s a quick look at California’s most outlandish rejected vanity plates.