Pavilions of Wonder
LDF | 2024
Pavilions of Wonder
London design Festival 2024
‘Pavilions of Wonder’, showcased at the London Design Festival 2024, celebrated the midcentury modern architecture of Greater Palm Springs and Barbie's iconic DreamHouse. The installations we designed featured three interactive pavilions: the ‘Cactus Infinity Garden’, ‘The Discover Pavilion’, and ‘The Reflect Pavilion’. Each pavilion merged playful design with architectural elegance, inviting visitors to explore the vibrant interplay between nostalgia and contemporary creativity, while emphasizing the importance of imaginative play.
An installation at the Strand
‘Pavilions of Wonder’ was an engaging installation created for Mattel’s Barbie® and Visit Greater Palm Springs, featured at the London Design Festival at the Strand in London. This project celebrated the unique midcentury modern architecture of Greater Palm Springs, which has significantly influenced Barbie DreamHouses over the years. Comprising three interactive pavilions, the installation merges playful elements with architectural elegance, offering visitors immersive experiences at the intersection of design and play.
The first pavilion, ‘Cactus Infinity Garden’, was inspired by the wonder desert landscape and cacti of Palm Spring. The essence of this expansive and open landscape is recreated within the inside of the Cactus infinity Garden. Mirrors line the inside walls reflecting the cactus’s garden planted inside giving the effect of an infinite cactus landscape. This open and airy garden pavilion is inspired by the tapered colonnade fronts of the Coachella Valley Savings and Loan bank by E. Stewart Williams and elements from the Barbie Dreamhouse.
The second pavilion, ‘Discover Pavilion’, showed the evolution of the Barbie DreamHouse and highlighted the architectural beauty of Palm Springs through playful vignettes viewed via peepholes, drawing on modernist visual language. On one side of the pavilion will be the barbie dreamhouse journey aims to tell the story of the evolution of the barbie dreamhouse viewed. The idea to tell these stories with beautiful vignettes that are viewed through the holes in the wall. Similarly on the other side of the pavilion aspects of the beautiful modernist architecture and unique landscape will be shown in beautiful vignettes view through peepholes.
The third, ‘Reflect Pavilion’, features a circular geometric grid inspired by modernist architect Albert Frey. As visitors move around, they experience a mesmerizing kaleidoscopic effect, with mirrored surfaces reflecting the pavilion's dynamic design. At night, the structure lights up, adding an enchanting quality to the installation.
Overall, ‘Pavilions of Wonder’ pays homage to Barbie's 65-year legacy while reinforcing Greater Palm Springs' status as the ‘US Capital of Modernism’. By blending iconic elements of Barbie's world with the region's architectural charm, the installation fostered a dialogue between past and present. It invited visitors of all ages to explore, imagine, and embrace the role of play and creativity in their everyday lives, ultimately merging nostalgia with contemporary design in a captivating manner.
CLIENT: London Design Festival, Visit Greater Palm Springs and Mattel, 15 August 2024
DESIGN: Studiomama
PHOTOGRAPHY: Ed Reeve