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Architect Barbie

Sarah Hamilton

Just for Donna...

 
Feb 18, 11 12:38 pm
Sarah Hamilton

Discuss...

Feb 18, 11 12:38 pm  · 
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Rusty!

She even looks like Donna.

purple means passion.

Feb 18, 11 12:41 pm  · 
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St. George's Fields


Except this is the official Architect Barbie.

Feb 18, 11 12:45 pm  · 
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St. George's Fields

And it's not even official. "Architect" wasn't picked as the top "I can be..." Barbie. It was a news anchor and a computer engineer.

Feb 18, 11 12:52 pm  · 
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Rusty!

drawing tube.

that's how people on the street know what I do for living.


much better. I can see the construction site from my house.

Feb 18, 11 12:53 pm  · 
1  · 

There she is! Barbie I Can Be..Architect!

Please note her symmetrically stylish clothing:

Girlssorry boys[i]can imagine designing their very own Dream House with Barbie® I Can Be…™ Architect. Ready to tackle the daily responsibilities of a real architect in or out of the office, Barbie® I Can Be…™ Architect includes a hard hat and a set of blue prints. Wearing an architecturally inspired dress showcasing a city skyline, Barbie® doll’s outfit is symmetrically stylish with bold colors and clean lines. In designing this doll, Barbie® partnered with the American Institute of Architects to keep Barbie® I Can Be… ™ Architect doll authentic to the career.[/url]

What do you suppose is actually drawn on her "set of blueprints"?

Feb 18, 11 12:54 pm  · 
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St. George's Fields

"What do you suppose is actually drawn on her "set of blueprints"?"

A concentration camp for Debbie Downer brunettes!

Feb 18, 11 12:56 pm  · 
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Ahhhwwwgghghgh!! gawd! my! eyes! rusty how could you?!?!?!

Oh yeah I fucked up the formatting on that post above, no? I'm not symmetrically stylish, I guess.

Feb 18, 11 1:02 pm  · 
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Cherith Cutestory

Well they got the architect glasses right.

Feb 18, 11 1:04 pm  · 
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Rusty!
"A concentration camp for Debbie Downer brunettes!"

Feb 18, 11 1:04 pm  · 
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TaliesinAGG

So happy the AIA took the time from their busy schedule to consult on this project....I am certain it will be just the effort we have been looking for from them to help save our profession....Who needs to lobby the bankers...Architect Barbie will put food on our plates.

Feb 18, 11 2:03 pm  · 
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St. George's Fields

Oh please. Lobby the bankers? They only make what slack-jawed idiots want to happen.

It's hilarious that the AIA even took part in this but part of the reason the AIA exists is to publicize the profession. And if putting a stamp of approval on a Barbie doll inspires a 1,000 little girls to become architects... well, are they not doing what they inspired to do?

If you want to bitch about bankers, you should perhaps also bitch about marketing and advertising.

You know... the kinds of professions that force TV shows and movies to take place in certain kinds of houses, in certain kinds of neighborhoods, driving certain kinds of cars, eating certain kinds of foods, using certain kinds of appliances, doing certain kinds of things and only appearing in situations with certain kinds of limited outcomes?

The BBC (technically the British government) outlawed product placements decades ago. That's why every show on the BBC takes place in a dumpy house where few people own cars and people eat whatever is nearby.

Albeit property in Great Britain is expensive for a whole variety of other reasons, you don't see nearly as manly people there clamoring for over-commercialized shit. Well, at least not nearly as rabidly.

Everything-- and I mean everything-- in America... our past times, our hobbies, our national prides-- are the almost entirely the results of media and marketing campaigns. From camping to going to the beach to vacations to tans to yards to football to baseball to cars to movies ad naseum. Ever watch TV from the 1930s and 1940s after standards and practices went into play?

"Nice house with kids in the playing yard" secretly means "buy 13 appliances, sod, seed, fertilizer, sprinkler system, hose, plumbing, decks, concrete, pavers, fence and a shed."

Feb 18, 11 2:18 pm  · 
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Sarah Hamilton

Hey, I always spent more time designing Barbie's home, than actually playing with her. I bet my friends got bored, come to think of it.

Feb 18, 11 2:37 pm  · 
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mantaray

omg the first one looks just like Donna! Except different hair color. Donna don't you have those exact same glasses?

And I love the black half-boots on the second one. Nice touch!

Feb 18, 11 2:53 pm  · 
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TaliesinAGG

I will bitch about marketing and advertising maybe...AFTER MY STALLED PROJECTS CAN GET REASONABLE FINANCING!!! More Architects unemployed this week, more projects still dead in the water....your little commercialism rant is pretty insignificant in the grand scheme of a major depression.
And yes, the AIA should be leading the effort to improve the conditions of its membership.

Feb 18, 11 2:56 pm  · 
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Sarah Hamilton

I wonder if that hot pink bracelet helps prevent carpal tunnel due to long hours of cadding.

Feb 18, 11 3:29 pm  · 
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THEaquino

so, do 1/3 of the dolls come with unemployment checks and a big "waa waa" when you open the box?

Feb 18, 11 3:35 pm  · 
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St. George's Fields

A) It's not a union. It's technically not even a NGO. It also technically has no reason to exist. It does sit on NCARB boards and helps develop ethics and licensing requirements.

But I'm pretty sure that it states no where in any specific law that it must be the AIA. That role could be given to any number of organizations-- domestic or foreign.

You should be somewhat glad that ti's not the Urban Land Institute developing licensing and practice requirements on NCARB and State boards. Those people are vicious animals.

B) Financing is a bridge between supply and demand. Bankers as well as financiers have sophisticated, complex risk calculations that take many factors into account when they approve or disprove financing.

One aspect is the demand and feasibility of demand. But where does demand come from? How is demand made?

Most demand in developed countries is simply irrational. That's what happens when you live in a developed country. There's less risk to society overall. Property should foremost be functional and utilitarian. Most of ours aren't.

And there's no way to calculate irrationality in risk.

You're ruining a perfectly good "Let's worship a tiny doll that embodies hollow dreams and eating disorders wrapped in a cute package that's pretending to be socially and intellectually relevant thread."

Feb 18, 11 3:36 pm  · 
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You know what's depressing?

Not only that Unicorn is right about hollow dreams and eating disorders, but that I both look very much like that first doll image - the ingratiating smile, especially - and sadly far too much like that Sarah Palin doll too. Which is partly why I hate her so.

As for the AIA spending time helping Mattel plan the architect Barbie, I'm just going to paraphrase Ewan McGregor when describing why he agreed to play Obi Wan in The Phantom Menace: "If George Lucas asks you to play a key role in the most anticipated film of a generation, it would take a bigger man than me to say no."

Feb 18, 11 3:46 pm  · 
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Everything-- and I mean everything-- in America... our past times, our hobbies, our national prides-- are the almost entirely the results of media and marketing campaigns. From camping to going to the beach to vacations to tans to yards to football to baseball to cars to movies ad naseum. Ever watch TV from the 1930s and 1940s after standards and practices went into play?

"Nice house with kids in the playing yard" secretly means "buy 13 appliances, sod, seed, fertilizer, sprinkler system, hose, plumbing, decks, concrete, pavers, fence and a shed."


i also very much agree/experience/witness with what has been said here by unicorn du jour. very well put. also interested in what happens to these issues before it hits the popular media, marketing. i am critical of what, why, when, where by whom they are incubated specifically, and how they result in, ie; one dimensional man.

Feb 18, 11 4:39 pm  · 
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btw, the woman in this cartoon depicts the architects i know.

Feb 18, 11 5:11 pm  · 
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i like the barbie movies. they teach my kids about empowerment and shit. don't care for the dolls.


sorry to generalise but sometimes you americans are a funny lot. the liberals hate barbie because she is too perfect, and the conservatives hate education because it gives people ideas (and prefer barbie as a housewife).

both sides support aiming lower. wtf kind of way is that to grow a future?


;-)

Feb 18, 11 9:33 pm  · 
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Humulus Lupulus

To clarify a misconception, it's worth knowing that the AIA had nothing to do with this doll. Two architects who happen to be AIA members acted as consultants for Mattel.

Feb 18, 11 10:41 pm  · 
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I'm sure they'd have to charge way more for the barbies if they did; worse with the stamp to proof it. They'd have to hire even younger orphaned Asian/African reformed child soldiers to make the dolls. But cynicism aside... I did do a double take on the first doll.

however if they want to make it authentic they've best equip her with a bourbon or two.

Feb 19, 11 10:55 pm  · 
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Sarah Hamilton

Techno, that makes me wonder, does she have a stamp? And where do you think they put it?

Feb 20, 11 11:18 am  · 
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a mouse

huh. i thought this would be about consuming beer and sausages with other architects.....

Feb 20, 11 10:47 pm  · 
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Ready to tackle the daily responsibilities of a real architect in or out of the office...

For some reason, this phrase makes me think Barbie I Can Be...Architect is wearing a garter belt and bustier under her stylishly symmetrical dress. In basic minimalist black, of course.

Feb 20, 11 11:10 pm  · 
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St. George's Fields


based on suggestions.

Feb 21, 11 1:23 am  · 
1  · 
BOTS

Climb into Shanghai Barbie!




Sorry.... climb the escalator into the Barbie Store at Shanghai

Feb 21, 11 8:57 am  · 
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Unicorn, that is SO much better!

Feb 21, 11 9:49 am  · 
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Purpurina

Barbie got her hard hat... she is going to the job site in high heels and skirt...

Feb 21, 11 1:23 pm  · 
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i agree, donna. unicorn's barbie is more like it.

check the review here and don't miss the comments: http://observersroom.designobserver.com/oblog/entry.html?entry=24718

Feb 21, 11 5:02 pm  · 
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Architect Barbie makes Jezebel, and someone named CurtCole - who I'll bet is also a 'necter - posts the wining comment:

Architect Barbie? How can someone who isn't proportionately to scale herself be an architect?

Feb 23, 11 12:11 am  · 
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Sarah Hamilton

That's awesome. Love the scale comment.

Feb 23, 11 11:55 am  · 
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beekay31

When does ambiguously homosexual interior design Ken come out?

Feb 26, 11 6:13 pm  · 
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beekay31

glitter, needs more mascara to hide the bags.

Feb 26, 11 6:31 pm  · 
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n_

This is an interesting read from the Christian Science Monitor

'Architect Barbie' Builds a Dream Home, But Her Profession Needs a Makeover

Aug 8, 11 11:13 pm  · 
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I can't believe Ken is an interior designer... ok, I can believe it. They just haven't fashioned the male Building Designer.... Maybe, I need to become a Rock Star like John Yeon ! ! ! !

 

 

Aug 9, 11 1:00 am  · 
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This thread from 12 years ago shows how much turmoil our world has been in since then. Dividing people into sub groups based entirely on what can be sold to them is just a repulsive feature of the US, and elsewhere in the world. Nonetheless, I sort of want a Stevie Nicks Barbie. I hate myself for it LOL.

Oct 5, 23 8:26 am  · 
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Isn't it cool, proto?!?!?

Oct 6, 23 11:24 am  · 
1  · 

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