Architect Barbie

Let me start off my saying that as a child growing up I loved barbie. I had a storage bin full of them. I had a barbie house, car and even a Ken doll. Ask anyone in my family and they'll tell you she was my favorite toy. 

But in today's body conscious world, Barbie and her makers [the Mattel Company] have come under a lot of scrutiny because of the way barbie looks, and the effect it has on the body image young girls.Proportionally, if Barbie were life size, she would have to walk on all fours. According to Kim Culmone, VP of Design at Mattel "Barbie's body was never designed to be realistic. She was designed for girls to easily dress and undress". 

The most famous viral example of Barbie's body image issues was done by artist Nickolay Lamm, who designed a "Barbie" with the average measurements of a 19 year old females body. 

Which one's better? It's hard to say. There's evidence on both sides of the body issue argument which I don't really feel like diving into completely. One thing I think Barbie did right however, was the creation of its I Can Be : Architect Barbie doll. 

Why? I have a few reasons. But first a bit of background info. 

Architect Barbie was introduced in 2011 in partnership with AIA San Francisco. Also introduced in 2011 were Computer Engineer Barbie, Martial Artist Barbie, Marine Biologist Barbie, Race Car Driver Barbie etc etc...

So, back to why. I believe that architect Barbie is a good and positive infulence on young girls. We're constantly told as children "you can grow up to be whatever you want to be" expect for girls this always had some strings attached. In the architecture world today women are referred to as the "Missing 32%". 

I don't really care if Barbie's body proportions are all out of wack. What I care about is how she can make a little girl see the world. If you give a girl a Computer Engineer Barbie, chances are she'll play with her in character like a computer engineer. Same with Architect Barbie. 

And don't even bother telling me that young girls won't even know what and Architect is so why bother? Cause guess what, kids ask questions. Around 300 a day in fact. Don't believe me? Google it. 

And this shift of female toys/characters venturing off into "new" territory isn't only being done by Mattel. Lego recently launched the "Research Institute" mini figure set, with female scientist figurines. 

I am a strong believer in that how we raise our children will greatly effect how they learn, grow and see the world. And I think Architect Barbie helps to expand the once forbidden world of math, science, design and technology to little girls. I want to be able to tell my kids someday that "you can be whatever you want to be" with no strings attached. 

-A

References

http://newsfeed.time.com/2014/02/06/barbie-lead-designer-blames-moms-not-dolls-crazy-proportions-for-girls-body-issues/

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/lego-launches-female-scientist-set-months-after-7yearold-requested-they-make-more-lego-girl-people-and-let-them-go-on-adventures-9650341.html

http://www.archdaily.com/263765/architect-barbie-a-social-experiment/

FA14 Studio: Area 51 Site Visit

Last Friday my studio group made our way out to Area 51 to see the site for our project this semester. I am calling our site Area 51 because our project is "confidential", in the sense that it is going to be the real site for a healthcare facility in the near future. So from now on I will be calling the project Area 51 for fun, and so that I may continue to share it on here without breaking that confidentiality. 

Above is an edited site plan of Area 51, and below you will find photos from our site visit to Area 51. The site is situated on a hill with an approximate 40' grade change from top to bottom. To the left of the site is a capped landfill, and to its right is hole 9 of a golf course. The area where the building will most likely go is densely populated with trees.  

Later tonight I will start working on the 8 pages of notes I have from the client meeting and come up with a comprehensive program list. Enjoy the site photos!

FA14 STUDIO: Precedent Research

My studio project this semester is to design a behavioral health care facility in Devon's MA. Before we start exploring program needs, as a entire studio we conducted precedent research of behavioral health care facilities from early 1800's to present day. As a studio we divided the years among us and presented our finding to each other. My group was responsible for researching Behavioral Health Care Facilities from 1890-1940. Below are the slides we prepared and presented to the studio!

This research helped us as a studio truly understand the historical stigma that being mentally ill brought upon people and their families. Our aim is to use this research to make informed decisions when designing our Behavioral Health Care Centers.

-A

FA14 Morphology : Paper Folding

Today I had my first graduate level architecture course! It is taught by Professor Lefteris Pavlides, PhD, AIA. The class is called Morphology, and the study of form. 

The origins of a form as an inorganic are either solids (crystals), liquid (or things carved by liquid), or gaseous (wind or things carved by wind).

After he lecture he gave the class an assignment to work on. Take a piece of paper and fold it into any 3D structure. Make the paper stand, let your fingers do the thinking, no peeking at others.... Below are my few attempts at making paper stand.....

After a few minutes, someone caught on to the form he wanted us to create. It was from an 1974 assignment he had in architecture school at Yale.

I asked the paper what it wanted to be, The paper told me I like an octahedron!

So then I created six octahedrons.

Then we had to form them together into a 3D shape that would stay together without tape, glue etc... So we had to weave them together, which was kind of hard with only two hands but I managed to figure it out. 

For next Mondays class we need to create and weave mini octahedron's and create a presentation explaining the Origins of Form. 

-A