Architect Barbie is a Michigan Grad
Architect Barbie will graduate from University of Michigan on August 15, 2011.
On Monday, August 15, 2011, Mattel will ship Architect Barbie. Architect Barbie was inspired by a female architect teaching at the University of Michigan in 2007. Created in concept by then Walter B. Sanders Architecture Fellow, Despina Stratigakos, at UM’s Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Stratigakos enlisted students to create prototypes for a college-wide Architect Barbie Exhibition in 2007. After more than four years of campaigning, Architect Barbie came to be and was announced this year. Mattel’s newest – “I Can Be…™ Architect Barbie®” will hit store shelves on August 15, 2011. Architect Barbie was announced by Mattel on the 125th anniversary of the registration of the first woman architect, Louise Bethune.
Now an author and architecture professor at University of Buffalo, read about Statigakos’ journey as an architectural historian in “What I Learned from Architect Barbie,” in Places’ Design Observer: http://places.designobserver.com/feature/what-i-learned-from-architect-barbie/27638/
To hear Statigakos tell the full story, listen to her interview with Dick Gordon on an April 2011 “The Story” segment. (interview is app. half way through the entire show)
Architect Barbie is available for purchase and will ship starting August 15, 2011. To order, click here
To commemorate the creation of Architect Barbie, American Institute of Architects (AIA) launched a new Barbie Dream Home design competition at the 2011 AIA Convention. The winning design, announced August 2, 1011, proposes the Barbie Dream Home as modern, eco-friendly and of course, pink. To read more, click here
