Yet, we do keep being shown by filmmakers the sanitized suburban street in these utopian films, a singular perception of beauty, which we know as built environment professionals cannot work in reality. But can we ever create a dreamland which is successful in real life? Which one day might replace the white-picket-fence as our societal comfort blanket?
Did you find comfort in Barbieland?
27 Feb 24
Somewhat late to the party, I recently watched Barbie (£1.99 on a popular streaming service!). As a young woman in my late twenties I, unsurprisingly, felt affinity with the themes of gender roles and equality portrayed in the film. However, what really got me thinking, was the depiction of Barbieland as a white-picket fence suburban street.
The real-life set constructed for the film forms the backdrop to the perfect life of Barbie. The houses arranged on a semi-crescent cul-de-sac allow the Barbies to greet each other good morning and the paved road provides space for girls’ night (every night). White picket, suburban dreamland is what the production team created based on the idealisation of 1960’s suburbia. No high-rise blocks of flats, or tightly terraced streets here. Nor, indeed, vast gaps between the houses or huge gardens and high walls.
This idealised suburban dreamworld isn’t a new concept, in 1998 we were shown it in the Truman show (filmed in the holiday town of Seaside Florida) as well as countless other examples. A comforting, familiar backdrop to these types of blockbuster movies.
And sure, there are some great placemaking rules at play in these places. In fact, in Barbieland many of the key principles for a successful place as observed by Jane Jacobs1, the renowned journalist-turned-built-environment-commentator, are at play. The arrangement of the buildings allows eyes upon the street creating a feeling of safety; a busy well used space feels safer than a quiet, deserted street. There is clearly marked and defensible public/private space and small, frequent areas of open space which residents are able to take ownership of.
But this a very simplistic view of the world. We know that good placemaking requires so much more than this, as shown by the myriad of requirements contained in the National Design Guide2 and the performance of real-world places built with this idealised view at the heart of them. We only need to look at the Garden City movement, the aesthetic driven community of Poundbury and the Radburn Estates to appreciate that the idealised white-picket-fence world does not perform well when met with real life constraints; crime, land availability, land use and biodiversity net gain requirements to name a few.
Yet, we do keep being shown by filmmakers the sanitized suburban street in these utopian films, a singular perception of beauty, which we know as built environment professionals cannot work in reality. But can we ever create a dreamland which is successful in real life? Which one day might replace the white-picket-fence as our societal comfort blanket? Maybe, to do this, we need to turn off the TV, leave behind our preconceptions and perhaps, just like Barbie herself, we all need to need to reconsider our perceptions of beauty.
1 Jane Jacobs “Life and Death of Great American Cities” (1961)
2 National Design Guide (2021)
Lucy Nicholson
Associate,Built Heritage and Townscape