Barbie's new Dreamhouse: less pink, more brutalist Money was no object and practical engineering difficulties were easily overcome in the design and construction of Barbie's new Dreamhouse, which is why Ilincic was able to treat her client to a rooftop silver-birch forest (Pic: SHOWstudio) Given her own design background - she studied architecture at Belgrade University, before moving to London in 1999 to study fashion design at Central Saint Martins - Ilincic had clear ideas for Barbie's futuristic Dreamhouse. I wanted to make something completely unexpected. There is nothing feminine, so it's in total contrast to what Barbie is. Nothing is superfluous. Even the furniture is made from concrete, moulded into the floor. "The sleeping chamber is soundproofed and is covered in carpet, floor to ceiling," she says. When we speak, some of the details are still being worked out. At the moment, I am thinking the bedroom will be pale yellow, everything in one colour. It needs to be something quite calming. Barbie must surely suffer from migraines after a lifetime of garish pink, as well as extreme exposure to phthalates and synthetic fibres, so it is not yet confirmed if she will ever set foot outside this calming sleep chamber ever again. Perhaps surprisingly, there won't be a lot of mirrors. My Barbie is not very vain. She proved she can be just as beautiful at 54 as when she was 20, so she doesn't have any need to be vain. The new modernist house will be a sanctuary for Barbie. After opening her most recent Dreamhouse "experience" in May - a larger-than-life 10,000 sq ft plastic carbuncle in a shopping mall in Sunrise, Florida - she must be in need of a change of scene. In July Vice magazine visited the Florida Dreamhouse and described it as "the scariest place on earth," with artificial birdsong on a permanent loop and a catwalk for six-year-olds to learn how to walk like a model. This summer a lifesize Barbie's Dreamhouse was constructed in Berlin, and is now touring Europe (Pic: Davids/Sven Darmer, © mattel inc, all rights reserved) The same month, Barbie opened another lifesize Dreamhouse experience in the most unlikely of cities, Berlin. The temporary house, which was situated near Alexanderplatz, was open for visitors to tour its soulless expanses, filled with giant pink plastic poodles and fake palm trees, its foodless kitchen and Barbie's endless wardrobes. It is now touring Germany and Europe. From next Monday, visitors to SHOWstudio will be able to explore the four spaces that Ilincic has imagined and the computer boffins have generated. There is a massive library filled with every book or magazine that Barbie would ever want to read (not only does she have an encyclopedic knowledge of fashion, her career has taken her everywhere from running for president to palaeontology). It's a Kafka-like space which has so much information and is so tall she may need to take an elevator to the top of the shelves. The living room has a sunken lounging area, perhaps inspired by the one created (in real life) by the architect David Adjaye in 2006 when he designed a home in King's Cross for Ilincic and her husband, Philip Bueno de Mesquita. Barbie's will be covered with leather. There won't be much furniture, because it is all part of the architecture: there will be just the odd chair and a table, all built in. And on the roof there is a forest of silver birches, which feels quite dark and mysterious. I want it to feel like being in Russia, in Siberia. A previous Barbie dreamhouse, from 1998 It is all several worlds away from the garish pink of Barbie's usual habitats. "The pinkness of Barbie really puts me off; I feel there shouldn't be anything pink," Ilincic says. Funnily enough, her own collection for autumn/winter 2013 has a lot of pink in it. Barbie would love it, genuinely - I invited her to come and sit on the front row - but nothing of that kind would be in her home. I'm sure she won't be disappointed; she might just take some time to get adjusted to it. It's all about the things I really love, and I want her to love them too.