Dream all you want, you’re never going to live in Barbie’s eco-friendly mansion.

The winning design of the American Institute of Architects’ Barbie Dream House competition (really) is a four-story, eco-friendly Malibu mansion with pink sliding doors. Too bad Barbie and Jen (as in Aniston) are the only gals who can afford to live there.

The green manse features 1,500 square feet of entertaining space, an open chef’s kitchen, separate library and client-meeting room, an “inspiration room” floor, rooftop greenhouse, and a landscaped garden for her assortment of exotic pets. True, the last time we checked the giraffe on her lawn was listed as an endangered species, but not only is Barbie an architect you see, she’s evidently a world-renowned zoologist as well.

Philosophically speaking, 21^st century Barbie is like Lara Croft and Richard Branson rolled into one.

Barbie’s eco-manor also features solar panels, bamboo flooring, low-flow fixtures, and locally sourced materials. Recent Harvard grads Ting Li and Maja Paklar created the design, which is in line with the principles set forth by U.S. Green Building Council, while remaining “true to all the needs of a classic California girl,” the pair adds.

The AIA created the competition as a way of promoting Barbie’s latest career move on the glass escalator that is the “I Can Be…” series, which aims to inspire girls to be anything they want to be.

I can get behind that. Who knows? Had I owned the “I Can Be a Lifeguard” doll at age four, I might have passed my treading-water-with-a-brick test at age seventeen instead of sneaking behind the pool house for some ganja.

I Can Be…Pamela Anderson

If only I’d gotten that Leeza Gibbons face-and-body transplant. I could have been an entertainment news host.

I Can Be…On Entertainment Tonight

Applying myself in the biological sciences instead of the biology of my hormones could have led to an exciting career in veterinary medicine. How sexy is that frock?

I Can Be…a naughty nurse (but only if you want me to be)

Oh well, I’ll just have to settle for a job in a call center.

I Can Be…a telemarketer

Like George Constanza, I too have fostered fantasies of becoming an employable architect. Thanks to Barbie that dream is now a reality. I just need some chunky glasses, a construction hat, and a pretty hot-pink place to store my blueprints.

Landing a job might prove difficult, however, particularly if I showed up to a job interview looking like this:

Darn you, Beetlejuice! Back to the drafting table, kids. I wonder if Barbie’s princess charm school offers a PhD program.

Fortunately for California’s coast line, Barbie’s green dream house is not set to actually break ground, or plastic, ever. It was imagined for promotional purposes only. The concept though, is sweet and the house – if you’re a zoologist/movie star/media mogul – is viably sustainable.

Though, philosophically speaking again, Barbie’s got a few more eco pit-stops to go, like trading in her Vacation Glam Jet for a stay-cation.

Images: FastCo; Barbie; The Daily Mail

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