Hasta La Ideas

Modern interpretations of the dollhouse with true-to-life, functional details

Shrinking Modernism to a micro scale, the sleek and minimal dollhouses by NYC-based Brinca Dada have kids and adults alike excited to play make believe. At the Dwell on Design show I got to hear about the toymaker’s recently-completed Bennett House (above and below), which takes its cues from a mix of aesthetic influences.

With the overall simplicity of Rietveld’s Schröder House, Piet Mondrian’s geometric shapes and Christian Liaigre’s interior design, Brinca Dada’s second offering combines an attainable assortment of architecture’s best.

Other models, like the Emerson House, inspired by Richard Neutra’s Kaufmann Desert House and A. Quincy Jones’ stone, glass and steel structure made for Gary Cooper, also features impressive details, such as glass corners, realistic hardwood floors, a stone fireplace and LED recessed lights powered by roof-mounted solar panels.

Brinca Dada also created a set of furniture fit to work in either dollhouse or to bring a classic into the 21st century. The TV, sofa, stools, oval bathtub, bookcases and working filing cabinet show remarkable attention to detail too for a brilliantly cohesive collection.

In place of plastic dolls, the lucky occupants of these houses are the Modern Family—four flexible wooden figures whose biceps and calves move just like humans.

The Emerson House ($300) will be available later this month while the Bennett House (starting at $500) is set to launch for the 2010 holiday season, along with the furniture set ($200) and Modern Family ($30).