Rainbow MagicLand · Little Kingdom · 2011

Pixie Houses

Giant mushrooms, heart-shaped balconies, oval windows: the entire village of the Little Kingdom out of our workshops.

Act one

Rainbow's
PopPixie.

The PopPixie are the TV spin-off of the Winx: born in 2010 as an animated series dedicated to the child fairies of the Winx world, designed for a younger audience. Same authors, same studio — Iginio Straffi's Rainbow Spa — same saturated cartoon aesthetic.

When the park opens in 2011, one of the themed areas is the Little Kingdom: the children's attraction zone for kids under seven-eight years old, set in the PopPixie village. Little trains, spinning teacups, soft bumper cars, a rotating caterpillar — all embedded in a village of walkable giant mushrooms with balconies, oval windows, slides, and wavy tile roofs.

The entire village is entrusted to us. The challenge is high: translating the flat drawing of the PopPixie houses into walkable volumes, resistant to daily use in a theme park, sized for children — and at the same time faithful to the childlike, saturated silhouette of the cartoon. Multiple houses, none identical, all hand-sculpted and painted piece by piece.

Pixie House under construction in the Creation Art workshops: sculpted in raw white polystyrene, still without finish, with a worker leaning against the side of the house working with tools; in the background industrial warehouse, polystyrene blocks, work in progress — Mushroom house, raw polystyrene — Creation Art workshop

Detail of a Pixie House balcony sculpted in polystyrene: parapet with heart-shaped bas-reliefs, stylised Gothic-arched windows, wavy tiled roof, worker in white overalls on the right working in the background — The heart-shaped balcony: workshop processing

Act two

From white
to cartoon.

The photos from our archive tell the chromatic transition literally. A house in raw white polystyrene in the workshop. The same house, a few weeks later, at the park in Valmontone: green mushroom roof with orange edges, purple walls with pink circles and lozenges, oval windows with yellow frames, side orange slide. The shape is identical — it is the polychrome finish that makes the difference.

The site photos carry the date 14 April 2011: six weeks before the park's public opening (25 May 2011). The houses are already in place, the trees have been planted around, the park's construction site is still open on the sidewalks but the scenography is already finished and in colour.

The Little Kingdom is one of the areas that resisted the longest to the dismantling of the Winx/Rainbow brand from the park. Even today — January 2026, park renamed simply MagicLand — many Pixie Houses are still visible in the square, although the "PopPixie" brand has been removed.

Pixie House installed at Rainbow MagicLand in March 2011: purple walls decorated with pink motifs, green mushroom roof with orange and yellow borders, oval windows with yellow frames, side orange slide; small trees newly planted around, pavement with construction material — The house installed in the park — March 2011

Another Pixie House installed in the park in April 2011: two-tone green and orange mushroom roof, purple walls decorated with geometric motifs, heart-relief balcony, drop-shaped window with curtain, orange slide coming out of the balcony; in the background a second pink and orange house, trees planted around — The village: two houses in line, spring 2011

Overview of the completed Little Kingdom at Rainbow MagicLand: series of colourful Pixie Houses arranged around a square, newly planted trees, soft children's attractions, cartoon theme-park atmosphere — The Pixie village as a whole, on the eve of the opening

Behind the scenes

Polystyrene that becomes
an inhabited mushroom.

The Pixie Houses are made with the same technique used to sculpt a cinematographic architecture: blocks of high-density expanded polystyrene glued to form the volume, hand-sculpted with rotating tools, stiffened with a layer of fibreglass, finished with lime and paint. The hard part, for the client Rainbow, was faithfully translating the cartoon's exaggeration: the mushroom roof must overhang the house's volume, the hearts on the balconies must be repeated hundreds of times without becoming monotonous, the oval windows must have stylised eyelids. All of it, sized for children — safety, rounded edges, gentle-slope slides.

Pixie House installed in the park: green and orange mushroom roof, slide, balcony with hearts — saturated cartoon-colour finish — Same house from the construction site, now in colour: the before and after separated by eight weeks of processing.

All by hand each house sculpted piece by piece in our workshops · high-density expanded polystyrene stiffened in fibreglass · zero industrial moulds

Walkable
architecture not a backdrop but real volumes, walkable, child-sized · theme-park safety standards, rounded edges, well-engineered tilted slides

Colour
by colour each mushroom roof, each little heart, each oval window painted by hand · cartoon saturation faithful to the original Rainbow Spa design

Tech sheet

All production data

Type: Walkable scenographic architectures · theme-park children's area · habitable mushroom houses
Location: Rainbow MagicLand · Valmontone (Rome) · Little Kingdom area
Commission: Iginio Straffi's Rainbow Spa · 2010-2011 · for the park's opening
Narrative theme: The village of the PopPixie, Winx spin-off child fairies, Rainbow animated series from 2010
Techniques: Sculpting in high-density expanded polystyrene · stiffening in fibreglass · finishing with lime and paint in saturated colours · rounded edges and child-safety standards
Characteristic elements: Two-tone green-orange mushroom roofs · purple walls with pink motifs · heart-relief balconies · oval windows with yellow frames · orange slides · drop-shaped windows with curtains
Photographic documentation: Photos from our archive on 14 April 2011 document the houses already installed at the park, six weeks before the opening on 25 May 2011
Resistance over time: The Little Kingdom area is one of the parts of the park that has resisted the longest to ownership and brand changes. The houses have remained installed even after Rainbow Spa's exit in 2019 and the removal of the PopPixie brand under Pillarstone (KKR)
Cluster: Part of Rainbow MagicLand
Our role: Complete delivery of the area's walkable architectures: sculpting in polystyrene, stiffening in fibreglass, polychrome glazing. The photos from our archive document the processing of the houses in the workshop and their installation at the park in Valmontone in spring 2011.
Second life: Houses on stage since 25 May 2011 · survived the park's ownership changes (Rainbow's exit in 2019, Pillarstone/KKR management) · PopPixie brand removed but the architectures remain

Second life

Survived the brand,
not the fun.

The PopPixie houses of the Little Kingdom have an interesting fate: the brand identity has disappeared — Iginio Straffi sells Rainbow Spa in 2019, the new ownership under Pillarstone (KKR) removes the PopPixie brand — but the architectures remain. The purple mushroom houses, the two-tone roofs, the heart-shaped balconies, the orange slides keep working as the park's children's area, now without a specific brand name.

It is the proof that a well-made walkable scenography outlives the narrative concept that generated it. The material (polystyrene + fibreglass + polychrome finish) holds up to climbing children, hands that touch, slides used thousands of times. The PopPixies as a franchise have passed, the houses haven't. It is the destiny of mushroom houses in all parks: they last longer than the story that put them on stage.

Pixie Houses

Polystyrene that becomesan inhabited mushroom.

Survived the brand,not the fun.

Polystyrene that becomes
an inhabited mushroom.

Survived the brand,
not the fun.