Most dogs live inside with their guardians, amid design that might match your household’s lifestyle but may not always reflect the dog’s tastes. So Japanese designer Kenya Hara, Muji’s design manager, introduced an obstacle to 12 architects and designers: design architecture particularly for dogs — and also particular breeds of dogs. The result is Architecture for Dogs, a set that investigates the relationship between dog and human; it kicked off with an exhibit in Miami this month and is gearing up for a Tokyo exhibit and book release in 2013.
Hara and Architecture for Dogs additionally invite dog lovers to download free blueprints for constructing the structures, upload images of completed doghouses, view others’ completed layouts and look through pictures of charming canines in their posh modern habitats.
Hiroshi Yoda
Architect: Kazuyo Sejima
Breed: Bichon frise
Architect Kazuyo Sejima’s aim with this cotton candy–such as abode was to create a structure that would be completed by the bichon frise. There’s a hole at the back of the furry home, through. Like the missing piece of a mystery, the creature’s fur and form finish the fluffy house.
Hiroshi Yoda
Architect: Torafu Architects
Breed: Jack Russell terrier
Architects Koichi Suzuno and Shinya Kamuro made this piece of furniture after figuring out that Jack Russell terriers were set at ease by vulnerability for their guardians’ clothes.
Their findings led them to create a “wan-mock” (a combination of the Japanese words for “bark” and “hammock”) out of a wood framework and old clothes that’s extended to produce a hammock.
Hiroshi Yoda
Architect: Toyo Ito
Breed: Shiba
Architect Toyo Ito made this structure as a Sort of doghouse for walks as well as a way for dogs to feel as comfortable as you can when out and about with their guardians.
He attached tires into a well-ventilated wooden jar, add a soft cushion for lounging, inserted a flexible shade to fight rain or sunlight, and created a place that could be as comfortable as a spot under the shade of a shrub. The mobile structure may also be a bed that fits in the entryway or inside the home.
Hiroshi Yoda
Architect: Reiser + Umemoto
Breed: Chihuahua
Dubbed “The Cloud” by its artists, this fanciful structure symbolizes an extension of their puppy as well as a mini shelter. Reiser + Umemoto write that the puffed skin “contrasts the movement, speed, and character of the Chihuahua” and responds to its own love of burrowing. When in the cloud, then the dog feels warm and secure. The cloud also gives the illusion of a bigger volume — completely suited to the Chihuahua’s big personality.
Hiroshi Yoda
Architect: Sou Fujimoto
Breed: Boston terrier
A fusion of the two furniture and doghouse, this structure has a hollowed-out section for a Boston terrier and shelves for houseplants, books and other accessories. Architect Sou Fujimoto points into the structure as a microcosm of their puppy’s everyday life, a place where the animal interacts with of the items that the guardian has around the home. Fujimoto writes that this doghouse allows the puppy get more engaged in the guardian’s daily life — and makes the individual more involved in the puppy’s habitat as well, because doghouse and individual furniture are one and the same.
Hiroshi Yoda
Architect: Atelier Bow-Wow
Breed: Dachshund
This wood structure empowers long-bodied, short-legged dogs such as the dachshund to fulfill a guardian’s eyes, particularly since the structure has an integrated lounger for humans — ideal for a dog-human tête-à-tête.
Hiroshi Yoda
When two of those structures are piled, the place below the slope produces a cozy hideout. The topmost seat ledge and stage provide the short-legged canines an elevated perch in which to scope out their surroundings.
Info: Learn more about the Architecture for Dogs exhibit and collection.
More:
Raise the Woof: Doghouses Pleasure at Barkitecture 2012