In the autumn of 2014, the exhibition ‘Architecture for dogs’ arrived also in China, at the Zhi Art Museum. The inventor and curator of this unconventional exhibition, the Japanese Kenya Hara, Muji’s art director, has rallied together some of the most renowned designers and decorators to take on kennels and beds for dogs. Among these, Shigeru Ban, Konstantin Grcic, Toyo Ito, MVRDV studio, Torafu studio, architect Kazuyo Sejima, the Bow-Wow atelier.
The designers were invited to choose a breed of dog and then to design kennels and beds that would mirror their personality. Apart from the unusual design brief, already interesting on its own, the results look stunning. The subject and the customer (the dog breeds) seem to have inspired the designers who indulged themselves, putting aside their traditional professional sobriety in creating cardboard mazes (Shigero Ban), domestic greenhouses (Sou Fujimoto), rocking wooden kennels (MVRDV), and soft beds in white lamb fur (Kazuyo Sejima). The most glamorous project is by Grcic, who for a poodle with a fashionable haircut, imagined a theatrical stage complete with mirror and lights.