How can we creatively collaborate with our four-legged friends?

For its Italian debut in the ADI Design Museum in Milan, the Architecture for Dogs exhibit, which runs through mid-February, features design pieces by Piero Lissoni and Giulio Iacchetti and a capsule collection by Giorgio Armani.

For its Italian debut in the ADI Design Museum, the Architecture for Dogs exhibit features a capsule collection by Giorgio Armani and design pieces by Piero Lissoni and Giulio Iacchetti.

Although smaller in size and its pompousness pared down, Konstantin Grcic’s divaesque space will surely satisfy the more self-indulgent creatures out there. The German industrial designer’s reimagination of a vanity mirror pairs a round, Hollywood-style-illuminated looking glass with an elegant pedestal and, naturally, is designed for toy puddles.

The humor-infused showstopper is part of the Architecture for Dogs exhibition currently open at the ADI Design Museum in Milan. The selection of abstract pieces developed with specific breeds in mind includes structures by Italian designers Piero Lissoni and Giulio Iacchetti and a capsule collection by Giorgio Armani. The assortment underscores and celebrates the human-canine bond in all the right ways.

The Italian debut of the Architecture for Dogs exhibition features German industrial designer Konstantin Grcic's charming reimagination of a vanity mirror crafted for toy puddles. - © Hiroshi Yoda — The Italian debut of the Architecture for Dogs exhibition features German industrial designer Konstantin Grcic’s charming reimagination of a vanity mirror crafted for toy puddles. – © Hiroshi Yoda

Curated by celebrated Japanese designer Kenya Hara, artistic director of MUJI and CEO of Nippon Design Centre, the Milanese edition of Architecture for Dogs follows the first showcase, which took place at Design Miami in 2012 and a successful run in London in 2020. Also conceptualized by Hara, the exhibition layout, a fluid system of display islands positioned across energizing, sky-blue floors, illustrates contrasting interpretations of the symbiotic relationship between architecture and living beings.

Italian architect, art director, and designer Piero Lissoni’s cave-like plywood and aluminum kennel for yorkiepoos takes inspiration from an airport hangar. - © Hiroshi Yoda — Italian architect, art director, and designer Piero Lissoni’s cave-like plywood and aluminum kennel for yorkiepoos takes inspiration from an airport hangar. – © Hiroshi Yoda

As one of the few dog-friendly museums in Italy, The ADI Design Museum hosts a wide range of structures configured to not only meet the particular needs of different dog breeds through inventive means but also to deepen engagement and enrich the dialogue between furry companions and their guardians. Traditional concepts of functional spaces and necessities for pets are recreated in expressive, detail-oriented, and unconventional ramps, cushions, mats, benches, and vertical doghouses.

The exhibition layout, conceptualised by Kenya Hara and the Hara Design Institute, is made up of a fluid arrangement of display islands crafted by renowned architects and designers. Milan's ADI Design Museum is one of the few dog-friendly museums in Italy. - © Hiroshi Yoda — The Architecture for Dogs’ exhibition layout, conceptualised by Kenya Hara and the Hara Design Institute, is made up of a fluid arrangement of display islands crafted by renowned architects and designers. Milan’s ADI Design Museum is one of the few dog-friendly museums in Italy. – © Hiroshi Yoda

The pet-centric designs, rooted in playfulness, rewrite the choreography and allow pets to take up the role of conscious protagonists of human spaces and scenarios rather than mere spectators. By putting creativity at the forefront, the concept of shared habitat is transformed. New modes of interaction–like a vertical doghouse that allows a dog to look at its owner at eye level–create opportunities for the closeness to and understanding of dogs to be intensified for the better.

Shigeru Ban's undulating maze-like path with bamboo tubes is designed for adventurous papillons. - © Hiroshi Yoda — Architecture for Dogs exhibition – Shigeru Ban’s undulating maze-like path with bamboo tubes is designed for adventurous papillons. – © Hiroshi Yoda

For their pieces, both industrial designer Giulio Iacchetti and architect, art director, and designer Piero Lissoni, have collaborated with Riva 1920, a family-owned company that has been producing furniture in Northern Italy for more than three generations with a strong focus on sustainability. Iacchetti’s wooden igloo-like dog house will please and entertain Italian greyhounds, while Lissoni’s tubular kennel with a wooden base is devoted to yorkiepoos. Fashion designer and cultural icon Giorgio Armani has partnered with Poldo Dog Couture for a capsule collection, where Armani’s distinct aesthetic meets animal practicality.

The exhibition's curator Japanese designer Kenya Hara's doghouse: a wooden tunnel box. - © Hiroshi Yoda — The Architecture for Dogs exhibition’s curator Japanese designer Kenya Hara’s doghouse: a wooden tunnel box. – © Hiroshi Yoda

Other eye-pleasers include a hill-like structure of geometric shapes for contemplative pugs to climb on or sit beneath by Kengo Kuma. Shigeru Ban’s maze-like cardboard playspace for daring and adventurous papillons is designed in his signature undulating curves.

The blueprints and assembly instructions for all displayed designs can be downloaded for free online, so pet owners from around the world can recreate and customize them. Whether up close or from afar, all dog lovers are encouraged to add joyous, collaboration-centric ways of communication into the mix.

Architecture for Dogs is on display through February 16th, 2025, at the ADI Design Museum in Milan, Italy.