What would our cities look like if they had been built with a different scale in mind? What if we considered building structures for creatures other than humans? "Architecture for Dogs" explores that idea with an exhibition of 13 architectural works made for specific canine breeds. After debuting at Design Miami in 2012, and traveling to the Museum of Modern Art, Los Angeles, "Architecture for Dogs" is now showing at Toto's Gallery Ma in Aoyama, Tokyo, with a selection of new pieces created by the Hara Design Institute.
During the late 1980s, Kenya Hara, art director for Ryohin Keikaku Co.,Ltd's Muji brand, became fascinated with the idea that the built environment is "predicated on a human scale" leading him to wonder what architecture at a non-human scale might involve.
He chose dogs as a starting point because "practically everybody on Earth is familiar with dogs and has some interest in them," he says in the opening essay to the "Architecture for Dogs" catalog. And that sums it up: People like dogs.