![\"architecture](\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/architecture-for-dogs.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
All photos courtesy of Architecture for Dogs<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n The next time someone yells, \u201cGet off the sofa!\u201d it may be the dog. Architecture for Dogs, <\/em>a celebration of the relationship between people and their pups, will have its inaugural installation at The Long Beach Museum of Art <\/a>\u00a0from June 21 through Sept. 22.<\/p>\n The exhibit features constructions that are designed specifically to give dogs their own living space within that of their human companions (yes, mixed breeds and cats can live in them as well, but more about that a few paragraphs from now). The dwellings run a gamut of housing, furniture, vehicles and wearable art, and each has been created for a specific breed by a designer or an architect.<\/p>\n \u201cIt requires an idea of looking at the furniture from your dog\u2019s perspective,\u201d said John Hall, imprint director of Imprint Venture Lab<\/a>, a Long Beach-based consulting firm that is the exhibition\u2019s collaborative partner. \u201cAnd that\u2019s the idea of addressing how we look at our furniture in an animal\u2019s way.\u201d<\/p>\n Mark Tisdell of the United States re-created Kenya Hara’s Teacup Poodle Dwelling<\/em><\/p>\n Interactive <\/em>is an inadequate label for the installation. Better descriptors are proactive, creative <\/em>and developmental. <\/em>Blueprints are available on the Architecture for Dogs website<\/a>; they\u2019re free to the general public to download and build or have someone else make (and you cannot and must not miss the set of instructional videos that accompany the blueprints!). Unlike most museum pieces, they\u2019re not unaffordable or out of reach for someone who has geometrical perspective or knows someone who does.<\/p>\n Anyone who has a creative bone\u2014well gnawed or not\u2014in his or her body can also add imaginative touches to the structure and post photos of the finished art on the website\u00a0<\/a>or Facebook page<\/a>. Earlier this year, the Architecture for Dogs Building Challenge \u00a0awarded a five-night trip to Japan for the most creative original design. It was won by two Long Beachers who go by the name of Channing and Haley.<\/p>\n Channing and Haley’s winning structure and equally winning dog<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThe role of museums has changed,\u201d said Ronald Nelson, the museum\u2019s executive director. \u201cArtistically, this makes a very strong statement for community involvement instead of just a repository for precious art. And a lot of people feel that there\u2019s a cultural dynamic for this.\u201d<\/p>\n This \u201cchaise longue\u201d seems to invite the viewer to lie down and massage his or her back, but it\u2019s actually a canine cooling system. \u201cMy beloved dog, Pepe, who the year before last passed away at the ripe age of 16 and who spent with me the busiest years of my life, was a dear friend,\u201d writes the couch\u2019s creator, Hiroshi Naito. \u201c\u2026With that fluffy fur, summer was really tough. Summer in Japan, hot and humid as it is, is the worst climate\u2014for people and dogs. My house was without air conditioning\u2014a rarity today, and for him, it had to be a really tough environment. Even when we did have access to a fan or a cooler, his tongue would loll out of his mouth and he would pant, as if in great discomfort. His favorite summer spot was the ofuro-ba, or bathing area, where he would lower his body temperature by lying on the tile floor\u2026. This piece is my tribute to Pepe. If there had been something like this to cool him off, he might have lived more comfortably. By inserting a plastic bag filled with ice into the highly thermally conductive aluminum pipe, you can expect quite the cooling effect.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n The exhibit was curated by Kenya Hara, a Tokyo-based designer and creative director of MUJI, a Japanese-based no-brand quality good lifestyle store with global presence (\u201cThink IKEA meets Gap\u2014literally everything you need, from clothing to prefab homes,\u201d Hall said.). Hara was having coffee with Imprint\u2019s founder, Julia Huang, at an airport and told her that he had a great idea that no one liked.<\/p>\n \u201cKenya is a very visionary person, and Julia likes to help people execute the visions,\u201d Hall said. \u201cShe\u2019s also a dog lover.\u201d Hara subsequently came up with a design brief for the dwellings that should be for dogs, not humans, and also should be easy to create and build for the world-renowned architects and designers he selected as well as be available for reproduction by the public.<\/p>\n Hara is the representative director of Tokyo-based design firm Nippon Design Center (NDC)<\/a>, which employs a dedicated staff; with the collaboration of NDC and Imprint, the exhibit made its debut at Basel Art<\/a>, a three-day winter festival in Miami\u2014and the biggest in the state\u2014for galleries worldwide to promote visual art. Nelson attended the festival and agreed with Huong and Hara that the structures should be assembled as an official installation. Where better, of course, than in a Fido-friendly town with a forward thinking gallery-oriented museum located in a gorgeous location with lots of grassy space?<\/p>\n \u201cIt was too valuable a venture not <\/em>to be shown in the museum,\u201d Nelson said. \u201cThere was a period of time when this was all going back to Japan, and I yelled at John, \u2018Stop the trucks! I bumped another exhibit for this one.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI want to thank Ron for finding a home in Long Beach for this exhibit,\u201d Hall said.<\/p>\n Although each structure is small-dog-breed specific, Nelson and Hall agreed that larger dogs and mixed breeds can be accommodated, especially since our shelters are full of abandoned, unwanted mutts who would love to relax in one of these dwellings (yes, that\u2019s my soapbox). What Hall said about the exhibit\u2019s concept involving looking at our furniture from a pet\u2019s perspective also extends to seeing what breeds and needs make up your mutt and go from there. As for larger dogs, Nelson said that most of the constructions are scaled to have a small dog share your living space with his or hers, but depending on the model, they can be scaled for the the size of your personal space has and how you can share it with your four-legged family member.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u201cIf you have room for a big dog in your home, surely he or she deserves furniture,\u201d Nelson said. \u201cIf I were a big dog, I\u2019d find myself in the Bichon Frise because of comfort and safety.\u201d Hall said that he\u2019d prefer the Beagle. \u201cI like rocking motion,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The fur of the bichon frise is distinct. Extremely white, soft and fluffy, it\u2019s like cotton candy, or a wisp of cloud. This architecture resembles the bichon frise\u2013with its fascinating fur but one size larger\u2026a space in which a bichon frise could be comfortably settled. Our goal was to create a shape that would be completed by the reclining bichon frise. Dog and architecture would become one.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n ~ Kazuyo Sejima, architect and creator of Bichon Frise<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0 \u2026Dogs live in people\u2019s architecture, and according to the owners\u2019 choices. Challenged to design architecture for dogs, we decided to give the animal a space of its own. The assignment was taken literally and approached in a very traditional manner by updating the classical doghouse design. Even Snoopy, the world\u2019s most famous beagle, lived in a house quite similar. Starting with the archetypical shape, the simple and symbolic form of the doghouse, which also refers to the prototypical human shelter, needs very little transformation to start giving a message. Through this modest metamorphosis, the house has becomes an elegant and playful object, creating both a hideaway and interactive toy.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n ~Ellen Deceuninck and Mick van Gemert, architects a MVRDV, Rotterdam, Netherlands<\/em><\/p>\n No mention was made of cats (except by me), but anyone who shares space with one knows that cats will appropriate absolutely anything and make themselves comfortable in it.<\/p>\n Architect Sou Fujimoto built this as a space for Boston terriers\u00a0and their accoutrements along to share with their human\u2019s cell phones, plants and assorted tchotchkes, but a cat would enjoy sitting in any one of these spaces and knocking off anything occupying it, including the Boston terrier.<\/em><\/p>\n The exhibit isn\u2019t just about<\/em> dogs\u2014it\u2019s for <\/em>dogs and their human companions. Pussy & Pooch http:\/\/www.pussyandpooch.com\/<\/a>, the Long Beach\/Los Angeles-based \u00fcberboutique for pets, in doglike fashion will curl up in and take over the museum gift shop to display and sell their design-forward products for pets and their people. P&P will also sponsor its famous Yappy Hour socials for pets and their people every Thursday night\u2014no reservations necessary.<\/p>\n \u201cPussy & Pooch was the perfect pet partner for us to build exciting programs with for the Architecture of Dogs<\/em> exhibit,\u201d Nelson stated in a press release. \u201cTheir stylish stores and the pet products they carry are very contemporary and well-designed. Having a Pussy & Pooch pet pop-up store at the museum along with their support during our summer Yappy Hours will make for a great interactive addition for those taking in this exciting exhibit with their pets during its only U.S. appearance this summer.\u201d<\/p>\n Besides the P&P perks, there will be an outdoor canine play area with models of some of the exhibit designs for the dogs to frolic and relax on. At the same time, there\u2019s a separate gallery exhibition called Museum Menagerie<\/em> to honor all our animals; canines will be further pleased to know that there\u2019s one planned for 2014, called Tree.<\/em> And the bold ideas don\u2019t stop there.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m going rogue,\u201d Nelson said. \u201cIf you can carry your dog, you can bring the dog in.\u201d<\/p>\n The Long Beach Museum of Art is located at 2300 E. Ocean Blvd., Long Beach. Visit their website<\/a><\/em>\u00a0for information.<\/em><\/p>\n For centuries, they\u2019ve cohabited with us, but we\u2019ve never thought of how their needs fit in.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n ~ John Hall, cofounder of \u201cArchitecture for Dogs\u201d exhibit<\/em><\/p>\n Japanese Terrier, designed by Haruka Misawa of\u00a0Hara Design Institute<\/em><\/p>\n My friend Willa\u2019s three dogs, Buddy, Chet<\/strong> and Bruno<\/strong>, make more than do (no pun intended) in the backyard snuggled in their igloo. Buddy, a Lab mix, said he\u2019d opt for Hiroshi Naito\u2019s spitz model, which would do wonders for his arthritis.<\/p>\n Meet Bob<\/strong>. He spent most of his life in shelters\u2014over eight years, in fact. He was taken from his last \u201crescue\u201d in the Inland Empire by Sherri Stankewitz of West Coast Animal Rescue (WeCARe)<\/a>\u00a0in Long Beach. WeCARe was, incidentally, the sponsor of the first Fix Long Beach\u2019s free spay\/neuter mobile clinic.<\/p>\n \u201cHe became a sentimental favorite of many of our volunteers, who wanted to do something special for him while he was still waiting for\u00a0his forever home,\u201d said Linda Josey, another WeCARe volunteer. \u201cThanks to many\u00a0generous donors, Bob received his own special doghouse!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s also worth noting that the area Bob was in was called Bob\u2019s Yard,\u201d added Leslie Bryant, also with WeCARe. \u201cAfter so many years in a too-small for him kennel, Sherri couldn\u2019t bear to keep him cooped up, so he got his own yard.\u201d<\/p>\n He also got his own home in April. He\u2019s now living happily in Central California, enjoying the dog parks and beaches with his four new doggie siblings!<\/p>\n If you must have a small purebred for one of these fine structures, it may or may not surprise you to know that a number of them get abandoned in rescues and shelters. Lots of friends in need are available through breed-specific rescues at Petfinder.com<\/a>\u00a0and PetHarbor.com<\/a>. Here are a couple of local candidates:<\/p>\n Carlie Cola<\/strong>, a young chocolate lab, is spayed, up-to-date with routine shots and house-trained. She\u2019d prefer a home without: cats or other dogs. Find her at Sparky and the Gang, Long Beach, Calif<\/a>.<\/p>\n Gloria <\/strong>is a white female Maltese, a year and a half old. She\u2019s been spayed and inoculated, and can be met at the Seal Beach Animal Care Center<\/a>.<\/p>\n Oliver <\/strong>is an older male toy or teacup poodle. He\u2019s been neutered and house-trained and is up-to-date with shots. Oliver\u2019s good with everyone, be they kids, cats or other dogs. He needs to spend his sunset years in a forever home. He\u2019s available at Animal Match Rescue Team<\/a>, and you can most likely meet him on weekends from about 11AM\u20132PM in front of the Petco on PCH and Second Street.<\/p>\n Found Dog<\/strong><\/p>\n This miniature-poodle\/shih tzu mix male was found June 10\u00a0in Bixby Knolls near Maple Avenue and San Antonio Drive. He\u2019s a big boy at 20 pounds and has mostly white curly hair\u00a0with gray shih tzu ears. He has the classic underbite with a second row of teeth on the bottom. He has a long,\u00a0full, curled-upward shih tzu tail and large, brown eyes. He was found wearing a black, cloth collar that he foster says is too large for him and keeps coming off, but he has no tags and isn\u2019t chipped or neutered. He was filthy when found but has been cleaned. If this is your dog, e-mail\u00a0amauigirl@hotmail.com<\/a>. Then, for crying out loud, take better care of him. Get him neutered and chipped\u2014Animal Care Center has a voucher program<\/a>.<\/p>\n Saturday, June 22, Volunteers Needed for Fix Long Beach\u2019s Free Spay\/Neuter Clinic, Bixby Park, 130 Cherry Ave., Long Beach, 10 AM<\/strong><\/p>\n Help us out at our second mobile clinic, sponsored this weekend by Haute Dogs. Sign up to volunteer here<\/a>. Animals with appointments only will be served. If you need to make an appointment, call (323) 413-7729\u2014low-income Long Beach residents only.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Rosie Outlook for Our Dog Beach<\/strong><\/p>\n The Coastal Commission has approved an amendment<\/a> request to expand Rosie\u2019s Dog Beach eastward, between Roycroft and Argonne avenues on the Belmont Shore beach, from 2.9 to 4.2 acres\u2014about 1,000 feet by 180 feet for a net gain of 295 linear feet of shoreline. The expansion will move it closer to the Granada Launch Ramp, which provides a \u201cnatural paved entrance\u201d to the Dog Beach. This is great news for those who enjoy romping in the surf with their dogs and those of us who don\u2019t have dogs but fully support recreational areas for them. However, the beach is a hard-earned privilege. Please continue to earn it by following the rules<\/a>. And, of course, continue to have a great time!<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0<\/p>\n The next time someone yells, \u201cGet off the sofa!\u201d it may be the dog. Architecture for Dogs, a celebration of the relationship between people and their pups, will have its inaugural installation at The Long Beach Museum of Art \u00a0from June 21 through Sept. 22.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":69025,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[92,49,149],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-3791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pets","tag-architecture","tag-dogs","tag-lbma","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3791\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3791"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=3791"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=3791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"by](\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/by-mark-tisdell-of-u.s.-for-kenya-haras-teacup-poodle.jpg\")
<\/em><\/p>\n![\"channing](\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/channing-and-haley-winner-in-long-beach.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"hiroshi-naito](\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/hiroshi-naito-spitz.jpg\")
<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n![\"kazuyo-sejima](\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/kazuyo-sejima-bichon-frise.jpg\")
<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n
![\"mvrdv](\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/mvrdv-beagle-house.jpg\")
<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n
![\"sou-fujimoto](\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/sou-fujimoto-boston-terrier.jpg\")
<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n
![\"hara-design-institute](\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/hara-design-institute-haruka-misawa-japanese-terrier.jpg\")
<\/em><\/p>\nHere\u2019s How the Other Half Lives<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"buddy](\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/buddy-in-his-house.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"chet](\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/chet-and-bruno.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"bob](\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/bob_doghouse2.jpg\")
<\/p>\nVirtually Pets<\/h3>\n
![\"carlie](\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/carlie-cola-wecare.jpg\")
<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"gloria](\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/gloria-maltese-sbacc.jpg\")
<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"oliver](\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/oliver-amrt.jpg\")
<\/strong><\/p>\nPet Projects<\/h3>\n
![\"found](\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/found-dog.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"fix](\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/fix-long-beach.jpg\")
<\/strong><\/p>\n