Jonathan Morrison
A stately dog home
The world’s leading designers have come together to create the sleekest kennels known to dog or man. Jonathan Morrison reports
Norman Foster isn’t usually the first name to come to mind when the phrase “dog house” is uttered. But when Charles Gordon-Lennox, the Duke of Richmond, Aubigny, Lennoxand Gordon, asked him – along with other leading lights such as Jony Ive, the co-creator of the iPhone, and David Linley, the Earl of Snowdon and furniture-making nephew of the Queen – to design a kennel for this year’s Goodwoof festival at his Goodwood House in Sussex, it was an invitation he couldn’t resist.
The architect, who has a labrador called Bentley and a bulldog named Churchill, has been a regular guest at the Goodwood Festival and the Festival of Speed for the past 30 years. For this year’s “Chelsea Flower Show of dogs”, Foster’s design, drawing on examples of Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic domes and even Barnes Wallis’s bouncing bombs, is, he says, “sculptural in its own right: contoured around the canine and a light-hearted diversion that reflects the importance of taking one’s pleasures seriously. It’s turned out to be better than we imagined: it’s really very handsome.”
While Gordon-Lennox concedes that “Goodwoof is a terrible name, but it stuck”, the estate’s connection with dogs, “like horses, has been important to the place for a long time . . . We wanted something that felt authentic and could take on a life of its own and become part of the calendar. Organising this has been on my mind for a while, but it’s grown as a result of lockdown and as people’s relationships with their pets have become more important.”
(Foster and Partners)
After a two-year delay imposed by the pandemic, Goodwoof hopes to welcome about 10,000 animals (and their owners) to enjoy an eclectic variety of activities ranging from the downright barking – such as yoga, reiki and sound-bathing for pups – to the more traditional, such as parades and working-dog demonstrations, advice on nutrition and care, and a celebration of fictional favourites, not least Snoopy.
The undoubted highlight, however, will be the Barkitecture event where the designers’ creations will be showcased. It’s doubly fitting, given that Goodwood can lay claim to having “the most luxurious kennels in the world”. The story goes that the 3rd Duke of Richmond was so passionate about his four-legged companions that he commissioned the architect James Wyatt to design a palatial kennel block in 1787 that was so far ahead of its time that it had central heating a whole century before the main residence.
One of the new projects that is almost as sumptuous is the Doge’s Palace by Linley, which promises to deliver the “plywood palazzo that every dog desires . . . cosy, warm and gothic”. Unsurprisingly, it’s essentially a model of the 700-year-old Doge’s Palace in Venice. “I like the idea of intriguing follies that are useful,” Linley says. “We were just thinking how the dog will feel and what would be fun for the dog. It will hopefully raise a smile and some money.”
All the entries will be auctioned at Bonhamsto raise money for Dogs Trust, the animal welfare charity. And there’s a genuine desire to raise the standard for canine accommodation: Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners is making its design freely available as is Hopkins Architects, whose Dogulor makes a serious point about designing for “zero waste” because it can be made out of a single sheet of plywood. “We want people to have a go at making it themselves,” Sophy Twohig of Hopkins says. “Dog ownership is good for humans but it shouldn’t come at an environmental cost.”
(Jony Ive and Marc Newson)
Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, meanwhile, while emphasising that its concept is based on expert advice, is also happy to admit that the colourful Dog Pod owes a debt to manga or even Star Wars. “Our design can be stacked, it has adjustable legs for sloping terrain, it allows airto circulate to avoid overheating and it minimises waste,” says Ivan Harbour, who designed the National Assembly for Wales in Cardiff and who has just lost his dog of 15 years. “But we’ve been trying to mix as much fun into our lives as possible. Architects often take themselves too seriously, so this was a chance to do something a bit more light-hearted. It was enjoyable working for animals and not humans for a change.”
Perhaps the most eagerly awaited design is by Ive and his friend Marc Newson. “We wanted itto be child-like,” Newson says. “With the simplicity belying a degree of complexity as to how it’s made. It’s the sort of thing I’d like to own; I’ve always had dogs but never had a half-decent kennel for them. There aren’t many good ones out there.”
“We both absolutely adore our dogs so this was an irresistible invitation,” Ive adds. “Designing a home for Dave Ive and Scruff Newson saw us develop a form that is an extrusion of the essential icon of a traditional kennel.”
Given the A-list line-up it’s no surprise that the duke is pleased with the way Goodwoof is shaping up so far. But has he considered that, with so many hounds rushing around, it could turn outto be a real dog’s dinner?
He mulls over this for a moment. “I just hope that people are sensible,” he says. “Put it this way: if there are 10,000 dogs on site and they’re all running in the wrong direction, I’ll have a helicopter on standby to take me away.”
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