In architecture, the history of the designed space is intertwined with that of the objects that space houses. The architect's craft involves activity related not only to the scale of the building but also to graphics and products. The endless production of furniture, often designed for a specific context and finished later in serial production, immediately comes to mind, but the discourse has expanded on many occasions to everyday objects, fashion and tech. And not only recently.
10 unforgettable objects designed by architecture’s masters
Architecture, in addition to the built environment, has always worked on product design, investigating in different scales the needs and behaviors of human beings.
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- Nicola Aprile
- 26 November 2025
The need to have control over the design in the totality of its levels has been a constant throughout the centuries: in liberty buildings all elements contribute to a kind of total work of art (Van de Velde when designing his villa in Uccle even drew the clothes his wife was supposed to wear inside); later the goal of the Bauhaus was to define a method rather than a style, as valid for architecture as for all applied arts, and a few decades later "from the spoon to the city" is the slogan of Ernesto Nathan Rogers who urges to consider the project in its breadth and relationship to the complexity of human dynamics.
The endless production of furniture immediately comes to mind, but the discourse has expanded on many occasions to everyday objects, fashion and tech.
In fact, architects have designed spoons of them, and the space that separates them from the "city" is a huge container full of other products: chairs and lamps, of course, but also home appliances, medical devices, packaging, cars, toys, slippers, watering cans. All the more or less basic things that inhabit our everyday life.
The copious and fundamental contribution of architects to the product universe has given way to specialized designers only in recent times - the first design schools in Italy are not even a hundred years old - continuing to manifest themselves with some notable exceptions: their signature on objects reinforces the already solid relationship between the two universes and highlights a kind of architectural value of the products (in this sense the most explicit was Aldo Rossi).
Discussing the numerous marketing operations that have seen some brands engage great architects in collaborations of dubious design value, we have made a list of ten things (that fall outside the semantic realm of furniture) designed by architects.
Yes, in the most hidden niche of many people's homes lurks a jewel designed by one of the most celebrated contemporary architects. The meter designed for Enel in 2001 is an intuitive and familiar object, meticulous in form and resembling nothing else.
Thought of as a sculpture, Zaha Hadid's grater has nothing to do with the archetype; it consists of two pieces and is inspired by the natural forms of river pebbles. It is just one of many objects conceived by the leading exponent of parametric architecture.
More than a fashion item, it is a product of dressing design, flexible and adaptable, a tool at the service of the person, like all those designed by the architect who designed spaces and objects capable of guaranteeing each person total autonomy.
Designed in 1974 with an original and extremely elegant flattened shape, it is the first writing instrument (along with the Hastil fountain pen, also by Zanuso) to be exhibited at MoMA in New York.
The architect who has been confronted with all, all types of products and even signed Juicy Salif, the iconic citrus squeezer has conceived for the Chinese brand an original and innovative smartphone.
The Japanese architecture legend and 1995 Pritzker winner was inspired by a green apple to design a super minimal wristwatch (like his buildings). There is a green version, a tribute to the fruit, and a gray one reminiscent of the concrete of which Ando is one of the most skilled sculptors.
The greatest always leave a trail: the designer of "crumpled" shapes has imprinted a recognizable mark in an object seemingly distant from architecture. The bold, enigmatic and complex fragrance produced by Louis Vuitton anticipates its olfactory characteristics with the shape of the cap.
Domus' guest editor for 2025 loves movement and speed, especially when they have the shape of the future; his architecture says so, and so does Oko, the bicycle designed for the design-conscious Danish brand and leading manufacturer of city bikes.
"The smallest of my architectures" is the architect's definition of his sneakers, generated by a careful study of the foot and its movements and inspired by the flexibility of bamboo.
Playful, postmodern architecture, but also lots of objects. In the U.S. designer's portfolio, power tools and non-power tools occupy an important space. For Target, Graves designs dozens of objects but more importantly a new merchindising strategy that has set a new standard.