Animals in the City

The Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain and RATP (Paris Transport Authority) present Animals in the City, a project by the designer Andrea Branzi and the architect Stefano Boeri. The exhibition was conceived specifically for the galerie Valois, where their work engages with the alcoves of the the space.

Animals in the City presents a collaborative project, developed in three stages between 2008 and 2023, exploring how urban planning can foster a more harmonious coexistence between humans and animals.

Graphic design of the project by Lorenzo Mazzali.
Milan Animal City archive and research supervision by Maria Lucrezia De Marco and Livia Shamir.

In 2008, as part of a call for proposals launched by the French government on the future of the greater metropolitan area of Paris, Andre Branzi and Stefano Boeri developed a visionary plan. They imagined the integration of free-roaming animals — notably 50,000 sacred cows and 30,000 monkeys released into Parisian parks and boulevards — as a way of offering a form of “cosmic hospitality” open to biodiversity.

Milano Animal City is both an exhibition and a research project developed by students at Politecnico di Milano. The Town Planning Design Workshop was held at the School of Architecture, Urban Planning, Construction Engineering (academic years 2014–2015 and 2015–2016), led by professor Stefano Boeri and architect Michele Brunello in collaboration with Azzurra Muzzonigro, and other contributors.  

The project explores Milan (Italy) through the eyes of the animals that live there and imagines new ways for humans and non-human species to share the city.

Animal City (2023) revisits the project Andrea Branzi conceived with Stefano Boeri in 2008 for Greater Paris, translating it into a series of playful collages. In these works, Branzi transforms familiar images of Paris, populating its iconic monuments and boulevards with unexpected animals to generate a startling new vision of the city.

After visiting the galerie Valois, you may continue your visit at the Fondation Cartier, 2 Place du Palais-Royal, to see Andrea Branzi’s work Gazebo, presented as part of the Exposition Générale. 

In partnership with Triennale Milano, the Fondation Cartier is dedicating a new solo exhibition in 2026 to the architect and designer, who passed away in 2023.