Animal-Supportive Architecture
Animal-supportive architecture prioritizes the needs, behaviors, and well-being of animals, and is commonly used in places like zoos, veterinary hospitals, and animal shelters. Where it is not commonly found is in homes, which are virtually all anthropocentric. For example, in the United States, over 70% of households have a pet, but close to 0% of those homes are built to support the living needs of animals, which seems like a problem worth solving.
As one of its goals, the Haven Homes project seeks to create a collection of architectural concepts that make living with animals better, improving the health and happiness of pets and the people who care for them. These concepts adhere to a strict set of design principles, which we are sharing in the hopes that it sparks ideas for new concepts or improvements to existing ones, or leads to ways the principles themselves could be improved. Furthermore, these principles are based on a model of attitudes toward animals that we are sharing for similar collaborative review.
Applying these principles eliminated hundreds of concepts we considered; below are some of the few that have been put into production at Haven House and Cloud Nine Studios as part of this project:
Concepts in Production
Slide: Litter Closet
Slide: Cat Loft
Slide: Bowl Basin
Slide: Sanctuary Gate
Slide: Scratch Station
Slide: Sensory Landmark
Slide: Catwalk Cove Light
Slide: Lowell Closet