Cloud Nine Studios

A Quiet Place to Thrive

Cloud Nine Studios is a collection of small apartments that are each sized for a single individual but still have most of the features of a large home. These studios were designed especially for long-term healing from serious trauma for women who wish to live on their own or with up to three cats. The construction of Cloud Nine Studios was completed in 2025.

Trauma-Informed Design

These homes were built from the ground up to take care of an individual and make her feel better, with the psychological impact of every last decision as a primary concern. Details everywhere are designed to make residents feel safe and secure, make sure they're comfortable, and encourage healthy habits. Furthermore, they are fully-furnished with nearly every home good a person would need, reducing stress and setting residents up for success.

One of the most impactful features is the overall design concept, as these are highly functional homes built for one. As it stands, a person who wants to live by herself has limited options, each with severe drawbacks. Homes with nice amenities are typically huge to maximize property value; however, small spaces are much better for trauma recovery. Meanwhile, small homes typically have stripped-down features, but people recovering from trauma need an environment that's better than normal, not worse. None of these options match the requirements of a person living on her own, which leads to additional problems that just make recovering from trauma even harder.

The apartments Cloud Nine Studios, on the other hand, are designed specifically for just one person. Furthermore, these are highly engineered environments where every cubic inch has been carefully considered to maximize functionality and therapeutic benefit. The leads to an environment ideal for trauma recovery: Small enough to feel manageable and cozy, but packed with features that help people to sleep well, eat healthy, stay organized, and keep a clean home.

Beyond these healthy habits, living in an environment that feels "just right"—like it was made just for someone like her—can have a powerfully positive impact on the mental wellbeing of people who are struggling with low senses of self-worth, purpose, or belonging. To that end, these homes were designed to fit residents like gloves tailored just for them, leading to these benefits along with high degrees of comfort and satisfaction.

For more, see Trauma-Informed Design.

Therapeutic Artwork

Some of the measures taken at Cloud Nine Studios to provide psychological benefits through the environment are obvious, like the décor library and digital art displays, which both allow residents to customize their homes with artwork of their choice. Other measures, like the many taken to optimize the experience of looking in the mirror, are more subtle. While the effects of this modality are important, most of the work was done in the architecture design, as this relies on the very specific combination of an alcove, door, wall, window, and light fixture. The end result calls little attention to itself despite being significantly helpful for people living with PTSD.

Somewhere in the middle is the Recovery Pathway, which is designed to help make residents feel better each time they walk home and, over time, break down stubborn barriers keeping people from participating in therapy. On the one hand, the experience is so unique that it could not be missed; however, like nearly all other measures, its therapeutic efficacy does not rely on understanding, so while some residents will be aware of how it works and others will not, all will benefit.

For more, see Therapeutic Artwork.

Animal Support

Cloud Nine Studios is a collection of animal-supportive homes. Within each apartment is a full suite of features designed to take care of the most important living needs of cats in the space that is the least useful to humans. The entire building was built around these features, like a plumbing system that safely enables always-full water bowls and a ventilation system that allows residents to live with multiple cats in a small space without it smelling like a litter box.

For those without pets at Cloud Nine Studios, the aspects of animal-supportive architecture are essentially invisible or have secondary purposes. For animal lovers, however, these features make lifechanging differences, including a massive upgrade to the quality of life, health, and comfort for both people and their pets.

At Cloud Nine Studios, the work required to care for cats is dramatically reduced, which gives everyone increased freedom and flexibility, but is extra important for people operating at diminished capacity who sometimes struggle to take care of their own needs. These features will allow some residents to have pets who otherwise could not, which for animal lovers is incomparably better than living completely alone, especially for people recovering from trauma. The cats benefit too, as living in an environment designed around their needs leads to happier, healthier pets, which in turn contributes to a positive feedback loop of emotional and behavioral improvements for animals and the people who care for them.

For more, see Animal-Supportive Homes and Animal-Supportive Architecture.