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 nearly all 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 2026.

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 Modalities

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 people with cats, the most consequential feature will be that each apartment here is an animal-supportive home. Within each home is another home for cats, designed to take care of their most important living needs in the space that is the least useful to humans.

For more, see Therapeutic Modalities.

Animal-Supportive Architecture

Entire building designed around the needs of animals from the start. Convertible Litter Closets, integrated Bowl Basin, whole building designed around a ventilation system that allows individuals to live with multiple cats in a small space Lunar Beacon, designed to be beneficial to humans as well as cats

Having a pet in the home has several benefits that help people heal from trauma, but the practical challenges that come with animals typically preclude them from being a part of trauma recovery therapy. However, Haven House has been designed to solves these problem by integrating the living needs of cats into the home in a way that allows them to be a positive part of a group living environment without causing disruption.

Haven House was built for flexibility, with five ventilated areas for litter boxes and ten different configurations for cat-safe living environments using a special gate and various combinations of bedrooms, allowing a cat to provide companionship to just one resident or the entire household.

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