Friday Funny: Gimme Cat Shelter

A far cry from the cardboard boxes most cats settle for—and into—here's a look at the inspired arCATecture designers came up with for this year’s Architects for Animals® “Giving Shelter” exhibit.

Not many get the chance to have one of LA’s top architects and designers create a home specifically for them. But some lucky cats–literally–recently had just that experience when leading architects and designers were invited to design, build, and donate functional and one-of-a-kind outdoor dwellings for homeless cats.

In one of the year’s most innovative design events, the Architects for Animals® “Giving Shelter” exhibit returned to the HermanMiller Showroom in Culver City, CA last month. The sold-out event benefitted the LA-based non-profit FixNation, which provides free spay/neuter services for stray, abandoned, and feral cats.

The cat shelters were displayed at a cocktail reception and available for purchase via an online auction. Also on display were 28 cat food bowls decorated by cat-loving celebrities—including Jay Leno, Charlize Theron, Beau Bridges, Elvira, William Shatner, Clint Eastwood, Tricia Helfer, and Morgan Fairchild.

“This year’s cat shelters were extraordinarily creative, and the designers put a great deal of time and thought into how cats would actually interact with the shelters,” said FixNation’s Co-Founder and Executive Director Karn Myers. “They are truly works of art with a practical application, and all the shelters are showcased in our online auction as well.”

Los Angeles is home to one of the nation’s largest populations of homeless felines, an estimated one to three million cats. Myers and her late husband, Mark Dodge, founded FixNation 10 years ago to provide Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) and humane colony management as more effective and compassionate alternatives to mass euthanasia.

A far cry from the cardboard boxes most cats settle for—and into—here’s a look at the creative and inspired “arCATecture” these talented designers came up with:

White Jack by Abramson Teiger Architects

cat shelter design contest
Photo: Meghan Bob Photography

Ball of Twine by Abramson Teiger Architects

cat shelter design contest
Photo: Meghan Bob Photography

CallisonRTKL

cat shelter design contest
Photo: Meghan Bob Photography

d3architecture

cat shelter design contest
Photo: Meghan Bob Photography

Meow Miaow by ES-EN-EM

cat shelter design contest
Photo: Meghan Bob Photography

Flora-Gato, a collaborative project from Formation Association, Terremoto Landscape and Arktura

cat shelter design contest
Photo: Meghan Bob Photography

CAnT WE ALL GET ALONG by HKS

cat shelter design contest
Photo: Meghan Bob Photography

This creative team not only built an innovative cat shelter, but also wrote a poem about it:

Sunlight filters through the slats of my den
Birds chirping just beyond in their pen
I could lunge, I could expunge
Instead I will laze, within this fish-house in a daze
Can’t we all get along just today
Come back tomorrow for another foray!

HOK

cat shelter design contest
Photo: Meghan Bob Photography

Knowhow Shop

cat shelter design contest
Photo: Meghan Bob Photography

Cat’s Win! Cat’s Win! by Kollin Altomare Architects

cat shelter design contest
Photo: Meghan Bob Photography

UnFURled by Perkins + Will

cat shelter design contest
Photo: Meghan Bob Photography

RNL now Stantec

cat shelter design contest
Photo: Meghan Bob Photography

Catosphere by Standard Architecture | Design

cat shelter design contest
Photo: Meghan Bob Photography