Humans and pets have long shared a deep and inseparable bond—and today, how we live alongside them is becoming increasingly important. Beyond offering companionship, pets are now often regarded as life partners, providing powerful support for mental health and emotional well-being. Yet it is not only the emotional connection that matters: the way we design and curate spaces for cohabitation with them plays a critical role in shaping meaningful spatial relationships between humans and their animal companions.
Whether through custom-designed furniture or more seamlessly integrated solutions like wall cavities and built-in nooks, an increasing amount of attention is being paid to how we can better coexist with pets in our homes. This shift reflects more than just affluence or pet ownership; it signals a broader evolution of companionship—one rooted in mutual support, emotional health, and shared environments.
Beyond the home, conversations are also expanding globally around how we can better integrate pets into public life. Other than recreational areas like dog parks, more urban infrastructure and commercial spaces are exploring pet-friendly initiatives. In Hong Kong, for example, the Mass Transit Railway (MTR) system and public buses are exploring pet-friendly carriages. Theme parks, like Ocean Park in Hong Kong, are introducing "Doggy Days" where pets are allowed inside the park on certain days as part of annual members' benefits. Meanwhile, bars, cafes, and restaurants—especially those with outdoor areas—are increasingly embracing pet-friendly policies. Together, these developments suggest a growing recognition of pets as vital members of our social fabric, deserving of thoughtful inclusion across both private and public spaces.
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Cat Furniture: More Comfort and Health for Felines at HomeShared Scales: Designing Homes for Human and Animal Inhabitants
Co-living with pets often demands an innovative application of scale within a project. In the limited spaces many of us inhabit, how do we thoughtfully design elements of separation (walls), enclosures (rooms), thresholds (doors and windows), and transitions (spaces) that serve both pets and people? In PETS & HUMAN - Positive House / Studio ruizvelazquez by Studio Ruiz Velázquez, a fluid, organically shaped interior bridges these inherent differences in scale. The design harnesses the transformative potential of organically-shaped architectural elements—columns, walls, and thresholds—that camouflage thicknesses and cavities, while introducing punctuated thresholds that are accessible to pets but remain largely opaque to humans standing five feet above ground. By reinterpreting primary architectural elements, the cohabitation experience becomes one of harmonized scales, where forms serve dual purposes. A door or passageway for a pet may be seamlessly hidden within the curving wall from a human's perspective, while a thickened column becomes a playful climbing surface for pets. Through this inventive layering and rethinking of traditional forms, the project cultivates a healthy, symbiotic environment where architecture fosters shared inhabitation for humans and their pets.
A radically different approach emerges in Home of Pets / HDD, where the extreme density of animal occupants defines the design challenge. Here, efficiency and well-being are meticulously balanced to accommodate 40 cats within a compact apartment. Allowing the cats to roam largely free, the design adopts a utilitarian, functional strategy—one that tackles hygiene, feeding, and littering with pragmatic solutions. Despite the high density, the project maintains as pleasant a living environment as possible, for both the animals and their human companions. In doing so, Home of Pets addresses the complexities of concentrated cohabitation, showcasing how thoughtful design can strive to manage both comfort and practicality under spatial constraints.
Beyond the Home: Designing Shared Experiences in Commerce
Cohabitating with pets, of course, extends beyond our private homes—it evolves into a broader, societal-scale relationship where animals are integrated into commerce, economies, and health systems. In Nova Pets Store / say architects, the design similarly seeks to merge spatial operations between humans and pets—this time within the semi-public setting of a retail environment. Yet, beyond the conventional idea of cohabitation—where the paths of pets might simply intersect with those of human visitors—the design questions whether pets and owners can socialize in a way that feels equitable. The solution is one where owners and pets may share a meal (with separate food) on the same surface, or enjoy time together through a careful calibration of height changes and spatial sequencing. The store becomes a framework for interaction, where spatial hierarchies are softened, and pet-owner relationships are foregrounded. When a pet is being groomed or serviced, the design invites owners to look in, to peek through openings—a reversal of the typical domestic experience where pets are often excluded from certain spaces. Here, humans find themselves on the outside, momentarily distanced from their companions, yet intimately connected through moments of visibility and care.
In Clínica Veterinaria Guayaquil / Adamo Faiden, a contrasting approach is taken, where restraint and control shape a communal environment for both pets and humans. A singular, atrium-like waiting space—tall, airy, and almost exaggerated in its vertical proportions—removes typical notions of domestic scale altogether. Rather than attempting to bridge the spatial differences between species, the architecture abstracts scale entirely, offering a neutral and contemplative setting. Within this unfamiliar vertical volume, dogs and their owners wait side-by-side, equally framed by the soaring height above them. The project suggests a shared vulnerability and patience in the act of waiting—one that subtly levels the experience between human and animal in an atmosphere of quiet care.
Beyond Dog Parks: Imagining a Pet-Friendly Urban Future
It is not often that we discuss pets in the context of public space. Beyond the scattered presence of pet-friendly infrastructure—such as small, fenced-off dog parks—the public realm is still largely perceived as an unfriendly environment for animals. However, a slow transition may be underway, with sporadic efforts across the globe aiming to reshape this perception. Beyond the growing inclusion of pets in public facilities and transit systems, projects like gogoland Pet Community / Informal Design represent a more deliberate attempt to create public spaces specifically for pets. Although the project operates alongside an on-site café, its deeper ambition lies in crafting an open, free, and pet-centric social zone. In particular, the integration of nature and gardens invites reflection: What might the future of dog-friendly parks look like? How might we manage littering beyond relying solely on self-discipline? And in what ways could we mediate tensions among diverse pet owners sharing the same space?
These reflective questions will continue to propel the inclusivity of public space design—for the healing and well-being of both humans and animals. Architecture for Dogs, an exhibition first initiated by Kenya Hara in 2012, has continued to travel the world, challenging architects to rethink and recalibrate the relationships between space, architecture, and dogs—free from societal biases and assumptions. While it may not explicitly aim to solve the complexities of pets in public realms, the exhibition offers a critical reminder of the assumptions we have long made about what pets need, and hints at the creative potential of designing spaces specifically for them. Although the exhibition currently focuses solely on dogs, one cannot help but wonder: could we soon see the rise of Architecture for Cats—or even broader initiatives for other pets—as public consciousness continues to evolve?
This article is part of the ArchDaily Topics: Building Wellbeing: Designing Spaces for Healing, presented in collaboration with the Hushoffice.
With its line of A-class pods Hushoffice helps create acoustically balanced workplaces that offer great environment for collaboration and focus, foster employee wellbeing, and accommodate the needs of neurodiverse staff, as well as employees with motor impairments.
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