If you’re thinking of building a home, and you want to make sure it’s a good investment (because you’re planning to sell sometime in the future), then here’s a tip: make sure it has pet-friendly architectural features! Architects such as Rebecca Naughtin have noticed a big “increase in requests to accommodate all manner of pets within our clients’ homes.” These requests range from designing specialized pathways for pets throughout the home, right through to refining joinery for the placement of water bowls, customized lead hooks, and sleeping nooks for dogs, cats, and many more furry friends. Below are just a few features you can expect to find within pet-savvy homes.

Hardwearing Pet Surfaces

Depending on the type of pet you have, you may be worried about them scratching the floors with their cute claws or having one too many accidents indoors. There are many solutions to this problem, one of which involves using hardwearing flooring and surfaces. When it comes to flooring, good choices include tiles (in materials such as natural stone and porcelain), luxury vinyl, engineered hardwood, and high-quality laminate. You can also simply divide surfaces within your home so your pet steers clear of more delicate areas. This is the case in a home featured in Arch Daily called Dwelling With Independent Concrete Block Wall, by Asano – Izue Architect Office. The architect split the home into one area with hardwearing concrete blocks (perfect for their pets) and a slightly raised area where the owner could keep their delicate antiques.

Chic Resting Spaces

In a chic, modern home, bed homes are simply thrown here and there can wrest from a uniform, even look—which is why many architects are working alongside homeowners to create chic resting spots for dogs and cats within the spaces commonly used by humans. Check out this home by Taiwanese architects, LCGA Design. In an elongated living room with a modern, almost minimalist and uniformly gray design, they fitted a modern shelf that juts out from the wall perpendicularly, right next to the elongated sofa. Connecting the shelf to the sofa is a coffee table with a space beneath for a pet bed in simple gray. The bed simply melts into the background but allows your dog and cat to be close to you while you are reading, working, or socializing with friends at home.

Features For Pet Play

If you and your pets are changing your residence, then you may be worried about how to make the move friendly and create a happy arrival experience for your dog or cat when you arrive in your new abode. Dogs usually adapt quicker, so long as they are with you, but cats can take longer to acclimatize to their new home. Most vets recommend that cats not be allowed to go outside until they are completely at ease in the new home—and this usually takes at least two weeks. One way to help them adjust and thrive long-term as well is to provide them with toys and structures—and these can actually be incorporated into your architecture. Ideas include “holes” connecting each of the rooms (so your pet can easily move from room to room even when the door is closed), fitted scratching and jumping posts, and interior gardens. When planning your layout, look for long, narrow spaces where you can fit installations that can serve as pet play and rest zones. Check out the modernistic Vila do Conde Apartment Building by Raulino Silva Arquitecto. It features a natural wood artistic installation comprising various boxes of different shapes of different sizes that make perfect sleep, escape, and play spaces for dogs and cats alike. 

Creative Pet Homes

In case you enjoy moving your pet bed from room to room, then you may opt for a playful kennel created by your architect. Dezeen recently published spectacular images of architectural canine beds made from luxurious materials like stone. Some are carved into a bone-shaped colonnade; others are inspired on Star Wars and comprise spaceship-like structures. Still others are created in unusual shapes. For inspiration, see Foster + Partners’ wooden geodesic dog kennel with a comfy padded interior. 

Pet-friendly architecture is more important than ever, both in individual homes and apartments. Architects such as Rebecca Naughtin and firms like Asano – Izue Architect Office and LCGA Design, and Raulino Silva Arquitecto are revolutionizing home designs by putting pets where they belong—at the forefront of our lives. From hidden beds to futuristic kennels, play elements to hardware floors, there is plenty you can add to a home that prizes two-footed and four-pawed dwellers alike.