The Cat House

“For people who have pets, they’re like family,” said Akira Koyama, the owner and representative director of Tokyo-based Key Operation Inc., an architecture firm.

And there is a market for pet-focused design, said Koyama, who designed a residence dubbed “House Taishido,” or “Cat House.”

Located in a densely populated urban district west of Tokyo, the three-story, 30-square-meter home features stepping-stone-like shelves that allow the home’s feline resident to navigate vertically into and out of the main living room via small openings.

The small openings in the wall lead to other rooms on the first floor.

The cat can also access the second floor of the unit by walking up the shelves and slipping through a slot that functions as a cat-only portal. Freeing up the unit’s staircase from cat traffic allows the space to double as a home library, with bookcases and space for reading.

According to Koyama, the house was not initially designed to be a “cat house,” and those features took shape later in the design stages.

“It wasn’t too expensive (to add the cat features), and was quite fun,” he said, adding that the home’s design focused on creating a space with rooms of different heights and sizes connected by doorless transitions and windows.

This initial design concept inadvertently made for excellent cat mobility.

While the cat-friendly features implemented by Key Operations weren’t conceived during initial design, another Tokyo-based firm designs homes specifically with pets in mind.

Fauna Plus DeSIGN and its director, Keiji Hirose, are known for designing a custom home for 16 cats.

The heart of the home features a cat-climbing tree that serves as a spiral staircase leading up to a catwalk on the second floor of the unit, according to a website detailing that project.

The catwalk forms a zigzag design and can also be accessed via steps that protrude from the wall, similar to House Taishido’s shelves. Several of the steps are next to small holes in the walls that lead to other rooms.

One of the home’s most unique features is an enclosed, see-through cat tunnel at floor level in the den, which stretches around the room. The homeowners’ audio equipment, records and entertainment center are atop the tunnel.

From the tunnel, cats can access a cats-only “playroom” space at the corner of one window in the master bedroom.