Tin Hut, by designer Kathryn Walton, founder of the American Street Cat. 

Cats can be finicky clients, with mysterious preferences that add up to an almost universal rejection of the carpet platforms and plush beds humans design for them. So when several New York architects set out to design winter shelters for the city’s tens of thousands of feral cats, they had to consider what makes good design from a feline perspective. In a competition organized by Architects for Animals to benefit the Mayor’s Alliance for NYC’s Animals, seven architecture firms (and one independent designer) found inspiration in outdoor carpeting, Spanish moss, and aluminum cat-food cans. So how did they go about attracting the street cats of New York, short of hiding warm, charging MacBooks all over the city? Check out some of our favorite designs after the jump!

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An LED lights up when the shelter is occupied, while an internal sensor sends data about the cat’s stay to a base colony.

It’s estimated that there are over 10,000 stray cats in New York City. But with myriad other human problems, issues like feral cats tend to fall by the city’s wayside. A recent competition organized by Architects for Animals asked the city’s designers to address the burgeoning problem by designing cat shelters that would eventually be donated to animal care centers throughout the five boroughs. Continue.

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