The answer to that headline: yes, only without the unnecessary death. Klaas Kuiken‘s charming little invention covers the roof of your house while also providing shelter for tiny winged creatures, tired from a long day of foraging, feeding, and whatever else it is birds do. The design consists of a small gabled “structure” fastened to the top surface of a clay tile, itself secured to adjacent tiles with special glue capable of withstanding extreme temperatures. Seen in section, the lilliputian unit is rather spacious, making this a dream abode for any bachelor bird. Continue.

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Reinterpreting the scaffolding from his own House NA project, Sou Fujimoto has created a new home for the popular Boston terrier.

Dogs are a man’s best friend, right? We’ve made no attempt to hide our love of these faithful, four-legged friends—just have a gander out our favorite pet “pawjects” for proof. So it only makes sense that we celebrate our furry companions by providing them with the most aesthetically heady, functionally sound homes! Cue the Kenya Hara-curated project “Architecture for Dogs.” Hara’s initiative tasked renowned architects such as Toyo Ito, Shigeru Ban, and MVRDV with the design of 11 new dog houses. The results? Quite fun, actually.

Click through to see all of the pet-friendly designs.

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What a week! You may have noticed that we launched the Architizer A+ Awards program this past Tuesday to much fanfare, acclaim, and, of course, entries! It’s the biggest thing happen to Architecture (yes, capital A)  this year, and we’re thrilled to be able to break the field out of the echo chamber. To that end, we’ll be collecting entry projects for over 50 categories through January, so be sure to submit your work for a chance at winning an award (plus that nifty Snarchitecture-designed trophy depicted above!).

Announcing the Architizer A+Awards from Architizer on Vimeo.

We also rolled out several themed posts in support of A+ that cover the Plus Awards, which will honor built and unbuilt work that highlights architecture’s engagement with contemporary issues and design challenges. We kicked the series off by digging into categories like Plus Workspaces and Plus Self-Initiated Projects, selecting twenty projects that stand a good chance to taking home a trophy. That, along with our usual creative coverage of architecture and design–see our top ten pet architecture “pawjects” and our look at Starbucks use in storefront branding–and we’d say we had the best week ever.

Click through to see everything you missed.

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This week saw the news of the $100,000 Neiman Marcus chicken coop that made us call, well, fowl. Still, we put our reservations aside and went about searching for other instances of “Architecture + Animals”. Now, we’re back with 10 “structures” that would make any cultivated pet swoon.

Most of the projects have a quasi-modernist bent, while others make use of pomo elements like gables to communicate “home” to their furry and feathered occupants. Some are sculptural–in all senses of the word–artfully shaping space for chickens, ponies, and fish alike. Judging from the photographs, the critters seem quite happy in their new digs. Click through for the slideshow!

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Modernism. We know it’s not just for humans. The clean-lined aesthetic of our “machines for living” has been popping up for seemingly every kingdom, phylum and class. The latest to catch our eye are a series of modernist birdhouses by Twig & Timber. Hand built using reclaimed materials, these avian homes eschew the classic gabled form and snub excessive ornamentation. Instead, they delight in simple forms accented with tasteful asymmetries and natural hues and grains. The results are clean, bold, uncluttered designs that are sure to pop beautifully against the rugged bark of a tree. Find these one-off birdhouses from Twig & Timber here on Etsy. And for more modernist pet architecture, check out our Pinterest!

[All images courtesy Twig & Timber, via Etsy]

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In case you haven’t heard, Architizer has joined the social media migration and made its way onto Pinterest! We’ve filled our boards with everything from our favorite buildings to our favorite burgers. For those of you unfamiliar with our budding Pinterest presence, here’s a taste of what we have to offer: a round-up of our top 5 ‘pet architecture’ pins for your modern dog, cat or bird. Click through to take a look.

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