Designers, and owners, turn their hands to pet-friendly solutions

Let's face it: pets are no longer just pets, but rather increasingly demanding members of the family, with their own needs and proclivities. And in tight urban living spaces like Hong Kong, pet-inclusive design has particular challenges to take on.

When architect Greg Pearce and his partner knocked their flat into an open-plan layout, it suited their two cats well. But the one remaining barrier, a sliding mirrored partition between the bedroom and the living space, wasn't so popular.

"The cats like to sleep with us, so the problem was how to let them, while still making sure they could access their food and the bathroom when we wanted to close the door," says Pearce, an architect with Hong Kong-based studio, One Space.

Appraising the layout, Pearce decided to cut short a column of tinted glass partitioning.

He fitted the gap with a light Perspex flap on a pivot and a little pop lock, and gave the cats their own personal (but lockable) entrance. "It was dead simple," he says. "Not many architects think about designing specifically for cats, but anyone designing a flat these days will think about the way that all the inhabitants use it."

Pets are registering increasingly on the radars of interior and product designers, with 'less is more' as their mantra. Take Akemi Tanaka-Blanchard, a furniture designer in New York who has found a keen following for her Curve cat ledge.