House for Booklovers and Cats, NY Building, Residential Project, American Architecture Images
House for Booklovers and Cats in Brooklyn
Residential Development in New York, USA – design by BFDO Architects pllc
Sep 7, 2017
House for Booklovers and Cats
Design: BFDO Architects pllc
Location: Brooklyn, New York, USA
House for Booklovers and Cats

The clients, an artist, poet and professor and her husband, a poet and administrator, purchased a row house in Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn, where they wanted to find interesting ways to bring color and light in and to create spaces for each of them to live and work and to display their extensive collection of art and books. The design brief also called for special accommodations for their two shy but inquisitive cats to be able to navigate through small and high places and escape from unexpected guests.
The layout was configured as an open, airy twenty by fifty foot by ten foot tall primary living space on the parlor floor lined on one side by a full-length bookshelf, art wall, and cat circulation and lounge space. Shelves project to create steps for the cats to climb up to a continuous open ledge where they can observe activities from a high vantage point. Trap doors allow the cats access to rooms above at either end of the house. Inset in the shelf wall is an art piece designed by the owner: a diorama of a living room concealed behind a front door painted to match the front door of the house. Other recesses house the owner...