A Contemporary Apartment for People and Cats by ALTS Design Office

This apartment was redesigned for a “husband who is keen on furniture and a wife who loves plants”. The property is set within a building that overlooks lake Biwa from Otsu in the Shiga Prefecture of Japan.

The owners contacted ALTS Design Office in order to create a home fitting for them, their newborn, and their two cats. The recent addition to their family was the main motivation for the renovation.

The apartment contains a total of 914-square-feet (85-square-meters) and was completed in early 2017. According to ALTS Design Office, the concept for the apartment revolved around “cats, furniture and plants” (I suppose “people” is implicit). They ultimately settled on a design in which the living spaces of cats and people are connected through furniture.

The interior is finished in a contemporary style: white walls, wooden furniture, and elements of greenery are scattered across the living spaces. To accommodate their feline friends, furniture pieces were set against the walls, both high and low, allowing them to explore every nook and cranny of apartment.

From ALTS Design Office: “By this, we designed the room as a space where both the cats and humans find where to stay, with some places where the eye levels of the cats and humans are equal, so that they can feel the presences of each other.”

The floor plan is roughly divided up into two main areas. The first is the public living room, dining room and kitchen. About half of this room is dedicated to the living room. The kitchen has been carved out of a corner nook. It’s quite small but it’s purpose built and tailored to the owners needs.

The other half of the apartment contains the home’s two bedrooms, a bathroom (with a separate room that’s dedicated to the bath), toilet, and an entrance hallway. Unlike most apartments, this one features a balcony along three of its four sides. From ALTS: “It was improved to be a wonderful space for humans and cats by designing it to maximize the utilization of the unused space and taking the two factors, the storage furniture and the cat walk into consideration.”

For more Japanese properties check out the Loft House, a minimalist home for a family of 5 from Tokushima. Or, Olioli, a family home inspired by nature from Mitaka, Tokyo. See all Japanese houses.

Via ArchDaily
Photos: Fuji-Shokai / Masahiko Nishida