Culture,Design,Technology,Urbanism

The Kitty Pod Hotel

THURSDAY , January 12, 2012 | BY  

As architects, most of us spend our entire careers designing buildings, and if we are lucky it’s a structure that stimulates, inspires, and contributes positively to the environment. Rarely do we have opportunities to work on projects with no guidelines, zoning requirements, or local building codes; where we are allowed to reinvent the unexpected, push limits, and let our imagination rule. But such design freedom creates new hurdles to overcome; and what architect doesn’t like a challenge?

I recently participated in a FXFOWLE pro bono project that challenged me as a designer unlike any other – to design and construct a shelter for a colony of feral cats in New York City. According to current estimates, tens of thousands of homeless, stray, and free-roaming cats live on the streets and in alleyways, back yards, and abandoned lots throughout the city. Many of the cats live in groups known as “colonies.” The winter months are particularly difficult for these cats, when inclement weather creates serious and life-threatening challenges, including finding food, water, and shelter. Shelter is vitally important and that is where the NYC architectural community comes in.

Architects for Animals “Giving Shelter” benefits the Mayor’s Alliance for New York City Animals. Architectural firms participating in this endeavor design, build, and donate creative and fun outdoor shelters to provide the city’s homeless cats with refuge from the cold/freezing temperatures in winter as part of the NYC Feral Cat Initiative. The only “rules” for the shelter was that it had to hold at least one colony a feral cats (anywhere from 3-5), be warm, and weather-proof.

Initial Design Concepts Pin-Up

During initial meetings with other FXFOWLE volunteers, we focused our cat structure concept as a dual-purpose public bench and shelter, but through various design meetings and researching feral cat behavior, we decided on pursuing a more sculptural/object approach. Primarily, our design evolved into a kitty “pod hotel” with an interstitial space and plywood frame serving as a “kitty jungle gym”, with a central “atrium” providing access to each pod.  The structure contains 3 fully-insulated pods varying in length, which serve as shelter for the cats during the colder, winter months. Two non-insulated pods can be inserted into the structure for the summer if additional housing is needed. Each pod contains a pair of hinged doors to allow entry from either end, as well as to provide two means of egress in case of a threat. The pods are easily removable from the plywood frame for maintenance and repair, and can be retrofitted or swapped out to accommodate growing colonies or different seasons.

1:5 Scale Chipboard Model

Using the concept of a vacuum flask (thermos) to house the cats, each insulated pod was fabricated by placing a tube within a larger tube and filling the void between the two with insulation. A 10” PVC tube wrapped with recycled plastic insulation was placed into a 12” PVC tube and the two ends were filled with expanding foam insulation and capped with a laser cut white acrylic ring onto which the cat doors were fixed. All joints and seams were filled with silicone sealant to make the pods water resistant. Each non-insulated pod was produced using a 10” PVC tube wrapped in ½” sisal rope and capped at each end with cat doors. The sisal rope provides a scratch surface for sharpening claws and a textured surface for cats to climb and lounge on. The frame, milled by students and faculty from Columbia University GSAPP Laboratory for Applied Building Science, was painted using a polyurethane based wood stain to seal the plywood and give it rich walnut color. Each of the vertical ribs and horizontal struts were fastened together using brad nails and flat-head screws.

Lucio checks the fit of the first pod

I am happy to have played a small role in bringing awareness to the issue of feral cats in the city. Our shelter is located somewhere in one of the city’s five boroughs, and it’s my hope our “clients” are using it as we imagined.

Thanks to Philip Anzalone, Brigette Borders, & Ray Ho from Columbia University GSAPP Laboratory for Applied Building Science for CNC milling the plywood. Also, thanks to Nobu Arai and Gerardo Sustaeta for assembly and fabrication of the pods and many thanks to Brien McDaniel for organizing the initiative.

ALL MATERIALS USED IN FXFOWLE’S SHELTER
2.5m long x 1.1m wide x .8m high
25 vertical ribs – 33 notches/rib
33 horizontal struts – 25 notches/strut
(10) ¾” sheets baltic birch plywood
(4) ½ pint Minwax American Chestnut Gloss Polyshade
(1) 10 foot 12” PVC tube
(1) 10 foot 10” PVC tube
(1)  Roll recycled plastic insulation
(2) Expanding Foam Insulation spray cans
(10) Glaztec Catwalk cat doors
400 feet ½” sisal rope

Additional Links:

http://architectsforanimals.com/

http://www.facebook.com/mayorsalliancenyc

http://www.animalalliancenyc.org/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/54612307@N06

http://www.arch.columbia.edu/labs/fablab

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Culture,Urbanism

A Bird Eat Bird World

TUESDAY , March 15, 2011 | BY  

 

I may be far from waking up to birdsong in the mountains of Vermont, but occasionally something reminds me that even New York City has a significant wildlife population. After spending ten hours a week on an underground train I sometimes forget that, despite all the concrete, steel, and taxi cabs, we share this city with a lot of, if not angry, at least hungry birds; and not all of them are pigeons.

During a recent mid-afternoon trip to the office coffee machine, I just barely caught the moment when a carnivorous bird swooped out of the sky and dropped to the roof of the building next door with a still struggling pigeon clamped in its beak. I immediately grabbed my camera and snapped a few shots of this National Geographic moment before the unlucky victim was reduced to a pile of feathers and blood-stained snow.

Hawk vs. Pigeon

Hawk vs. Pigeon

Hawk vs. Pigeon

The only meat-eating birds in New York with which I am on somewhat familiar terms are the Red-Tailed Hawks of Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, which soar nonchalantly over our pick-up Frisbee games and Sunday barbecues. This Manhattanite bird whose attack I witnessed outside the kitchen window was a stranger to me, so I sent the photos around to various sources for identification: my boyfriend (an internet savvy sleuth), some coworkers (who helped develop the Audubon Society’s Bird-safe Building Guidelines), my father (a member of Cornell University’s Project Feederwatch), and Marcia Fowle (former Executive Director of the New York City Audubon and wife of FXFOWLE’s Founding Principal Bruce Fowle).  Most assumed the bird was the speedy Peregrine Falcon, but my dad, Marcia, and her daughter Margaret, the Fowle’s “in-family ornithologist,” officially identified the bird as a Sharp-shinned Hawk.

The Sharp-shinned Hawk, according to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, “winters in a large variety of habitats, including urban and suburban areas,” and is “a regular visitor to bird feeders, where it eats birds, not seed.” The small hawk has a wingspan of only 17-22 inches, less than half the intimidating 52 inches of the red-tailed hawk, making this featherweight snare even more impressive.

While I probably won’t witness another Sharp-shinned Hawk nature scene as dramatic as this one, who knows what other aviary activities I might see outside my office window this spring.

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Culture,Sustainability

Death by Plastic

FRIDAY , October 22, 2010 | BY  

by Jessica Pleasants

Green October, a month-long campaign to increase awareness of waste among FXFOWLE staff, kicked–off early this month with a special lecture by Dr. Caleb McClennen, Director of Marine Conservation at the Wildlife Conservation Society.

Dr. McClennen shed light on the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch,” a high concentration of debris, estimated to be twice the size of Texas, floating at the center of the North Pacific Ocean. The term “patch” is misleading, since the debris consists mostly of small pieces of plastic not readily visible by the human eye or satellite technology. However, Dr. McClennen has seen the occasional floating refrigerator while at sea. Small bits of partially degraded plastics, discarded fishing line, and organic material congregate in convergence zones away from the coastline, pushed together by the ocean’s fluid dynamics.

Dr. Caleb McClennen illustrates how plastics converge in the mid-Pacific ocean.

Although the Marpol 73/78 prohibits international marine dumping from ships, garbage continues to find its way into oceans, killing marine life that either ingest the plastics or become entangled in it. Several organizations sponsor clean-up efforts, but many initiatives remain uncoordinated and are mostly symbolic. That’s why prevention of plastic waste is the first step in protecting our oceans.

An albatross chick confused plastic garbage for food. Photo by Chris Jordan.

The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) works to safeguard seascapes that are the home of ocean giants, coral reefs, and great colonies of seabirds. The WCS’s efforts focus on land-based pollution and runoff, as well as on maintaining coastal livelihoods, the effects of overfishing, and climate change on coral reefs. An interdisciplinary conservationist, Dr. McClennen oversees the WCS’s marine conservation efforts in 13 focus areas worldwide, from Belize to Indonesia.

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Sustainability,Urbanism

Building the Ground, part 2

TUESDAY , August 24, 2010 | BY  

 

 

Having laid the groundwork for reclamation in part 1, I will now elucidate some of the geographical and thus wildlife considerations.  

Physically, one of the greatest threats to reclaimed land is the water around it. Generally, areas with dramatic tidal changes, such as the northeastern United States, are more vulnerable to inundation and erosion than areas with small fluctuation, such as the Oresund, the strait that separates Denmark from Sweden. Furthermore, climate induced sea level rises are predicted to increase non-uniformly around the globe; the Oresund should experience less increase than the U.S. Atlantic coast. Additionally, the threat of inundation is greater here as well, which, due to its particular ocean and wind currents, suffers hurricanes, storm surges, and floods more frequently than the well-protected Oresund. In fact, in 500-years of practicing land reclamation Copenhagen has not recorded a single flood. 

Prediction of global sea level change

One prediction of global sea level change (millimeters per year). Areas in red could see upwards of 30 mm increase per year .

Approaches to indigenous wildlife also differentiate our respective approaches to land reclamation. Both the U.S. and Denmark protect wildlife habitat with regulations that limit or prevent land reclamation, dredging, pier construction, and shoreline reconstruction. Since enacting the Endangered Species Act in 1970, many U.S. construction projects have been stopped or delayed. The most famous case is perhaps in protecting the snail darter fish (percina tanasi) from the Tennessee Valley Authority’s construction of the Tellico Dam (constructed only after being delayed through injunctions that were argued before the Supreme Court). Such measures are not uniformly applied—much depends on the specifics of each species and habitat. FXFOWLE’s new pier in the East River at the Northside Piers project in Williamsburg was delayed following a moratorium that prohibited disrupting the river bed and shoreline during the fish mating season. 

green toad

The Bufo Viridis, commonly known as the green toad.

Contrast our approach with the Danes’ treatment of the species found on the competition site. The Danes discovered that a large population of green toads (bufo viridis), protected by the European Economic Community Habitats Directive (Council Directive 92/43/EEC of 21 May1992), had established themselves in the shallow ponds at the end of the Nordhavnen peninsula. Essentially, as long as sufficient measures were taken to create new habitats elsewhere on site, the toads and their ponds could be moved.

Next time, we will dig into some of the economic and historical cases involved in land reclamation issues.

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