Tucked into the smallest corners of the city, tiny and irregular buildings quietly challenge our ideas of architecture. These funny-looking structures, also known as Pet Architecture, make creative use of leftover urban space and highlight how human ingenuity and adaptability can even turn dead spaces into something meaningful.
Imagine a big, busy street, filled with people minding their own concerns and going about their day. The street is confined by higher rise buildings on either side with all kinds of functions. Do you think the people who walk that street every day notice the 2 meter wide bakery wedged between an office and a residential building? A space that is not much wider than the average vending machine. Blink and you’ll miss it, but if you do notice it, you’re looking at one of the most delightful forms of architecture: Pet architecture.
Coined by Tokyo-based architectural firm Atelier Bow Wow, pet architecture refers to small, often irregularly-shaped buildings squeezed into leftover urban space - spaces often ignored by traditional designers. While these buildings, like pets, can be quite cute and quirky, there is a much deeper meaning you can find behind these buildings. One that shows how to be adaptive to your surroundings, how to work in unusual spaces and embracing the complexity of those spaces.
Fig. 1: Small florist shop wedged between two buildings. From: Kajima, M., et al., 2002, Pet Architecture Guide Book: Living Spheres, Volume 2, 1st edition, World Photo Press, Japan
Pet architecture isn’t about smallness. It's about adaptation and survival in urban spaces. They pop up in spaces like alleyways, under staircases, on rooftops; places where nothing was meant to be built. These spaces are often a result of a local need and are almost never part of an urban masterplan. The function of the space can be anything - from a ramen shop to a florist, to a small bakery and even a home. Often the pets are built by the people that use them as well, which result in a kind of intimacy that you won’t find anywhere else, like architecture without ego.
The idea of pet architecture came to be in early 2000’s Tokyo, a city known for its interesting blend between meticulous planning and layered chaos. Its history, consisting of destruction in the war, fast post-war reconstruction and ever changing zoning regulations, made for a patchwork-like city with many spatial gaps left in its urban planning. Instead of leaving the gaps to be empty, people found creative ways to fill them up. Atelier Bow Wow is an architectural firm that noticed these types of structures and decided to document them in their 2002 book Pet Architecture Guide Book.
“If decent buildings standing in decent spaces were to be considered ‘human beings,’ small buildings standing with all their might in odd spaces would seem to be like pets in urban spaces due to the sense of distance from human beings and the sense of presence in scenery.” (Kajima et al., 2002, p.9)
How endearing these spaces might be, Atelier Bow Wow really did not try to mock the structures, but rather try to elevate them: they considered pet architecture a form worth studying.
Though the term was founded in Japan, the gap-filling structures can be found everywhere across the globe. Some famous examples are the micro-tiendas in Mexico City, where people sell groceries from alleyways or garages, serving as both a home and a place of business. Another example is the 2.9 meters wide 75½ Bedford Street home in New York that has housed many writers and poets. In Hanoi, where taxes are based on the width of the front facade, tube-like houses are built. Pet architecture is proof that cities are urban ecosystems; they can be planned out to start with, but they are living, growing things that will go their own way.
Pet architecture is a form of design strategy worth studying as it can teach us many things. For starters, it shows how to be creative with plots. Most of the time, when designing a new building the plot it stands on is rectangle, but pet architecture shows what a designer can do with the oddest of shapes. With the current housing crisis all around the globe cities are looking to expand their urban landscape, but are sometimes hesitant to expand into surrounding nature. Fitting more buildings in the already existing plan can be done through finding odd plots between or on the buildings. Besides this, pet architecture is often designed by non-architects – people who actually need the specific building and inhabit or use it themselves. Other than democratising design, this also makes for more low-impact and sustainable buildings. They are often built with fewer materials that are locally sourced or second-hand.
City planners and architects should also take cues from these micro-buildings as well. With the growing urban density and rising prices of land, the adaptability, resourcefulness and intimacy of pet architecture are increasingly relevant.
With the advantages that come with micro-buildings, it should be easier for people – both architects and non-architects – to build between the existing plans. City planners could revise zoning laws to allow for small-scale developments and support small enterprises by giving them the tools to build smart. When designing urban landscapes, city planners and architects could design keeping irregularity in mind – designing specifically with odd spaces and embracing asymmetry and irregular corners. With this, city planners should encourage people to take control over their own city and use these spaces for their local needs, letting their city turn into its own ecosystem.
