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An Actually Attractive Piece of Cat Furniture

…in the renderings, anyway

By Rain Noe - March 19

in Furniture Design

This Unu "cat tree system" is by industrial designers and ArtCenter grads George Weng, Quanyi Wang and Yanhui Ban.

It's made from a number of modular components, meant to be easy for the owner to configure and swap parts out of. ("Adaptive to the ever-changing needs of our cats," the description reads.) It's got scratch pads, platforms, hanging spheres and what look to be cork ribbons.

I think it looks pretty darn good in the renderings…

…and in the mockups…

…but boy does the prototype bring it back down to earth:

The difference between the aesthetics of the wonderfully gestural cork ribbons in the rendering, and the poorly-draped felt in the prototype, should be a lesson to all ID students. And hopefully they'll get the proportions of the dowels worked out.

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Alan Nomoto

8 months ago

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The multi-billion dollar "Cat Industry": Build it & they will come. Ask me how I know...

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Ryan Cee

8 months ago

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I think the prototype is just that, "does the material function in the way I need it to?". Only then can you get the visuals on point. Personally I think carpet on a flexible backing would be a better option than cork, if only from a cost point. Cork is getting harder to source.

Also, the cat probably likes it regardless.

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