This project explores the lives of stray cats in Kuwait, a population that has long been overlooked by policy, infrastructure, and public design. While cats are culturally loved, the urban reality is far less kind. Starvation, disease, poisonings, and extreme weather have become daily threats for thousands of strays.
Through field research, site observations, and speculative interventions, Our Purr-fect City asks how small-scale, community-driven design can make space for animals in a city that often forgets them. Inspired by the concept of urban acupuncture, the project proposes modular, low-cost additions like water fountains, shaded benches, and insulated shelters that reframe public spaces as shared environments.
But this project isn’t just about survival. It’s about enrichment, joy, and cohabitation. From wind-powered disco balls to wheatgrass gardens and catnip-laced benches, each intervention invites a bit of humor and delight into overlooked spaces. Our Purr-fect City imagines a softer urban future—one where care is embedded into the everyday, and even the smallest residents are seen.
Belly Break
A neglected alley in Surra's CO-OP becomes a wheatgrass garden for gut relief and post-snack naps. After a day of dumpster diving and eating who-knows-what, this spot gives stray cats a place to rest, recover, and reset their stomachs...and dignity.
The Nap Nook
Tucked into Souq Al-Mubarakiya, one of Kuwait’s oldest marketplaces and an unofficial cat kingdom, this bench extension is designed both for midday people-watching and midday naps. The souq is semi-outdoor, always buzzing, and full of strays who nap by your feet, steal fish from stalls, and get spoiled by shopkeepers who pretend not to care as much as they do.
This extension includes a tabletop for market-goers to rest their food, while creating a hidden, insulated retreat underneath where cats can sleep safely out of the heat. Hanging planters filled with fresh catnip give the bold ones something to play with, because they also deserve a bit of fun.
Seaside Slots
Along Salmiya’s scenic Gulf walkway, this series of modular add-ons turns the sea wall’s existing infrastructure into moments of play, rest, and enrichment for the cats who call the coastline home. Designed to slot into pre-existing holes spaced along the barrier, each piece acts as a plug-in that blends into the landscape while serving a purpose.
Some offer cozy shelters with rotating rope toys and padded nooks for naps. Others are outfitted with scratchboard-lined running wheels that double as exercise and grooming. These interventions imagine a new kind of shoreline that’s not just for people, but for the paws that linger between the rocks.
Sip Spot
Set at the base of a public water fountain modeled after Kuwait’s iconic water towers, this tiny intervention turns a familiar picnic spot into a shared moment of care. Located in Adaileya Park, where families gather and stray cats wander between benches, the fountain now serves more than just the people passing through.
A motion sensor triggers a small drinking station, keeping the water fresh and running, something cats naturally prefer. It mimics streams, sounds like nature, and encourages hydration in the heat, which quickly turns dangerous.
Heat Haven
Stray cats in Kuwait often curl beneath outdoor HVAC units for warmth in the colder months. This installation builds on that instinct, offering a weather-resistant shelter that traps the existing heat while creating a soft, insulated space.
Easy to assemble and designed to be placed under everyday compressors, it invites residents to participate in a small winter care act, transforming overlooked machinery into a safe and dignified refuge.
Adaileya Park is a lively public space where families picnic, children play, and stray cats roam freely between benches and trees. It’s a shared environment shaped by quiet interactions, where care, rest, and play naturally overlap for people and paws.
Disco Drop
A solar-powered disco ball that turns any light post into a full-on feline party. Using a cup anemometer to spin with the wind, this hanging fixture scatters light across the ground, day or night, keeping cats entertained with constant movement and sparkle.
It reflects sunlight by day and solar lamp beams by night, creating a makeshift laser tag arena that’s fun, unexpected, and chaseable. A little enrichment goes a long way when your world is primarily concrete and dust.
You live beside us.
In the heat,
in the noise,
tucked into the spaces we walk
In the heat,
in the noise,
tucked into the spaces we walk
You sleep on concrete.
You flinch when hands come too fast.
You search for softness in a world
that rarely offers it.
You flinch when hands come too fast.
You search for softness in a world
that rarely offers it.
Most people walk past,
but some of us can’t.
but some of us can’t.
I grew up noticing you.
Hiding beneath cars,
chasing the breeze outside storefronts,
digging through the scraps we leave behind.
Hiding beneath cars,
chasing the breeze outside storefronts,
digging through the scraps we leave behind.
I watched you survive on so little
and never understood
why no one did more.
and never understood
why no one did more.
This project isn’t a fix,
but maybe change begins with something small.
but maybe change begins with something small.
I see you.
You deserve more than to exist at the edges.
With love, from someone who grew up noticing the injustice,
and is learning how to build softness into the places we share.
and is learning how to build softness into the places we share.
