Hasta La Ideas

The first patented controlled-feeding solution for cats

Besides their quiet companionship, cats offer a relatively low level of demand as a pet. Owners and their feline friends will enjoy the freedom of cat lover Philip Eu’s cleverly named invention, the Gatefeeder. The minimally designed controlled-access home feeding system works with a collar-mounted Smart ID tag to limit proper servings to the proper pet.

The Gatefeeder helps organize meals in multiple-cat homes, especially when one of the crew may need medication. Those who live on open farms can rely on the set-up to protect their cat’s food from pesky intruders, while outdoor cats wearing their tags can rest safe knowing strays won’t steal their rations.

Eu’s odyssey to create the Gatefeeder began when his cat, Mikey, got cancer. A new dietary regimen prevented Mikey from sharing with his housemate, Sparky. We talked to Eu to learn the story behind the decade-long labor of love to create the controlled-feeding system.

Tell us the story behind your decision to invent a feeding system for your two cats.

Plato is credited as having said, “Necessity is the Mother of Invention”. In 1999 I had a day job with long and irregular working hours, and two cherished cats, Mikey and Sparky. Then came the news, that Mikey had life threatening health issues, and I got strict Veterinarian instructions to only feed him a special medicated diet for the rest of his life. His special diet could not be shared with his brother Sparky, so I could no longer leave food out if I was going to be working late, and most nights I had to work late. After a few months of twice daily supervised meals, and with the help of friends and family for the night time feeding, I thought that there had to be a better way! I sketched out some ideas, and I now knew what our babies at home needed; now I just needed to figure out how to make the thing work. Plato was right!

What were some of the challenges that you faced in the 10-year process?

Like many inventors, this started as a weekend project for me, but each time I thought I had created the perfect solution, my cats showed me how smart they were, and sent me back to the proverbial drawing board.

I actually got stuck for over one year because the technology available didn’t allow me to make the machine I wanted. I had to wait until RFID technology became widely available and secondly, was reasonably priced before I could make the feeder I had envisioned in my mind. And still we had to overcome some very tough technical hurdles which we succeeded at because we didn’t know experts thought it was not possible.

What did you learn from the experience?

The amount of detail and minutia required is staggering and overwhelming. I never considered that one day I would need to write a manual detailing the millimeters tolerance for how two pieces of plastic fit together or how many scratches are allowed and how to define a scratch; Mind boggling.

What are some of the special features you held out for to make sure they were incorporated into the final product?

There are points designed in that allow users to drill bolts into the ground for situations (placement outside) where the feeder needs to be securely anchored, and the unit can allow up to five animals to use the feeder at the same time to allow users like animal shelters who might need such an option. We use more expensive stainless steel food bowls instead of various plastics because we believe they are the healthiest and most durable material for the cats, and a more expensive polycarbonate plastic for the clear parts because they are more resistant to scratching and clouding. The viewing window is not placed directly over the food bowl but angled so that an average person can stand in front of the feeder and see the condition of the dish without the need to bend over.

The Gatefeeder controlled feeding system is now available directly online from the inventor, designer and founder for $250.

This Tokyo house by Japanese architects Key Operation has been designed around the movements of the client’s pet cat, writes Yuki Sumner.

Stepping-stone shelves allow a cat to move between rooms in The Cat House through high level openings, without using the landing and stairs.

With integrated book shelves, the landing doubles up as a library and study.

Above photograph is by Keizo Shibasaki.

More Japanese houses on Dezeen »

Photography is by Key Operation, apart from where otherwise stated.

The following is from the architects:

Neko no Ie (The Cat House)

A century ago, the famous Japanese novelist Sosuke Natsume wrote a novel called “I Am a Cat (Wagahai Wa Neko De Aru).” It is written from the point of view of a cat.

The cat, who remains nameless during the novel’s first chapter, lives in a house with a teacher and his family. He is angry that he is not regarded as an equal member of the family in this household. “I will never catch mice,” the cat announces haughtily, not wishing to make himself useful.

What if, however, there was a house, which has been designed specifically with a cat in mind? What would it look like? The Japanese architect Akira Koyama of Key Operation Inc. has recently designed a house for a young family, which included a pet cat, in the densely populated Taishido district, west of Tokyo. Undoubtedly, this house would have made Natsume’s cat green with envy.

Neko no Ie (The Cat House) stands on a typically compact, rectilinear site (7 meters wide, 12 meters deep) along a narrow residential street, just big enough for a single car to pass through.

Above photograph is by Keizo Shibasaki.

Although the plot is small, the client (including the cat) did not specify the need for an outdoor garden space, and so the architect decided to set the house back by 3 meters from the street, thereby creating a void, synonymous in Japan with a sense of luxury.

The upper section of the house is further set back from the ground level, generating a balcony. It is generally perceived that the Japanese architects have a greater freedom of expression than the Western counterparts but we forget that there are a number of restrictions that the Japanese architects face when designing buildings in Japan, and this is no exception.

There is a law, for example, restricting the owning of a car to those who can ensure its parking space. Neko no Ie, like many houses on the street, accommodates a garage within the house.

Above photograph is by Keizo Shibasaki.

The architect faced yet another restriction imposed in this area. It forbade the use of bright colours on exterior facades so that the ‘scenery’ of the area is conserved. Neko no Ie’s grey stucco façade complies with this regulation.

Undeterred, however, Koyama subtly managed to subvert both of these restrictions by painting the inside of the garage bright pink, therefore making a feature out of what is usually a dark and dingy space and injecting much-needed playfulness in this otherwise boring grey neighbourhood.

The house’s asymmetrical roofline maximizes both its playfulness as well as its volume. The architect has created within a complex interior space consisting of rooms of varying sizes, which are stack on top of each other over three floors.

One would not be able to observe such a structure from outside of the house, but it reflects the layout of the area, which has a mixture of detached houses, both large and small.

The biggest room in the house is the dining/living room, stretched horizontally to fit the whole width of the house. By also extending the room vertically, the architect has opened up this room to the rest of the house.

What look like shelves jutting out of one wall of this room are actually steppingstones for the pet cat to enter into the adjacent rooms through the openings placed higher up on the wall.

This arrangement leaves the ample staircase and landings, which double up as a library, undisturbed from the burst of activities of the feline member of the family, while the rest of the family uses them as a place of quietude.

Moreover, just as the garage became the visual focal point for the exterior of the house, the staircase, painted also brightly pink, signals a gathering of all the separate interior sections of Neko no Ie.

Above photograph is by Keizo Shibasaki.

By varying the sizes of the rooms and painting them in different colours, the architect has emphasized their uniqueness and separateness.

Above photograph is by Keizo Shibasaki.

At the same time, he has managed to link the rooms through small and large openings so that none of the rooms is completely isolated. Autonomy is respected but isolation is discouraged.

For instance, a large opening in the wall of the dining/living room, which looks into the kitchen, allows the person who is cooking to connect with the person who is being served.

In the meantime, the cat can slip into the study located above the kitchen through yet another, this time smaller, opening.

The rooms’ co-dependence is thus implicitly emphasized.

Neko no Ie is a symbolic celebration of the emergence of the modern Japanese family, more democratic than the traditional one preceding it, allowing each member to flourish independently while nurturing a supportive environment.

Ironically, a pet cat was an integral part of it.

Text by Yuki Sumner, 2011

See also:

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Yachiyo by Atelier Tekuto	House by Yoshio Oono Architect & Associates	House in Fukuyama by Suppose Design Office