28 FADA Cat Commune Designing With and for Non-Human Participants Department: Industrial Design Staff Members: Ashton Moseley & Dr Ruth Lipschitz South Africa is home to an estimated 2.9 million cats, and around 26 of them have made the University of Johannesburg’s (UJ) Auckland Park Bunting Road (APB) campus their home. This small feline community began in 2018 when a stray mother cat gave birth to a litter in a storm drain outside the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture (FADA) workshop. Since then, a group of dedicated individuals, now known as the “Cat Custodians”, has taken responsibility for providing housing and food for the cats in what has been informally named “The Cat Commune”. The presence of these stray cats plays an important role in maintaining the ecological balance on campus. The cats help control the campus rodent population, which creates a mutually beneficial relationship. The Cat Commune shelter is situated outside the Industrial Design Workshop. Initially, the Cat Commune consisted of modified kennels, makeshift pigeon-hole structures, polystyrene cooler boxes to store cat food (to keep it safe from hadedas), and cabinet-style sleeping spaces. However, these solutions were short-term, and as time passed, maintaining the area became increasingly difficult. To sustain this symbiosis and support the cats’ well-being, there is a need for more long-lasting, efficient solutions that can better serve both the cats and the campus community. Phase 01 – Student Project In early 2024, 13 BA Honours Industrial Design students were given the challenge of designing, constructing, and implementing scalable, modular solutions for the “Cat Commune” at UJ APB. The students focused on three key areas: housing (Sleep), feeding (Eat), and leisure (Play). The project emphasised four main considerations: cost-effectiveness (materials and manufacturing), durability and maintenance, usability and functionality, and marketability (for potential sponsorships or donations). Students were required to identify the key stakeholders and their roles within the ecosystem. Divided into three groups (Eat, Sleep, Play), they interviewed stakeholders, observed the space, and conducted precedent analyses to define their design briefs and requirements. Following this, the students engaged in an in-depth design process, which included sketching, creating mock-ups, and developing CAD models. Each student was required to build a full-scale (1:1) working prototype. After a group clean-up of the Cat Commune space, these prototypes were installed and monitored over six weeks to document their performance and how well the cats adopted them. Phase 02 – Corporate Sponsorship Nestlé Purina Petcare, whose mission is to enhance the lives of pets and their owners, approached the department with an offer to support the scaling of the Cat Commune shelters to be placed on other UJ campuses. Purina donated over R30 000, along with food, time, and volunteers, to help develop and expand the student designs. Six student designs were selected for further refinement in a second iteration, focusing on making the shelters easier to manufacture and assemble by using a DIY approach. On Saturday, 28 September 2024, around 70 volunteers of all ages gathered at FADA to build 10 cat shelters, play equipment, scratching posts, and toys, and to paint two murals in the Cat Commune space. The event was a great success, and the new shelters will soon be installed at various locations across APB and other UJ campuses.
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