The London Cat Clinic is the second specialist cat clinic that we have designed for an independent practitioner with very different values from the large chain and franchise vet practices. We worked carefully alongside our client to refine a sequence of spaces that would improve and streamline their day to day working practices facilitating new kinds of interaction between the veterinary staff and their feline visitors.

The brief to develop an existing commercial unit required us to carefully and efficiently plan a variety of different yet interconnected clinical spaces around a series of complex site constraints. Due to the deep footprint and subdivision between rooms, glazed internal screens and translucent polycarbonate panels were used to bring light deep into the plan and provide hints of activity from the practice’s public facing areas. To maximise the potential of a modestly sized unit, we focused our efforts on the detailed design of integrated joinery, to improve the function and efficiency of each space, for staff and clients alike.

The public facing elements of the practice draw parallels with retail design and modern bespoke pharmacies. In this way, the waiting room opens itself up to the street, creating a welcoming and homely frontage along the entire length of the building. The building’s central axis creates a visual link from the public entrance, all the way through to the vast central preparation area and new full height glazing to the rear of the building. In addition to this, colour is used throughout to creatively reinforce the new company’s identity and provide a refreshing contemporary take on an ordinarily clinical environment.