Cat and Dog Hotel

The Canine & Feline Hotel (Cat and Dog Hotel) is located in Parada, Vila do Conde and the main program consists of temporary dog and cat accommodation, a hotel where the animals stay for a few days, during holidays or professional travel of their owners. The remaining program is a complement to the space’s activity, with a veterinary office, a grooming room, outdoor training areas and a swimming pool for pets.

The program is distributed over three buildings that are interconnected, allowing to create three different areas. This way we got to separate the cat zone from the dog zone, avoiding the meeting of both and reducing the animal noises. In another building we find all the public service spaces.

In combination with the programmatic layout needs, the three volumes were designed to reduce the impact of the construction area in order to improve its landscape integration.

The first volume, with only one floor, corresponds to the reception and support area, with service desk, a small shop, a storage room, the sanitary facilities, an office, a veterinary’s office and a grooming room.
The second volume is the biggest one and takes advantage of the existing topographic for the creation of two floors, functioning as a link between the highest part of the terrain (the entrance area) and the lower part (the playground for the animals).

Upstairs we have forty-one dogs’ shelter separated by the central corridor with a small garden to obstruct the eye contact of the animals facing each other. In the lower floor, with a spiral staircase access, we have a multipurpose space, a technical room, a laundry room and a locker room and bathroom for employees.

The third volume corresponds to the cats’ shelter, is the smallest one and has twelve independent accommodation spaces, with a central space of circulation around an interior garden that serves as a playground area for cats and is lit by a large skylight.

About the house finishing’s, the outside walls and ceilings are covered in ETICS system whit light grey color and thermal insulation on all surfaces. In the roof are used bitumen sheet membranes, thermal insulation and protection by natural pebble stone. On the balconies and in the car parking area of visitors is used dark grey concrete flooring. On the access route to the basement floor (loading and unloading services) is used region’s granite cube.

Inside, the floor of all spaces is continuous and waterproof, with the application of self-leveling epoxy floor. On the walls of the bathrooms, in the changing rooms, on the stairs and in the interior garden of the dog building is used a single light grey microcement coating. The doors and cabinets carpentry are made with white lacquered MDF.

Outside, the granite stone walls were cleaned and preserved, keeping the same old construction method. In the fence of the dog training camps are used granite posts to secure the fence nets. These granite posts already existed on the ground, and were used in the vineyard near the walls of the planting field.

Other images can be seen in the gallery down below

Project Name: Cat and Dog Hotel
Architecture Office: Raulino Silva Architect
Main Architect: Raulino Silva
Location: Vila do Conde, Portugal
Area: 797,00 sqm
Project Year: 2015 - 2017
Construction Year: 2017 - 2019
Photographer: João Morgado

About Raulino Silva Architect
Raulino Silva was born in Vila do Conde (1981), he is married and he have two children. Architect by the Escola Superior Artística do Porto, he is a member of the Portuguese Architects Order no. 15294, and he has had his own office in Vila do Conde since 2011, where he develops single-family housing, multifamily housing, equipment and commercial establishments.

He was a guest speaker at the conference “Architecture of the Present, Challenges for the Future” at Concreta 2019, in Porto, at the “Quality” debate, organized by The Plan Magazine in Venice, at the Memory Center Architecture Conferences in Vila do Conde, at Pecha Kucha Night Porto 3, in Palacete Pinto de Leite, and Pecha Kucha Night Lisboa 5 at the Electricity Museum - EDP Foundation.

He participated in the Bergamo Architecture Workshop organized by the Faculty of Architecture of Milan, the Perspective Europe Venice Forum 2017 and 2018 and Perspective Europe Rome in 2019. The projects have already been published in Memar (Azerbaijan), Lux Life and Build Magazine ( England), Trends, Visão, Anteprojectos Magazine, Kodac, Mobiliário em Notícia, Arquitectura e Vida, Arquitectura e Construção, Notícias Magazine (Portugal) and in the Uzina Books monographic book “Raulino Silva - Portuguese Architect”.

The office was included in the “Yearbook of Architecture and Engineering” of 2017, 2018 and 2019, of Anteprojectos Magazine in Portugal, in the “European Architecture Top 50” of 2018 from Build Review Magazine in England and won the European 40 Under 40 Awards 2018 from of The European Center for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies, that distinguishes the best and promising young european architects. Among others, it also won the Build Architecture Awards 2019, the Leading Designers Awards 2019 and the Design and Build Awards 2019.

The constructed works have already received several world awards, with emphasis on Touguinhó III House, which won the IF Design Awards 2019 in Germany, organized by the IF International Forum Design GMBH, the International Architecture Awards 2018, promoted by The Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design of the United States of America, and the Iconic Awards 2017, organized by the German Design Council, in Germany. Also important is the Architecture Masterprize Award, in the United States of America in 2018 for Rio Mau House, the 1st Prize for the Extension of the Cemetery at the Baku International Architecture Award 2015, promoted by the Azerbaijan Architects Association with the support of the International Union of Architects.

Other awards that the works also won were the Silver Prize at the 2019 IDA Designs Awards for the Dog Hotel, the International Residential Architecture Awards 2019 and the Gold Award at the Muse Design Awards 2019 for Touguinhó II House, the Future Global Design Award 2019 for the project Leça do Balio II House, the World Architecture Design Awards 2019 for the Expansion of the Cemetery, and the UDAD Awards 2018 for Touguinhó II House.

On the architectural platforms Maia House in 2019, was part of the Top 50 Best Houses of Archdaily Brasil, and Argivai House, the Best Residential Projects of the Italian magazine G & G Magazine. On the Archilovers Architecture portal, the Apartment in Vila do Conde was Best Project 2018, and Touguinhó III House and Touguinha House was Best Project 2017.

In 2019, the architect Raulino Silva received the medal of merit for the city of Vila do Conde, given by Dr. Elisa Ferraz, Mayor of the Municipality of Vila do Conde.