a residential dwelling in Switzerland equipped with a cat ladder

Where cats get their own staircases

A photographer documents the creative architecture the Swiss have made to help their their feline friends get around.

In Switzerland, outdoor access for cats is considered vital for their welfare, and owners install ramps and ladders on the sides of buildings to help them come and go. This belief contrasts with the growing view that cats must be kept indoors to protect birds and other wildlife.

Photograph by Brigitte Schuster

Switzerland may be the best place in the world to be a housecat.

They have freedom, autonomy—and their own cat-specific architecture. Be it on the side of a townhouse or apartment complex, custom-built ladders and ramps are designed so cats can come and go as they please.

German photographer and architecture aficionado Brigitte Schuster has documented many of these ladders in Bern, Switzerland, in her new book, Swiss Cat Ladders.

“When I moved to the city of Bern I was amazed,” she says. “It’s a way of showing the caretaking, I would say. We give the cat the freedom, and we also get the freedom as cat [owners] that we don’t need to be at home when our cats come home.”

Cat

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