Author: Marta Varone

How to build a “steampunk” route for cats. It is told by www.wired.it, taking up the idea that the architects from the Because We Can studio have developed for a house in San Francisco: retro-style pipes that climb all the walls of the house and entertain cats, allowing them to cross the room without putting a paw on the floor or on the computer keyboard. The tube path, with openings and viewpoints, is constructed of a material called Sonotube, which consists of a cardboard tube coated internally of wax, used in construction for pouring concrete: cheap and easy to cut, it is painted externally with an antique bronze effect paint, to give them the appearance of old industrial metal pipes. Also support rings, fixing hooks to the parts and decorative pieces, made of plywood, must have an industrial look of the structure, to have (in addition to happy cats) a coherent and original original piece of furniture.

Sophisticated design and cutting-edge technology are concentrated in the “tube-free hood” Glow Plus, from the Italian company Faber. The hood becomes a real piece of furniture suspended (thanks to thin cables) on the hob, with lighting and suction controlled by remote control; thanks to the new Airlane technology, the suspended appliance sucks in the fumes and steam, while a second engine positioned in the ceiling creates an air cone that channels the smells upwards. The two engines then create a sort of “invisible pipe” that pushes the fumes outwards.