Pet Heaven, Nova Pets

Designed by SAY Architects as the ultimate grooming salon for dogs and cats, Nova Pets in Hangzhou, China is in league of its own. This very creative interior includes amenities for animals and their humans and consequently provides a wonderful opportunity for both to interact.

The interior floorplan has been divided into two sections. One area includes a double-height void with sunken café and playground, while the other provides two floors of cosmetology rooms. The playground is located at the salon entrance and there is a large picture window that allows people to view the interior of the salon. In the café there is the chance for owner and pet to meet eye-to-eye as the pets move around the two sunken valleys within the floor accessing each by a tunnel. There is also a swimming pool with multiple viewing windows to reflect light. These continue the visual relationship between pet and owner.

The centre of the 450 square metre floorplan — and the focal point of the design — is a central column tilted at an angle. This becomes the ‘origin’, as all other spaces revolve around this central core — or, as the architects have named it, the “Nova”. Stainless steel crosses have been inserted in the floor as markers to create a “Nova” network, which helps to visually coordinate the space.

The interior colour palette is primarily white, yellow and black with a splash of blue in the bathroom areas. The surface materiality is spare: either tiles or paint.

This is a place for the A-listers of the pet world, providing grooming and relaxation, pampering and luxury, while raising the bar for pet salon design for animals and humans alike.