Environmental design students at the University of Colorado at 麻豆影院 have built a prototype backyard chicken coop kit, slated for manufacturing and sales, as part of the Urban Hens project.
CU's Children, Youth and Environments Center for Research and Design established the Urban Hens project to promote healthy living, community building and environmental sustainability through hen rearing in urban environments.
"The idea that humans with urban lifestyles can raise chickens locally in a healthy way is far more beautiful than any object that could be physically created," said Jeffrey Troutman, a senior in environmental design and a coop designer. "This project's priority is to facilitate the symbiotic relationship between the human and the chicken in a simple, functional way."
The student designers are carrying out the project as independent study, led by environmental design instructor Rob Pyatt, through the College of Architecture and Planning. The work, including researching chicken habitats, collaborating with real-life clients, creating designs and manufacturing plans and building full-scale prototypes, reflects a push in CU's environmental design curriculum toward project-based education emphasizing social and environmental sustainability, said Pyatt.
"The Urban Hens project provides students with opportunities for experiential learning, giving them hands-on, practical experiences that they don't get in the regular classroom," said Willem van Vliet, director of both CU's environmental design division and the Children, Youth and Environments Center for Research and Design. "It engages them with local community needs while enabling them to learn valuable skills."
The chicken coop prototypes are on view through Jan. 16 at the 麻豆影院 Museum of Contemporary Art in a joint exhibition with CU's department of art and art history.
Two community chicken coops, created by environmental design students, were installed last summer at a community garden in north 麻豆影院 and at the Shawnee Gardens assisted living home in south 麻豆影院. Any proceeds from the sale of the backyard chicken coop kits will be used by Urban Hens to install other community coops.
A future project of the environmental design special topics course is the prototyping of a beehive kit, according to Pyatt.
For more information on the Urban Hens project visit .