Urban chickens have never had it so good. Not only is backyard chicken farming increasing in popularity, but chicken digs are getting cooler and fancier, with coop designs that rival those of the owners’ houses. These 13 poultry palaces range from ultramodern egg-shaped coops for a trio of birds up to larger wind-powered enclosures that could revolutionize the livestock industry.
Chicktopia
(images via: studio h)
100 reclaimed sticks from a tobacco barn make up the ‘cage’ of this highly unusual, super-modern chicken coop. Chicktopia was designed and built by Studio H – a public high school design/build curriculum. Two skewed boxes on either end offer up cozy lodgings for the chickens while the twisting walkway gives them a taste of the outdoors. Chicktopia is now located at the Bertie Early College Agricultural School.
Handcrafted Chicken Coops by Drew Waters
(images via: design milk)
Portable, compact and beautiful, this is one chicken coop that you likely wouldn’t mind showing off. Drew Waters crafts these A-shaped homes from Douglas Fir timber, which naturally repels insects.
Cocorico
(images via: yank0 design)
Is this coop concept cool or what? Cocorico by Maxime Evrard is made up of an egg-shaped housing compartment connected to a covered mesh area for play and scratching. While, like a number of other stylish coops on this list, it’s not super practical, it’s an interesting idea for urban chicken owners with just a handful of hens.
Breed and Retreat by Frederik Roije
(images via: dezeen)
Like an apartment building for chickens, Breed and Retreat by designer Frederki Rioje elevates hen houses off the ground in a stacked configuration with private ‘rooms’ and a large glassed-in egg-laying area.
Maurice, the Car Chicken Coop
(images via: backyard chickens)
Kooky and creative, ‘Maurice’ is an old, half-crushed 1970 Morris Traveler converted into a chicken coop by Michael Thompson. Thompson cut the car in half, painted the interior black to create a private area for egg laying and cut a hole into the back door.
Chicken Circus
(images via: studio h)
Reclaimed and beautiful, ‘Chicken Circus’ is another chicken coop designed and built by Studio H. Two swinging doors make it easy for minders to feed and water the chickens and collect eggs, and an attached front run gives the chickens a little bit of protected outdoor space.
Front Yard Solar-Powered Chicken Coop
(images via: frontyardcoop.com)
This isn’t just a simple and compact chicken coop design. It does something very special, all on its own, without requiring you to lift a finger. The Front Yard “Fully Monty” chicken coop has a self-propelling mechanism that scoots it 16 feet every hour, powered by an affixed solar panel. Small yard? No biggie. If the coop bumps into a tree or a fence, it will simply turn itself around and move in another direction.
Urban Solar-Powered Chicken Coop by RAAD
(images via: inhabitat)
While browsing the International Contemporary Furniture Fair in May 2011, Inhabitat came across this solar-powered chicken coop by RAAD Studio in New York City. The coop is shipped flat-packed and is easy to assemble. The solar panels on top help circulate air through the coop, which contains storage space for bedding and food, a perch for roosting, four laying units and a slide-out chicken run.
Handmade Green-Roofed Chicken Coop
(images via: dwell)
Before you get a sense of the scale of this sleek structure, you might think it was a full-sized contemporary home. But architects Mitchell Snyder and Shelley Martin prove that good design isn’t just for humans with their creation, which houses three hens. The green roof not only supports a garden, but also keeps the interior cool. It includes a 4-by-15-foot run.
Nogg Egg-Shaped Chicken Pod
(images via: nogg.co)
LIke a big wooden egg for your yard, the Nogg makes visual reference to its purpose while simultaneously looking like no other chicken coop you’ve ever seen. Made of cedar wood, the Nogg boasts a glass dome in the roof that provides light and can also be twisted and lifted for ventilation.
Coopus Maximus
(image via: studio h)
Inspired by Buckminster Fuller’s geometric architectural designs, Coopus Maximus is a third chicken coop by Studio H. The designers say, “This coop in particular was an interesting construction feat, as much of its realization happened in a sort of fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants fashion, figuring out joinery and angles as we went, designing and building simultaneously.”
Eglu Chicken and Rabbit Hutch
(images via: core 77)
Says designer Omlet of their cute and colorful rabbit or chicken houses, Eglu is “designed to be the house that chickens [and rabbits] themselves would choose.” They’re cozy and well-protected, but each offers a nice long caged-in run in which to play and enjoy the outdoors without being exposed to predators. Each Eglu features a removable lid for cleaning, a pull-out tray for droppings, a top-mounted door handle and a reach-in ‘eggport.
Wind-Powered Prefab Chicken Coop
(images via: inhabitat)
It might just be one small step in the daunting process of reducing the impact that livestock farms, including chicken operations, have on the environment – but it’s definitely impressive. This prefabricated wind- and solar-powered chicken coop by Peleg/Burshtein Architects and landscape architect Nathan Gulman is designed like a wind tunnel to provide constant ventilation and contains water tanks, silos, egg storage and a waste-treatment system that turns chicken manure into biofuel. The unit can be adapted for free-range use.