In the middle of designing a synagogue for a nonprofit, architect Stephen Cassell of the NYC-based Architecture Reseach Office (ARO) received what sounds like an unrefusable request. As the New York Times tells it, a board member approached Cassell and asked, "Would you be interested in designing a really modern chicken coop?" (As opposed to a Versailles-inspired chicken coop.) Cassell agreed, and plunged right into researching the needs and habits of well-bred chickens. Working with ARO colleagues, Cassell ultimately delivered this aluminum-clad chicken coop, a structure that Dwell has called "a mini avian Airstream."
At sixty square feet and six feet high, the modern coop lives behind a refurbished farmhouse in the Hamptons. When asked what kind of needs he had to satisfy for his chicken clients, Cassell told the Times:
A lot of it is common sense, but wouldn't have been intuitive for me. Things like making sure the chickens are safe from predators in a fenced-in area. Making sure there isn't too much exposed concrete so they don't hurt themselves. Cassell and team designed three different versions, one of which was apparently a Brutalist coop, of "poured-form concrete, very sculptural," but in the end they chose a different direction. Cassell's coop has "radiant floor heating" and bent aluminum shingles. ARO took on the work pro bono so they could "just enjoy it."
—Alexa Carrasco
·Modern Chicken Coop Looks Like a Mini Avian Airstream[Dwell]
·The Eggs Are Happy, Too [NY Times
·All chicken coop coverage [Curbed National]
Loading comments...