Chicken Coop // Okuko
Industrial Design
2017
This coop is an all-encompassing design that delivers ease of use and refined style. A sustainable habitat for our feathered friends doesn’t need to look like a pigpen.
Sustainability: Designed with its product life cycle in mind, Okuko factors in materials, manufacturing, chicken products, and recycling to preserve our greatest caretaker: nature.
Protection from the elements: It's important to keep these little cluckers comfortable. Not too warm, not too cold, but, just right.
Protection from predators: Chickens too often die at the paws and scales of hungry predators.
Aesthetic appeal: After the bases are covered, the design focuses to demonstrate an air of prestige. These aren't your average chickens. These are some classy little cluckers.
Ideation
Design objectives
- House up to four chickens
- Incorporate the environment, nesting, feeding & sleeping
- Maintain chicken safety!
- Product functions with minimal effort from both human & chicken
Prototype
Features & Functions
- Two choices of colors dependent to best benefit from your environment
- Easy clean system
- Multi-seasonal attachments
- Lightweight material
- Sustainable material
Manufacturing & materials
- Produced and manufactured using recycled HDPE & LDPE plastics
- Rotational molding
- Environmentally safe product
- Material provides heating & insulation
Environmental Impact
- Recyclable & reusable materials
- Little waste
- Multifunctional materials (i.e., sand)
- Low manufacturing energy consumption
- Promotes sustainable lifestyle
Inside the coop, chickens have ample room for nesting, roosting, and eating.
Passive Design
Passive Design is a design approach that uses natural elements to minimize your carbon footprint. Sunlight, for example, is a major resource that can be used to heat, cool, or light a building through strategic positioning base on sun exposure. For Okuko, passive design was used to maximize chicken comfort and minimize user labor.
Okuku is available in both black & white. White is the most suitable choice for most locations around the world. However, some like it hot and some like it cold.
A dark exterior will attract the sun in locations that are eternally chilly. While white exterior will maintain a lower temperature in warm, sunny areas.
During the winter, the sun rides lower in the sky. The wing wall captures the suns rays and traps heat.
Summer sun is higher and instead of the wing wall trapping heat, it reflect it to maintain a cooler temperature.
A black rubber mat is provided for cooler weather. The ground insulates the sun rays that are attracted by the dark color.
Windows can be opened to provide ventilation, or closed to bring sun rays in.
Thanks for looking!
