Architecture x Agriculture x 7
Images clockwise: ID Agro, Johnathan Gayman , ID Agro, MOTIV Architects, MOTIV Architects, ID Agro, Curt Dennison, Fred Price
This is part 7 in a series that we originally hosted on Instagram where we shared ongoing research, precedents, and agriculture related practices that have inspired us at MOTIV.
On this week's series we will be outlining shelter for animals - moving towards free-range and/or immersion with the outdoors.
How can good design impact animal well being? We share some interesting precedents very much driven by function:
ID Agro is a Netherlands based company that designs and manufactures innovative shelter for livestock. Their cow lounge sports a fully translucent roof and opportunity for ventilation from all directions. They also produce the Roundhouse - an open air barn designed for animals with a centralized control area. Farmers can move animals into the central area to muck or add straw, or easily transport them from the central corral to the loading area. The round structure omits dead-end corners and the open walls allow for open ventilation. The top features an open ridge so air can be drawn from all sides.
How about free range pigs? Instead of dark, prison like barns that house hundreds of swine, this farmer raises hogs on pastures using a decentralized system of A frame huts. These 7-by-8-foot portable structures are made with recycled billboards and provide necessary shelter while allowing them to graze freely outdoors. Each year, the hogs are rotated with the field where they grow corn, soybeans and other produce, making full use of the natural fertilizer the hogs produced the previous year.
The chickens at the Tsawwassen KPU farm have a portable tarp and steel frame structure with an integrated feeding system. These dwellings include a nesting box for hens to comfortably lay while farmers can pick up eggs down slope without disruption. The netted surfaces installed above the hens help keep birds of prey at bay – deterred from landing without open space to accommodate their wingspan.
MOTIV is currently working on a prototype design for an urban chicken coop - and would like to partner with a local school to build it for food-based programming in a school yard. If you know a local educator who might be interested in this opportunity send them our way!