When we announced the competition for a chicken coop, we did not expect that such a small task would open up such a broad architectural field. A theme that at first glance seemed almost marginal attracted an exceptional international response and demonstrated that it is often precisely in the smallest programs that the relationship between idea, construction, landscape, and everyday life can be examined most clearly. The chicken coop proved to be a surprisingly precise architectural problem: small enough not to tolerate empty gestures, and concrete enough to require authors to take a clear position on animals, space, materials, protection, microclimate, and construction.

This publication merges all of the proposals for the Chicken Coop we received, which shows an exceptionally wide diversity of architectural approaches. Who knew that a chicken coop could be thought of in so many different ways?

The publication also includes interviews with the winners and the final result of the competition, which was building the winning chicken coop with the work of the participants of the Outsider Thinking Hands Summer School.