Experiment in Urban Chickens

I’ve posted before about the preponderance of urban chickens (especially in Portland) – and I just had to share the plans we have for our deluxe urban eco-coop in the back yard… (now if I could just register for LEED with this… 🙂 I’ll post some progress pics as is goes together… for now some Sketchup.


:: images via L+U

While Sketchup is great for visualization, it was actually a great exercise to build this – every stick is accounted for, and generate a materials list – definitely a good way to try out the design and some of the framing, materials, and color beforehand… as well as the spatial arrangement for the chicken abode.


:: images via L+U

4 thoughts on “Experiment in Urban Chickens

  1. I would like to see what the materials and parts list look like and how you generated them with sketchup. Ive been using it for modeling but not for generating parts and materials.

  2. Scott.
    I just did a quick takeoff after ‘building’ the entire thing in Sketchup… not BIM-automated or anything. It was just nice to see and construct all of the connections, etc. to generate a really accurate picture of what it takes to build it. I’ll post a pic of the ‘framing’ to give an idea – although it was pretty quick.

    I believe there is are a range of plug-ins for energy and volume caluculation – and remember hearing of one to do quantities with smart objects/components… not sure how it would work. Anyone know of a way to do this?

    I don’t think I’d trust it anyway and would probably do a hand count just because I’m anal like that.

    And I kind of like the section plane… but it’s a personal thing… sort of like smudges on trace or the minimal background of my blueline pencil in the background of something inked over.

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