Chicken Coop Competition

What does architectural progress look like when viewed from the ground level of a chicken coop?

In collaboration with Outsider Magazine, a collective of ten hens has launched an ideas competition that asks architects and designers to confront an overlooked reality. While human architecture continuously evolves through debates on sustainability, structure, material innovation, and climate responsiveness, the spaces designed for animals remain largely unchanged. For centuries, the chicken coop has followed the same primitive logic, offering little more than enclosure and protection.

This competition proposes a simple yet radical shift. The coop is no longer a shed but a piece of architecture.

ARCHITECTURE AS A REFLECTION OF CARE

The call is not for technological spectacle or exaggerated form. Instead, it asks for an architectural response that expresses how contemporary society understands its relationship with animals, landscape, comfort, natural materials, and daily rituals. The chicken coop becomes a cultural artifact, one that reveals values rather than hides them behind function alone.

By treating the coop as architecture, the competition invites designers to question assumptions about scale, importance, and authorship. What happens when care, modesty, and coexistence become design drivers?

AN OPEN CALL FOR IDEAS

Open to all, the competition welcomes speculative proposals that imagine a contemporary coop without imposing rigid constraints. The emphasis lies on clarity of thought and architectural intent rather than technical excess. Submissions are expected to articulate a vision that is both practical and poetic, rooted in the everyday yet reflective of broader architectural discourse.

JURY AND RECOGNITION

Entries will be evaluated by an international jury spanning architectural practice and editorial culture, including representatives from Mestres Wåge Architects, Herzog and de Meuron, and Studio Moste. Selected projects will receive international exposure through publication on the Outsider platform and in the spring issue of Outsider Magazine, positioning the winning ideas within a wider architectural conversation.

A SMALL BUILDING WITH BIG QUESTIONS

With a total prize fund of three thousand euros, the competition may appear modest in scale, yet its ambition is expansive. By asking architects to design for hens, it quietly challenges the discipline to reconsider who architecture is for and what progress truly means.

The submission deadline is 21 February 2026. Participation is free.

Sometimes, the most meaningful architectural questions come from the smallest commissions.

Title: Chicken Coop Competition
Type: Competition Announcement (Ideas)
Organizers: Outsider magazine
Registration Deadline: February 21, 2026 12:59 PM
Submission Deadline: February 21, 2026 12:58 PM
Venue: https://maps.app.goo.gl/RHZB53MCd32o1xKE7
Price: Free