In Bertie County, North Carolina, farming is a way of life. So when Emily Pilloton and Matthew Miller were searching for a project for the ten high-school juniors in their Studio H design-build class (the educational arm of their nonprofit organization, Project H Design), coops were a natural choice. “Chickens are part of all of our existences here,” Pilloton says, “but we wanted to look at them through a new lens.

What does it mean to raise four chickens for a sustainable backyard rather than churning out 250,000 for the conglomerate down the road?” Building on the design and construction skills they developed making Cornhole game boards earlier in the year, the students embarked on creating hospitable homes for a handful of hens.