This past year, we’ve been lucky enough to work with a fantastic team of documentary film makers, who have been crafting the Studio H story into what will be a full-length film to be released next year. Director Patrick Creadon (of Wordplay and IOUSA), and producers Christine O’Malley and Neal Baer (of Law and Order: SVU!), along with associate director Daniel Clark, have been wonderful partners invested in the success of Studio H as a story, enterprise, educational experience, and adventure. They produced 2 short

When we delivered ChickTopia to the Byrum family, Mr. Gillam Parker and his son, who live directly across the highway, came across the road to see what all the fuss was about. After seeing ChickTopia, they asked if we had any other coops we were giving away, as they have dozens of chickens on their property and not enough housing. Of course, we were happy to make this happen, and today, we disassembled Chicken Circus (designed and built by Stevie and CJ, and formerly home

A few weeks ago, we moved ChickTopia (one of our 3 chicken coops, designed by Colin, Rody, Anthony, and Jamesha) to Mr. Byrum’s house at the corner of Highway 13 and School Road (read the post about the delivery here). Mr. Byrum was excited to have a new home for his chickens, and invited us to come back once the chickens had moved in. And today was the day. While we’ve been driving by for the past week or two and seeing chickens popping in

Yesterday, we loaded up Chicktopia on a flatbed trailer (no small feat), and delivered the twisting turning coop to its new owner: Mr. Byrum of Windsor, NC. Mr. Byrum lives just across the road from Studio H headquarters, and contacted us a few weeks back with interest in the coops. He currently has dozens of chickens on his property, living in a few coop structures which he has constructed himself. Chicktopia will sit in front of his home, right on the road, as a showpiece

With its over 100 reclaimed tobacco barn sticks, Chicktopia is now complete, with a crazy twisting chicken run bridging two functional boxes (one for roosting, one for feeding). At the open house, a few people described it as a “chicken jungle gym,” which seemed apt. Colin and Anthony, the team leaders, conceived of the idea of two colliding boxes with a connecting element, and also were interested in using reclaimed materials when possible. Chicktopia will hopefully end up at the Bertie Early College Ag School

After making a few last-minute tweaks last week, the crazy geometric Coopus Maximus chicken coop is now complete! The coop, designed by Erick and Kerron and inspired by Buckminster Fuller’s geometric designs, was a big hit at our recent open house and will likely end up at a public venue in downtown Windsor. This coop in particular was an interesting construction feat, as much of its realization happened in a sort of fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants fashion, figuring out joinery and angles as we went, designing and building

Thank you to all who attended our Open House yesterday, Saturday January 22nd! We had over 70 people over the course of the afternoon, including members of the Windsor Town Council, teachers and principals from the school district, families and friends of our students, reporters, educators from UNC Chapel Hill and NC State, young architects, and more. And of course, our students were there to proudly show off their completed chicken coop designs. Here are some photos from the event – thanks again for everyone’s

In order to promote our Studio H Open House for the chicken coops around town, we did a 1-day graphic design exercise to design a poster for the event. Last semester, we got our first taste of Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, along with the basics of graphic design, composition, scale, form, font, and more 2d design elements. After a quick refresher on font dos and don’ts (image below), we outlined the framework for the poster: black and white, include an image, and some pertinent information.

Now that Stevie and CJ’s Chicken Circus is complete, it was time to introduce our feathered friends to their new residence. Henrietta and Jezebel, formerly residents of our makeshift truck fender coop, moved into Chicken Circus this week and seem to love it so far! They spend most of their time at ground level, pecking through hay for feed, but also like to retire to the upper level where they can relax in their roosting boxes. First, we had to catch the chickens, though, which

With our chicken coop construction coming to a close, we’re opening our doors to one and all on January 22nd, 3-6pm, to check out the coops and meet our students. All are invited! Invitation is above, and detailed directions below: Directions: Studio H is located in the grey barn behind Bertie High School, 715 US Highway 13 North, Windsor, NC 27983 (map here). The barn is best accessed from School Road, which is the Northern barrier of the school campus. From Highway 13 North out