A team of four students partnered with Mr. Blake Lanphier of the Historic Wagner Farm to raise the living conditions for the farm’s chickens, which reside in a coop resting on top of a mobile trailer. My team’s goal was to decrease the influx of cold air which rose through the grated flooring of the coop and exited through the doors during the winters and threatened the health of the chickens.
Conducted secondary, web-based research and a primary research interview with our contact at the farm, Mr. Blake Lanphier, which I prepared and facilitated. Through these, we developed three main design constraints:
Throughout the design process, I made many
sketches of the solutions my team iterated through.
I believe that visual media is a crucial part of
increasing collaboration during the design process
by facilitating communication.
Conducted a fast-paced and
collaborative brainstorming session
I led the building and testing of
four initial mockup “trailer skirt”
designs, which tested a variety of
materials and weighting methods.
Fabric skirt weighted with a pipe
performed best during testing
The team built a second mockup and
brought it to the farm for testing
Due to my prior sewing experience, I led the manufacturing process of the final prototype:
Finally, my team and I collaborated to synthesize our design choices and findings into a Final Report. The then team professionally presented our design and findings to our client and the professors and delivered the prototype and Final Report.
Due to our collaboration and organization, my team and I were able to deliver a solution to our client on time and on budget. Gained extensive experience in rapid prototyping and iteration of designs with continuous testing, manufacturing physical components of a solution, and working with a team in a semi-professional setting.