This Monday, we headed down to the ICFF (International Contemporary Furniture Fair) to check out the latest trends in style and design. Amongst the many beautiful designs, two works in the BKLYN Designs section especially tickled us, as they perfectly illustrate the back-to-nature trend we’ve been tracking in our urban lifestyle research.

The Chicken Co-op, a luxury chicken residence by raadstudio, provides urban chickens with three levels for sleeping, living, and laying. The transparent walls help to up the egg count, as sunshine apparently puts chickens in the mood to lay eggs, and also enable hours of reality show viewing for kids.

Brooklyn-based designer James Ramsey (top image) built his first chicken residence at the request of a friend. Now they can be ordered online and assembled by hand, no tools required. A chicken co-op costs US$3500, reasonable considering that, relatively-speaking, it has more space than the average Manhattan apartment. Plus, your locally-laid, carefully nurtured eggs will taste that much better.

Modernist housing for feathered friends continued with these architectural birdhouses by Brooklyn’s IMAKE Studio, designed for small birds like finches and wrens. Based on behavioral observations of the birds, they made the entrance small and high and did away with a perch to protect inhabitants from predators. A mesh ladder inside acts as a staircase for chicks to take flight, and the floor panel can be removed for house-cleaning. IMAKE say since displaying the birdhouses they have been inundated with requests.