I can't help you with the feasibility of the project, since I've never built or seen one either, but I don't think you're crazy! I have a pretty similar dream, but not as much an aviary as a barn coop; a really big barn, like, ideally, Costo-size. OK, maybe not that big to start off - from the research I've done, it'll be a couple years saving up with a well paying job to put in a barn maybe 50x150 feet, to start. What I'd really like to do is go to college and get a PhD in Poultry Science, but I don't have the academic background or financial means to get into any kind of college with a decent poultry department, and besides, a lot of them focus on commerical raising, broilers and such; and hey, broilers are cool and all, but I want to learn about the rare breeds, the exotics, the fancy foreign birds that no one's heard of.
I'm right there with you about a dream coop though! I spend maybe an hour a day just thinking exactly about how I'd want it. I've got some serious fears about contagious diseases (bad past experiences) and of course loss to predators, so it will be an indoor confinement operation, but I don't want to be unpleasant for the birds at all! I want to put in skylights over the whole length, so they have natural sunlight, and a dustbathing pit in each pen. They'll have fodder boxes too, for access to natural greens. In my mind, the barn itself is metal, with a big isle down the center and each pen separated by a wooden frame with chicken wire, and corrugated metal sheets along the bottom of each divider so the cocks won't fight. Dozens of breeds. Hanging feeders and automatic cup waterers to keep the bedding clean. Oh, now that must be my idea of heaven.
