I find the architecture of the Woods very attractive, it has a timeless appeal. The ventilation aspects make it also very functional, it's not just a pretty face.
I don't however think that the ventilation concepts are terribly fragile. He harnessed important physics concepts with his design, but these same concepts still work well, even with some variation. In Woods own book, he illustrates many other chicken house designs that effectively use these principles, they just aren't, in my opinion, as pretty.
The key elements in the winter are an open south face, with the other three directions sealed off, along with a floor plan along the lines of, as outlined in his book of 10 feet wide and 20 feet deep.
That's not written in stone, but the point is, deep enough to provide still air in the back of the house, and well beyond a blowing rains ability to enter, he figures rain can normally blow in about 3 feet.
He felt good up to a 20 foot by 20 foot footprint, but it's mentioned that normally they would partition that space into two 10 foot wide areas to within a few feet of the open south face, so a person or chicken could freely move between the two sides within the building.
He's advocating a roughly two to one depth to width ratio, whether it's 10x20, 8x16, 6x12. The longer depth provides what he described as a still cushion of air at the rear of the building, where the roosting bars must be located. The narrow width prevents the wind from getting a foothold into the rear of the the building, which would disturb that still cushion of air.
In the summer his goal is to create a current of air that circulates, cools, and ventilates the building. The half monitor is very pretty and allows the warm moist air to rise out of the elevated windows, with the additional help of open windows on the east and west sides of the house.
Any structure can be built to take advantage of these principles, if they comply with the principles, whether it's a hoop tractor like mine, or a modified Home Depot skid shed, or a thrown together dog panel coop. Depending on how it's scaled, there is a minimum depth to move beyond blowing rain, and deep enough to create the cushion of air at the back of the structure.
I love how elegantly this design harnesses the forces of nature to give us a very simple, but incredibly effective way to provide excellent shelter for our birds, no matter how small someone's budget is.
Narrow and deep, always open south face, three sides sealed in winter, and in spring, summer, and fall, the ability to create more openings on other sides to provide cross ventilation.
The true problem is people are simply unaware of these simple principles, they aren't taught at all in regular education.
If enough people ever had this education, the cute, slapped together, prefab coop industry would collapse.
Terrible designs that suffocate and poison their chicken prisoners with ammonia choked air, if the owner isn't completely diligent with poop removal, and let's face it, people get busy and forget, or since it's the most unpleasant job of raising chickens, they put it off.
Meanwhile, the chickens suffer mightily because the system is too fragile and dependent on perfect human behavior. According to the news, we have a shortage of perfect human behavior everywhere, not just in raising chickens. A much better solution is one that's robust, and much less labor intensive, that works with nature, letting her do most of the work instead of us.
It's so funny, you can build a free coop out discarded pallets, that complies with Woods principles, that's a terrific place for chickens to live, far healthier and comfortable, than an incredibly expensive cute little death trap for chickens, that ignores Woods principles.
My tractor is butt ugly, but it very effectively uses Woods principles. It's about 8 feet wide, 16 feet deep, always open south face, sealed in winter on three sides, yet open on all sides during the other three seasons.
I love providing the chickens a new fresh grass floor every week!
I wish I had been a good enough carpenter to build my tractor as a Woods house, it could easily be done, but I'm OK with the butt ugly Flying Fortress, since I get all Woods ventilation benefits, plus fresh grass, plus no poop management.
Come on, you gotta give it to me, that's one ugly chicken tractor!
It would fit right in with any quonset hut ladden Marine Corp air base in the South Pacific, in World War two, that the Sea Bees slapped together in 2 days!
