Product Design · University project · 2014/2015
Basketballs
Basketballs is an environmental enrichment for confinement pigs. Like their ancestors, domestic pigs spend most of their day searching for food. In Germany it is prescribed by law that pigs in factory farms are provided with ‘toys’ in order to prevent injuries caused by boredom.
Due to their size, their number and and their structure, the toys that are currently available are not sufficient. In the small factory farm I've been to for my research, there was only one small plastic object for around 60 pigs.
«Pigs are able to focus with an intensity I have never seen in a chimp.»
Dr. Sarah Boysen
Pigs have some typical behaviours that can be integrated into a new toy: they like to chew on nearly everything, they like to climb to inspect things that aren't on the ground level, they like to interact with objects and they like to dig their noses in e.g. earth or hay. After evaluating lots of different concepts, I decided to work on an idea that is based on a ball pit for kids: Basketballs.
1: anchor for fixation on the slatted floor of factory farms, 2: fixation platform, 3: strong spring allows movement plus resistance, 4: 3D texture in the basket gives the pigs an interesting surface to explore with their highly sensitive noses, 5: the thread enables the farmer to open the basket for cleaning, 6: handle for interlocking/seperating the two parts
The prototype was field-tested for approximately two hours in a factory farm. During this time, the pigs have been greatly interested in Basketballs; they even used the step to reach the upper part.
Images and Videos: Alina Schnizler
SERVICES
Product Design
Illustration
Visualisation
Contact
You have an interesting project in mind?
Let's collaborate! Please send your questions and inquiries to: