Project H Design. Studio H. A "design/build" public school curriculum that sparks community development through real-world, built projects Studio H is an in-school design/build class for 8th-11th grade students. First launched in Bertie County, NC and now based at Realm Charter School in Berkeley, CA, Studio H students apply their core subject learning to design and build audacious and socially transformative projects. Students of Studio H have previously dreamed up, designed, and constructed a 2000-square-foot farmers market pavilion, a pop-up park, laser-etched skateboards, sculptural concrete public furniture, roadside farmstands, and more.
Through experimentation, non-stop production, tinkering, and a lot of dirt under their fingernails, students develop the creative capital, critical thinking, and citizenship necessary for their own success and for the future of their communities. Spotlight on Studio H « Art Works. Get Local. By Emily Pilloton Eleventh-grader Kerron looked up from his drafting table in the high-school shop class I teach in North Carolina. “I think I did it,” he said. I came around the desk and looked down at his first attempt at drafting four elevations of a stack of blocks that we had arranged. The drawings were beautiful. “Is it good?” “These are gorgeous,” I told him. He seemed surprised at my statement because he’s shy and sixteen with eyes as big as quarters.
“I want to be an engineer,” he said. Small moments like these—where design plus education equals impact— have become daily occurrences for me. We’ve also found ourselves intimately involved in the growing debate within the design community surrounding local design efforts and whether they can or should be scaled, and what exactly the word “scalability” means these days for the profession. In February 2009, I received an email at my office in San Francisco from a superintendent from eastern North Carolina named Dr.
Emily Pilloton | Profile on TED.com. Emily Pilloton wrote Design Revolution, a book about 100-plus objects and systems designed to make people's lives better. In 2010, her design nonprofit began an immersive residency in Bertie County, North Carolina, the poorest and most rural county in the state. Why you should listen As a young designer, Emily Pilloton was frustrated by the design world's scarcity of meaningful work. Even environmentally conscious design was not enough. Her book Design Revolution features products like the Hippo Water Roller, a rolling barrel with handle that eases water transport; AdSpecs, adjustable liquid-filled eyeglasses; and Learning Landscapes, low-cost playgrounds that mesh math skills and physical activity.
In February 2009, Pilloton and her Project H partner Matthew Miller began working in Bertie County, North Carolina, the poorest and most rural county in the state, to develop a design-build curriculum for high-school kids, called Studio H. What others say.