Emily Pilloton

Project H Design

Grant Awarded: $12,500

Project H uses the power of the design process to catalyze communities and public education from within.

Project H operates on a six-tenent design process: There is no design without (critical) action; We design WITH, not FOR; We document, share and measure; We start locally and scale globally; We design systems, not stuff; We build. The results are simple and effective design solutions that empower communities and build collective creative capital.

Its Studio H program is a one-year public high school curriculum in rural Bertie County, North Carolina, taught by Project H founder Emily Pilloton and project architect Mathew Miller. Offered to high school juniors, Studio H is a rigorous design education program that combines studio and wood/metalshop classes, followed by a summer build. Over the summer session, students are hired and paid by Project H to construct the community project they spent the year designing, prototyping and refining based on ethnographic research. In Bertie County, students built three public chicken coops and a 2,000-square-foot farmers’ market pavilion. A tandem communication design project, created by the students, increased awareness and excitement around the summer build project.