Last night, we attended the annual award banquet for the regional chapter of CEFPI (Council for Educational Facility Planners International). CEFPI is a great group of architects, educators, and business folk who “seek to improve the places where children learn.” I’ve known of them for years now, and last year, was one of the speakers at their annual conference. After hearing about Studio H, the chapter president offered two of our students $1000 college scholarships, though they could not be awarded until this year (now

Before the farmstands are installed roadside, and before the school year ends, we invited one and all to come celebrate with us at the Studio H shop behind Bertie High School in Windsor, NC. The two farmstands will be on display, and our students will be there to tell you all about them. Come on down on Tuesday, May 15th from 5-7pm to meet us, meet our students, check out the work, ask questions, and celebrate! Light refreshments will be provided. Map to the Studio

The boys (Team Genie) are moving along on their farmstand, now with all the ribs/bays in place, ready for floor decking, siding, and built-in counter top. This farmstand will be installed in front of Town Hall in Lewiston, on or around May 17th. The counter structure (above) will support a 30″-deep surface for selling and displaying produce. Siding was individually rip-cut and painted, then laid out in a randomized pattern. This will be the exterior “skin” of the farm stand that you will see from

The girls’ team has their two walls up and attached to the base, and now only need their metal roof and built-in countertop space. This farmstand will be installed off of highway 308 for use by a private farmer who sells a whole array of veggies and greens. Originally the design included three walls, however the final design is only two to allow for better access. Each of the boxes can be used for storage, or some might be closed off with flat planes to

The girls’ team, “Team Quad-X” has finished 1 of their 3 farmstand walls, and celebrated yesterday with some cute photos. They tested multiple configurations of the modules to make up the wall, and once decided, tilted it upright. The farmstand will consist of three of these walls and a roof in a simple (but complex!) cubic form.

Team Genie (boys): structural bays and ribs are being raised into place Farmstand construction continues this week: target date of installation in Lewiston and on Hwy 308: May 15-17. Team Quad-X (girls): modular cube-walls being assembled, three total will form farmstand

Last year, Studio H students designed and built (and started, as an enterprise) the Windsor Super Market: a local community farmers market for Bertie County. After a hugely successful season last spring/summer/fall, the market re-opened on April 21st for its second full season. With over 30 vendors in the association, there is an assortment of produce, homemade baked goods, crafts, jams, pickles, shrimp, and more. We also recently added the green (W) logo on the front of the building, which was designed to be a

With just one month left of school, our “boys vs. girls” construction challenge is about half-way complete. The two farmstands are starting to take shape after many rounds of design development, prototyping, and the production of working shop drawings. Here is the breakdown: Girls (aka “Team Quad-X”): The girls’ design consists of a three-walled cube made up of smaller cubes, set on a base. The entire structure will be picked up and moved, as a single unit, to its destination in either downtown Lewiston-Woodville or

After our critique, we voted on the farmstand design schemes that would be most interesting and most realistic to build within 8 weeks and deliver on site. After combining a few concepts and taking into account budget and materials, we landed on two schemes (rather than 3 farmstands) to build full-scale, with a third mini-project that would include built-in furniture and other related components. The first scheme was a combination of Ryann’s “vented” structural component walls and Leanna’s lattice-work structure. The second was a revision

On Friday, we loaded up the Bertie County Schools activity bus (here’s where Matt’s school bus driver’s license comes in especially handy) and took a field trip 5 miles down the road to the Windsor Super Market, the farmers market structure designed and built by our Studio H students last year. We thought it would be a good precedent to examine as our current students move from the design phase to the build phase of their own farmstand structures for around the county. Matt walked