Architecture is a fascinating mélange of art, technology, and sociology. Architecture is also public, and it involves the community. Emily Pilloton and her partner Matthew Miller have taken architecture at its most “hands-on” and engaged a rural community in Bertie County, North Carolina. By teaching and working with young people in the community through Studio H, they harness the inherent energy of youth, drawing local families into a conversation about casting a new vision for their community—and by extension, other communities like Bertie County.
In this 17-minute video available through TED (Technology-Entertainment-Design, www.ted.com), Pilloton challenges listeners to transformative teaching, design and architecture. Her passion is contagious, but the ideas that inform her design approach will be useful in other venues in architecture, too. What are your thoughts on the six-point design strategy?