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This is What We Mean: Our New Video on Building Material Re-Use
Way back in 2009, we were invited to share our ideas with the team leading the redevelopment of what was then called Strathmore Estates. As our background page explains, this was a downtrodden neighborhood on Savannah’s East side comprised of WW2 era housing. And our organization was born through the innovative projects we co-developed on […]
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One Board, One Brick, and One Brushstroke at a Time
Transformation is always possible. It takes a vision. It takes a plan. It takes a community. It takes a commitment to moving one brick at a time; a commitment to painting one brush stroke at a time. The E.34 Greenhouse, which has been a labor of love since 2013, is complete, and along with completing […]
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Clearing Space for a Mural at E.34!
Emergent Structures is proud to announce that we’re leading the collaborative creation of a mural adjacent to the E. 34 greenhouse! The low-lying cinder-block building that the mural will be painted on is on the same property as the greenhouse itself. We’ve partnered with The Dream Campaign to locate three neighborhood artists—Caylin, Cameron, and Jeffrey—who […]
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Site is Cleared for the Emergence of E.34!
We had a big day on the site of the E.34 greenhouse this past Saturday! Ninety nine degree temperatures could keep our team of 18 volunteers from clearing the site of debris and two mountains of materials. The amazing Joe Marchese of Marchese Construction brought an incredible amount of energy and resources, and thank you […]
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AIA Georgia Finalist!
We’re excited to announce that the West Broad Street YMCA shade house is a finalist for the AIA Georgia Award in the Design +Innovation, Built Projects category! The full credit goes to our design partners at Greenline Architecture, especially the designer of record Eric O’Neill, and past Emergent VP Keith Howington who was the project […]
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The Adam in Adams’ Farm
By Sara Johnson As interest continues to buzz around Emergent Structures’ farm cart project, an intrigue in the recipient, Farmer Adam, seems to build. (Back story: I led a SCAD design management team on the farm cart’s research phase. Our paper focusing on the project was accepted at the 2015 International Food Design Conference). Though […]
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DESIGN/FIND/BUILD: A New Motto for Creative Makers
By Bryan Mossing The typical order of events on a new construction/fabrication project is as follows; Conceptual Design, Design Development, Construction Drawings, Material Purchase, Construction/Fabrication. The key here is that there is an established, typically uniform bill of materials that can be purchased at any moment from a variety of suppliers. Well doesn’t that sound […]
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Trash Stalking
By Bryan Mossing With a refined design for Adam’s farm cart, we next hunted—nay, stalked—useable construction waste like a Black Friday shopper going for the limited edition something er’ other. Savannah Tech interns Bill Holden and Nathan Streety—the Dynamic Duo—transformed into part-time pickers. After scouring Craigslist for a used trailer to model our prototype upon, the […]
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Farm Cart Developments
by Brittney Boudwin and Bryan Mossing The combined efforts of the SCAD design research students and the Savannah Tech students earlier this year culminated in four farm cart designs, each offering something unique. One design incorporated multiple carts that connected like train cars while another unfolded and collapsed like an ambulance stretcher! There were also […]
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Buckminster Fuller Catalyst!
Emergent Structures is thrilled to be invited to participate in the Buckminster Fuller Institute’s Catalyst Program! From a pool of several hundred submissions from 136 countries around the world, Emergent Structures was selected among the top 10% of applications. In the words of the BFI team, Emergent’s work “stood out as making an important contribution […]
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Garbage in, Tables Out!
Here’s one more look at the Savannah Rails tables, thanks to photographer Pimprae Hiranpruek. Emergent Structures developed this collaborative project that aligned the design and fabrication skills of two SCAD Furniture Design classes taught by professor Aaron Heisler with the interest of The Creative Coast to feature locally sourced and made furniture in their 16,000 […]
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Farm Cart Design Keeps Rolling
By Brittney Boudwin After a couple of incredibly thorough and informative presentations from the SCAD graduate contextual research students for Emergent’s latest community project, it was time for students in the Technical Drawing class at Savannah Tech to show off their rendering and design skills. Four groups presented designs for transporting produce and supplies from […]
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Crafting the Farm Cart Baton Before Passing it
The incredibly impressive contextual research that was done for Emergent Structures by four SCAD contextual research students (Todd Hinkle , Esther Kim, Amar Chadgar, and Maria De La Vega) in the graduate Design Management program has been passed on to a Savannah Tech class that’s since been hard at work integrating the insights produced by […]
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Farm Cart Update
By Todd Hinkle , Esther Kim, Amar Chadgar, and Maria De La Vega A LOT has happened since our last post! Our contextual research team has gone out to the Forsyth Farmers’ Market several weekends to conduct observational ethnographic research. We helped the farmers unload from their cars, trucks, and trailers, set up their tents, […]
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Turning Lemons into Furniture
Everyone know the saying about turning lemons into lemonade, but what about the saying where we turn garbage into furniture? Emergent Structures loves those stories! We love them so much we handed 12 SCAD Furniture Design students discarded glass, discarded wood, and discarded rebar, then said, ‘Go!’ Next week these designers—students in Professor Aaron Heisler’s […]
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Time for Greenbriar’s Greens to Grow!
Today, Emergent Structures officially handed over the keys for the Greenbriar garden shed to Gena Taylor, the Executive Director of the Greenbriar Children’s Center! The day was marked by the installation of the Emergent Structures plaque which reveals the history of the reclaimed materials that the garden shed was built from.
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One World brings Solar Power to E.34
One World Sustainable has delivered the sun to the E. 34 greenhouse! One World VP Keith Freeman, a long-time friend of Emergent Structures, joined his son, Jake, in installing just under 1 kW of solar photovoltaic panels on the roof of the greenhouse so we can run the lights and the exhaust fan with renewable […]
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Farm Cart Anyone?
As with our Greenbriar Garden Shed, the latest Emergent Structures project aims to serve the Savannah community through a unique collaborative experience between SCAD and Savannah Tech students. Made possible by a generous grant from Gulfstream, our 2015 community collaboration project focuses on the needs that local farmers have while transporting their goods from their […]
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Setting the Table for Success
Jobs needed one. Gates needed one. Even Alexander Graham Bell needed one. Without a table to work on, there’s not an entrepreneur in history who could’ve gotten their idea off the ground (bad pun intended). So, when Emergent Structures and The Creative Coast started talking about ways we could collaborate to support Savannah’s entrepreneurial community, […]
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Larger than Our Direct Impacts
“A bad solution acts within the larger pattern the way a disease or addiction acts within the body. A good solution acts within the larger pattern the way a healthy organ acts within the body.” —Wendell Berry Emergent Structures continues to work with a vigilant eye toward what Wendell Berry has called solving for pattern, […]
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Our Biggest Fan (installation)
The checklist is getting shorter and shorter! Today’s accomplishments: Install our biggest fan ever, pour cement for the north and east door thresholds, and caulk the roofing. Then, off to enjoy the rest of the beautiful day.
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Finishing the Doors: Opening the Doors… Soon!
With the completion of both sliding barn doors, today marks the day when the envelope on the E.34 Greenhouse was completed! A great volunteer team came out and put in a whole day, and we’re now closer to finishing this magnificent greenhouse for Design for Ability than ever before. We aren’t quite at the punch […]
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If Eyes are the Windows to the Soul, So are Windows
By Scott Boylston One hundred and eighty years. Seventy one years. Five years. Two years. What will the next time span reveal?
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