• About Project H Design

     

  • The Project H Design Mission

    Product design initiatives for Humanity, Habitats, Health, and Happiness.

    Project H Design connects the power of design to the people who need it most, and the places where it can make a real and lasting difference.

    We are a team of designers, architects, and builders engaging locally through partnerships with social service organizations, communities, and schools to improve the quality of life for the socially overlooked. Our five-tenet design process (There is no design without action; We design WITH, not FOR; We document, share and measure; We start locally and scale globally, We design systems, not stuff) results in simple and effective design solutions for those without access to creative capital.

    Our scalable long-term initiatives focus on improving environments, services, products, and experiences for youth and K-12 education institutions in the US through systems-level design thinking and deep community engagements.

    WE BELIEVE DESIGN CAN CHANGE THE WORLD.

    Project H is a nonprofit originally incorporated in California, and now based in Bertie County, North Carolina. We are a 501c3 organization; all donations made after January 8, 2008 are tax-deductible.

     

  • Project H believes that design solutions belong in the hands of the next generation. One of our key skill sets is building a human-centered process that collaboratively develops and implements curricular, material, and environmental solutions for K-12 public schools, youth-focused organizations, and educational agencies.

    Our focus on K-12 education is rooted in the belief that design is not just about products or beautiful spaces, but a way of thinking, and that this creative critical thinking is a valuable problem-solving skill to be learned at a young age. We don't just deliver design solutions FOR education, we hope to instill design thinking in the minds of young citizens, so that they may be better equipped to take on the next generation of global issues. Such initiatives are focused on improving the lowest-opportunity K-12 public schools and districts in the US.

    Our Design For Education initiatives are based in Bertie County, North Carolina, where our partnership with the public school district serves as a pilot program and multi-scale design lab. Projects in Bertie County have included the construction of our Learning Landscape math playgrounds, renovated computer lab spaces, and the county-wide Connect Bertie free broadband campaign for networked learning outside the classroom walls. Our core initiative in Bertie County is Studio H, a one-year design/build program in the public high school. Studio H combines design thinking education with vocational/trade skills to produce one community improvement project per year. Other youth and educational initiatives outside of Bertie County include Empowerment Through Food, Furniture for Rural Schools, Unit T, Safe Spaces, and EduAction.

     

  • Within all of Project H's initiatives, we work with a few values in mind. Here are the five tenets that inform our design process:

    1) There is no design without (critical) action.

    We are not a social club, nor do we host green drinks events. We do projects that exist in the real world, that have partners, impact, and results. We work as a team, rather than for individual glory.

    2) We design WITH, not FOR.

    We work with partners, not for clients. We bring end users to the table from day one, making them fellow designers. We co-create with unexpected partners, and listen/learn first about social issues we may not fully understand.

    3) We document, share, and measure.

    We record all work as a means to measure qualitatively and quantitatively, and ask for feedback as a means to constantly improve. Our designs are never "done." We share practices between project teams so that we never have to start from zero.

    4) We start locally, and scale globally.

    Our projects are local responses to global problems, and are designed to serve as models for broader application. We look first to our own back yards, with the ultimate goal of scaling and improving products as systems that can work anywhere.

    5) We design systems, not stuff.

    We create solutions and systems that are not driven by material or consumption. We "take the product out of product design" to question the traditional models, and design solutions that enable something greater than the object itself: enterprises, impact, etc.