In 2010, humanitarian designer Emily Pilloton and her partner (in business and life), architect Matt Miller, arrive in Windsor, North Carolina, to teach a high school design-build class called Studio H, with an eye toward reviving the economically struggling rural community. Over the course of the year, 10 high school juniors learn the basics of design and construction by building three increasingly complex projects: cornhole boards, chicken coops, and, finally, a new farmers’ market pavilion for their town. Despite mounting challenges (pulled funding, natural disasters, strains on their relationship), Pilloton and Miller empower their students and instill hope in the population of Windsor—even if their goal is never fully realized.
This story of idealistic outsiders turning a community around is close to a cinematic cliché. But here, the generic structure is a Trojan horse. Creadon packs into his film’s 82 minutes nuanced discussions of education reform, the plight of rural America and its people, and, most surprisingly, the limits of design’s power to be an engine of civic transformation.
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