Project H

This past weekend I attended the Dwell on Design conference at the LA convention center. After being blown away by all the inventive home design products (solar panels that look like climbing ivy, recycled plastic bottle chandeliers, and repurposed wine bottle spoons...), I happened to walk into a talk by Emily Pilloton, founder and director of Project H. Their mission is to support, create and deliver life-improving humanitarian product design solutions.

Learning Landscapes tire playgound teaches math

I immediately took a seat to listen to the last bit of her talk. Project H has several chapters in different cities throughout the world. They are working on a repurposed tire playground that teaches math that can be made anywhere. I loved how interactive this idea was. It gets students moving, teachers get direct feedback on how well students understand a concept and it can grow with the students as they learn more advanced concepts (even algebra!).

'double function products' such as this tote bag/hammock were made by the LA chapter of Project H

The chapter in LA works with the Downtown Women's Center to provide skills and products to help homeless women. They invented a tote bag that can become a hammock, a hoodie that has storage compartments and other products. They are actually made and sold at the center by these women.