Kickstarter

To our wonderful backers,

Your backer rewards (stickers and photos and "construction site paperweights" and more!) will be going out in the next couple of weeks. If you have not already done so, please be sure to complete the backer survey with your current mailing address. When you log into Kickstarter, if you have not yet completed the survey, you will see a banner across the top of the page that says "Reward Survey!" - please follow this prompt to enter your information. If you have already completed the survey, you're good to go and should be receiving your backer reward in the near future.

Thanks again for being our supporters on this project!

Sincerely,

Emily, Matt, and the Studio H crew

Dear friends,

This past week, we began raising the roof that will span between the two parallel shipping containers. These two containers and the central (roofed) corridor will form the almost-square enclosed space adjacent to the more open courtyard. The decking is complete, and next up, we'll enclose the classroom with its window panels. With just a few weeks left in the school year, we're working overtime! Thank you to each of you for your support from near and far.

Sincerely,

Emily, Matt, and the Studio H crew

To all of you, our amazing Kickstarter backers:

If you find yourselves in the Bay Area on May 28th, please join us as our special guests for a sneak peek screening of "If You Build It," a full-length documentary made about our Studio H program, students, and public architecture project in Bertie County, NC.

As backers of our Studio H classroom project at REALM Charter School, you have already shown so much support for our students' creativity and community ambition. The film tells the story of our first class of 13 students in Bertie County, who transformed the face of their hometown by building a 2000-sq-ft farmers market pavilion.

If you can make it on the 28th (7pm at the David Brower Center in downtown Berkeley), please use the following code to get your tickets at 50% off. Choose the VIP option and get 10 raffle tickets to win a Studio H-made skateboard, a gift certificate for class registration at the Crucible, and much more. All ticket sale proceeds go straight to our ongoing Studio H projects at REALM (including a possible skate park project next year!).

Info about film screening: http://ifyoubuildit.eventbrite.com/

Discount code for Kickstarter backers: "kickstarterlove50"

View the film trailer here:

We sincerely hope you can join us for this special evening. See you there! More project updates coming in the next few days.

Sincerely,

Emily Pilloton, Matthew Miller, and the whole Studio H crew

Dear friends and backers,

We have so much to report from our classroom construction site! Our Studio H student crew at REALM Charter School is making huge progress on the construction of our shipping container space for use by the whole school community. A few highlights:

-- In order to integrate a more social, open-plan space, we rotated one shipping container 90 degrees (see video below) to create an open-air courtyard adjacent to the more enclosed classroom area. This courtyard will be a great place for barbecues, outdoor film screenings, lunchtime dining, and other gatherings. To add to the outdoor space, students Mia, Sana, and Sean have been torch-cutting and welding scrap pieces of container steel to build planter boxes and a chicken coop.

-- On the long side of this rotated container, we have added the school's name in large white lettering. This side faces University Avenue, a main thoroughfare into Berkeley. Our containers now also double as a billboard for the school!

-- Lupe and Beto have been hard at work custom-fitting the floor joists between the left and center containers, on top of which we will lay the deck boards. We have also been contemplating an extension of the interior classroom decking out towards the front of the building, to create a front porch.

-- We have also removed all the long walls of the classroom space, to create a completely open visual line from the main school building and office through to the courtyard space. Opening up the sides of all the containers makes the space easier to monitor by school safety officers, as well as better ventilated and more inviting. The exterior walls will have transparent glazing to maintain visibility throughout the space.

We are also working as a team to compile all of your backer rewards, from our construction site scrap "paperweights" to the laser-etched Studio H sketchbooks. Keep an eye out for a survey from us in which you can provide mailing information to receive your reward. We hope to begin shipping your rewards in the next few weeks.

Thank you for continuing to follow our progress. We will keep you posted as we lay the deck and raise the roof in the coming months!

Sincerely,

Emily Pilloton and Matthew Miller (instructors), and the whole crew of Studio H students at REALM Charter School

Friends of Studio H at REALM,

After a relaxing winter break, we're back in action at Studio H! Next Tuesday, our students will present their final design concepts in a public critique, after which the real construction work begins on the containers. A few pictures of our students' models, drawings, and process can be seen below. Currently we hope to finish construction late in the Spring semester, and we will continue to send updates, photos, and video content as we make progress!

In the meantime, we recognize that none of this work would have been possible without your help. As such, your backer rewards are in the works!

- For all backers who contributed $10 or more, we have posted your names are listed on our "Supporters" page on the Studio H website.

- For backers at the $25+ level who will be receiving a physical item in the mail (ie. sticker, sketchbook, "paperweight," etc), we will be in contact with you in the coming weeks to gather your best mailing information. Items will start shipping end of February.

Thanks for all your ongoing support, and happy 2013!

Sincerely,

Emily, Matt, and the whole Studio H crew