Center for Art + Public Life announces IMPACT Award winners

This year’s theme—Home: Creative Thinking in Affordable and Sustainable Living Environments for Artists & Designers

California College of the Arts is proud to announce Hatch Workshop and House9 as the two winning teams of the college’s annual 25,000 USD IMPACT Award, presented by CCA’s Center for Art + Public Life. This year’s theme, Home: Creative Thinking in Affordable and Sustainable Living Environments for Artists & Designers, sought solutions to affordable housing issues faced by creative professionals in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Hatch Workshop, a holistic live/work/thrive space in Stockton, California, will offer training and education in fine crafts and design for students and the Stockton community while providing affordable housing, workspaces, and shop access for emerging artists and makers. The space also will feature a gallery for artists to sell work and an arts education classroom for artists to teach classes. The Hatch team is renovating a three-story, 35,000-square-foot former hotel and two adjacent warehouse spaces in the heart of downtown Stockton that will provide two floors of living spaces, a gallery, a storefront shop, offices, and a ground-level ADA apartment.

The Hatch Workshop team consists of CCA students Rowan DiIoia (Furniture 2019) and Malachi Trent (Furniture 2018), and team members Elazar Abraham, Hannah Craig, Ashley Gaddis, Josh Niemeyer, Nicole Patterson, and Phoenix Trent. For more about this project, visit hatchworkshop.org.

House9 aims to maximize existing potential housing spaces and create new spaces for long-term living. House9’s concept revolves around Core9—a centralized unit that physically connects utilities, water, and communications into one module that acts as the house’s “nerve center.” Core9’s major innovation is the water processing system that combines a water heater, grey water processing, and power management; it also can be installed into any existing space to make it habitable for future tenants. House9 also aims to develop an ecological, flat-packed micro-home around the Core9 unit while maintaining affordability and environmental sustainability.

The House9 team consists of a mix of CCA students and alumni, including William Felker (Interaction Design 2016), Weiwei Hsu (Interaction Design 2018), Jennifer Kim (Interaction Design 2018), Kelly Lei (Industrial Design 2018), Isamu Taguchi (Industrial Design 2017), and Weiwei Wang (Architecture 2019). Current partners are the City and County of San Francisco, San Francisco Health Network, Utopia, and Craig Wooster from Stone Edge Farm MicroGrid.

Center for Art + Public Life Director JD Beltran observed, “The selection acknowledges the work and ingenuity of these two incredibly talented teams. We hope that this award will not only augment their creative practices in developing solutions that have lasting impact, but will also serve as a platform to connect the work of the CCA creative community in this field to a wider audience.”

About the IMPACT Award
The annual IMPACT Award leverages the passion, creativity, and ingenuity of artists and designers working at the intersection of creativity and social innovation to directly address pressing social and environmental challenges. Jurors for the 2018 IMPACT Award include Chuck Collins, Lydia So, Maria Jenson, Vallie Brown, and CCA Associate Professor of Architecture Neal J. Schwartz. The 2018 IMPACT Award is generously supported by Thurlow Washam, Werner & Eveline Schnorf, and the IMPACT Fund.

About The Center for Art + Public Life
The Center for Art + Public Life acts to harness and sustain the ingenuity that abounds at CCA. The Center is a networked hub that dynamically connects the campus community and external partners, while actively expanding, assessing, and communicating the positive social impact of this work.

About California College of the Arts
Founded in 1907, California College of the Arts (CCA) educates students to shape culture and society through the practice and critical study of art, architecture, design, and writing. Benefitting from its San Francisco Bay Area location, the college prepares students for lifelong creative work by cultivating innovation, community engagement, and social and environmental responsibility. For more information, visit cca.edu.