Emerging Objects' ONEder Grant research, Under Fire, transforms two of California's defining climate threats, wildfire and extreme heat, into building materials that remember rather than destroy. Co-founders Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello share with us how they 3D-printed wildfire ash from California fires into a 22-foot tapestry, and how a foot-thick earthen pump house in the Colorado high desert holds a steady interior temperature through weather extremes with no mechanical heating. Together they explore the alchemy of turning ash into printable filament, the cultural memory embedded in earthen building, and why good design research has to leave room for failure along the way. Listen in for an overview of Emerging Objects’ research for architects, designers, and anyone curious about building for a climate-impacted future.

The gap, between the quality of care a healthcare organization delivers and the quality of care patients perceive, is one of the most consequential and consistently underfunded challenges in healthcare facility design. And it starts at the door.

Small rural hospitals keep entire communities alive, and they're quietly running out of road. In this episode, host CCB sits down with Aaron McKenzie, Senior Strategist, and Eric Peabody, Principal Analyst at Taylor Design's Cove Studio, to unpack their 2025 ONEder Grant research into one of healthcare's most underfunded problems: strategic planning for under-resourced rural and community hospitals. Through interviews with hospital executives across the country, the team mapped a layered crisis of financial constraint, recruitment chicken-and-eggs, and the surprising importance of narrative continuity in long-horizon planning. Their response: four lightweight, AI-enabled tools designed to give overstretched facilities teams, and their local generalist architects, a real fighting chance. This is research that meets communities where they are today.

Every spring, school districts face the same challenge: real facility needs, real dollars to spend, and not enough time to navigate traditional furniture procurement.

Hosted with partners Bridgitte Alomes of Natural Pod and Ashanti Bryant with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the conversations asked a demanding question: what would it look like if every space genuinely honored the communities it serves?

The 18th Annual IIDA Silicon Valley Culinary Challenge benefitting Interim Inc of Monterey was nothing short of incredible. Design firms from across the Bay Area brought their creativity and their culinary skills to life around this year's theme: Rooted in Community.

The question that keeps surfacing in every industry right now, whether you work in tech, finance, education, or healthcare: as we automate more, integrate more AI, and digitize more of how we work and live ... are we still designing for human beings?

What came through clearly is that physical learning spaces do something AI fundamentally cannot: they hold space. They give students somewhere to be that doesn't require a purchase, a login, or a screen. They provide a community to belong to.

LPA Design Studios’ ONEder Grant research reframes the classroom as a connected learning ecosystem in an AI-rich world. Researcher Rachel Nasland and learning space designer David Jakes share with us how AI is beginning to reshape skills, pedagogy, and student agency, and why spaces must evolve beyond 1980s classroom models. Together they explore flexible ecosystems, respite zones, and technology choices that deepen human connection rather than replace it. Listen in for a great overview of the LPA 2025 ONEder Grant research for educators and learning environments designers.

The office as charging station, not depletion station, is a mindset shift available to any organization willing to ask what their people actually need.

Technology is designed to remove friction, but when every trip is seamless there's no unexpected connection, no story, no opening. "When you remove every rough edge, you remove every opening."

lounges, and in-between areas, play a critical role in shaping the student experience. When designed with intention, they become platforms for connection, collaboration, and community.

What if the most important outcome of a learning environment isn’t just achievement, but belonging?

In this episode we sit down with educator, author, and founder Marita Diffenbaugh to explore what it truly means to design learning around the human experience. Together, we unpack the shift from content delivery to learning as a service, one rooted in listening, relationships, and real-world application. From rethinking how we measure success to creating environments that foster curiosity, agency, and belonging, this conversation challenges conventional models of education and invites us to see learning as a lifelong, deeply human endeavor.

Across the country, Career and Technical Education (CTE) is being reimagined and reenergized. From the innovation corridors of San Francisco to rural districts in Eastern Washington, schools are seeing students lean into learning pathways that feel ...