STEAM Studios

Who are we?

The STEAM Studio @ the RAMP (Science, Tech­nol­ogy, Engi­neer­ing, Arts, and Math at the River Arts Makers’ Place) facil­ity is adja­cent to our main campus and at the gateway of Asheville’s River Arts District. STEAM Studio is a maker­space specif­i­cally combin­ing the curric­u­lar forces of Engi­neer­ing and Art and co-founded by faculty and staff from multi­ple disci­plines to primar­ily support inter­dis­ci­pli­nary collab­o­ra­tions. Engag­ing the next gener­a­tion of makers, engi­neers, artists and entre­pre­neurs, STEAM Studio is an approx­i­mately 12,000 square foot making space that houses state of the art equip­ment for design­ing, engi­neer­ing, fabri­cat­ing, and sculpt­ing a host of projects. 

At STEAM, faculty, staff, and students work side-by-side with experts expe­ri­enced in all facets of the creative process. STEAM employs inno­va­tion, design, and fabri­ca­tion with equip­ment for proto­typ­ing and exper­i­men­ta­tion. We build commu­nity through collab­o­ra­tion with K‑12 program­ming, artist resi­den­cies, and real world projects. This year Craft for a Greater Good (CGG) will be part­ner­ing with STEAM Studio to make furni­ture for BeLoved, a local non-profit build­ing a micro-home village address­ing the housing crisis in Asheville.

What is the Project?

BeLoved’s 12 micro-homes repre­sent an afford­able, commu­nity-oriented, and sustain­able model for future repli­ca­tion. Before the confer­ence, Steam Studio will involve local youth in the furni­ture making process by teach­ing an after-school program that addresses design, furni­ture making and place making. Local teach­ing artists will work with this group of students as they explore the design-build process and learn what makes a house a home. This coming June, at the Furni­ture Society Confer­ence, the students will present their process and work side by side makers, as we build furni­ture for BeLoved’s micro-homes.

STEAM Studio is well equipped with tools for mani­fest­ing the tangi­ble, we empha­size the process of making the intan­gi­ble; the human connec­tions built through collab­o­ra­tion, the commu­nity that is constructed through conver­sa­tion, feed­back, and the sharing of ideas and experiences.