The Industrial Commons Innovation Campus

The Industrial Commons (TIC) Innovation Campus will redevelop a 27-acre abandoned former manufacturing site in Morganton, NC to serve as a new hub for supporting skills training and incubation of worker-owned and value aligned manufacturing enterprises in the textile and furniture industries.  TIC’s philosophy of Circularity and regenerative design have driven the project, from the recovery of the brownfield site to the extensive use of salvaged and recycled materials.  Campus buildings, which will be mass timber construction and targeting the Living Building Challenge, are envisioned as a kit of parts to support future modifications and end of life disassembly.  The campus will serve as a model for simple and beautiful industrial working environments and connected community spaces for adult and child development, skill training, a student art program, and dining.  TIC is a non-profit with the aim to “build a new southern working class that erases the inequities of generational poverty and builds an economy and future for all.”

The below video shows the creation and use of a 90”x84” site model at 1:20 scale, from cutting and assembling topography through modeling of structures.