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Before air-conditioning existed, staying cool during the summer months in the southern United States was a foreign skill for early European colonists. But enslaved Africans, hailing from similar warm climates, had developed, over centuries, architectural strategies for combating sweltering summer conditions. It was from these early enslaved builders that the most quintessential architectural feature of homes in the United States emerged: the porch. Porches, verandas, porticoes, and other types of outdoor coverings connected to a building have existed in various forms across the globe for centuries. However, what we think of as an American style of porch, first associated with homes in the southern United States, originally evolved from the dwellings of enslaved people. Anthropologist James Deetz explains that the early homes of colonists did not have porches and that the closest thing to porches were small, enclosed vestibules that were similar to mudrooms. He states, Porches are probably of African origin. . . . We have seen that porches have been found on slave cabins excavated at Kingsmill [Plantation in Virginia], dating to the third quarter of the eighteenth century. This is the earliest evidence that we have for porches to date. [Illustration: Johnalynn Holland/courtesy Chronicle Books] At around the same time that the porches at Kingsmill Plantation were built, shotgun homes emerged in New Orleans. A result of the major influx of Haitian free people of color who came to the United States in the early 1800s, shortly after the Haitian revolution, the shotgun home is an adaptation of West African residential architecture and almost always has a front porch. Shotgun homes are narrow houses, typically no more than twelve feet wide, in which one room leads to the next with no hallway between. Shotgun homes and their attached porches spread throughout the South from the 1860s through the 1920s. With the advent of industrialized lumber at the end of the nineteenth century, and thanks to the shotguns small footprint and ease of construction, this housing style became popular in poor, working-class, and middle-class communities, both Black and white. Engineering professor John H. Lienhard writes: When the cost of wood fell during the late 1800s, the shotgun house did indeed become the best way the poor could keep a roof over their heads. But, by then, shotgun houses had added a new element to the American architectural vocabulary. You see, shotgun houses gave us the southern porch. We didnt previously have porches like that in America. Like the shotgun house itself, southern porches are now all over America. Anthropologist John Michael Vlach writes of the front porchs hidden legacy: The impact of African architectural concepts has ironically been disguised because their influence has been so widespread; they have been invisible because they are so obvious. This unfortunate circumstance is demonstrated by the history of that common extension of the housethe front porch. [Illustration: Johnalynn Holland/courtesy Chronicle Books] Porches werent the only architectural innovation that enslaved people were instrumental in creating. Tabby, a unique building material used throughout the southeastern coastal region, is made from crushed oyster shells, sand, water, and ash. This cement-like substance has origins in Africa, Mesoamerica, and the Iberian coast, though historians debate where it was first used. Like most things in America, credit lies in the mixture of cultures and ideas among Indigenous, African, and European people. In many cases, innovations that are similar to each other have evolved independently all over the world, as different people have solved the same problems in similar ways. Scholars of material culture state: The oyster shells used to make the tabby were mined from shell mounds created by native peoples thousands of years before European arrival in the New World. By the early eighteenth century, tabby was used both in Spanish Florida and in West Africa. It is unclear whether tabbys origins lie in the coastal southeast or whether the technique was brought from West Africa through the slave trade. Some of the oldest original tabby structures are found among the dwellings of enslaved people at Kingsley Plantation in Jacksonville, Florida. Those enslaved at Kingsley worked under a task system, common in Spanish Florida. While still confined to the brutal boundaries of slavery, enslaved people under this system were afforded some measure of independent time to grow their own food, hunt, fish, socialize, and pursue crafts. Twenty-five of the original thirty-two tabby cabins where the enslaved lived at Kingsley Plantation still remain. Built in the 1820s, the cabins are arranged in a semicircle, facing a shared space where their inhabitants once socialized and cultivated gardens after completing their days tasks. The semicircular configuration of homes surrounding a communal center is a distinctly West African architectural characteristic; it is unique to Kingsley and not seen at any other plantation in the South. The prevailing explanation for this is that Anna Kingsley, the wife of Kingsley Plantation owner Zephaniah Kingsley, was from Senegal. Anna Kingsley was born Anta Mujigeen Ndiaye in Senegal and was purchased and enslaved by Zephaniah in Cuba in 1806, when she was only thirteen years old. Five years later, he emancipated her, and they entered into a public common-law marriage. Anna ran the affairs of Kingsley Plantation as well as Zephaniahs other estates and businesses. Anthropologist Antoinette T. Jackson writes of Annas remarkable and complicated life: At a young age, she learned to actualize her own power. She secured her freedom and the freedom of her children five years after her arrival in Florida when Zephaniah signed her emancipation papers in 1811, making her a legally recognized free woman of color. She went on to successfully run Zephaniahs varied businesses, manage his households, and enjoy land ownership and wealth herself. Annas story sheds light on the complicated social dynamics of the time and how they varied by region across the United States. Anna Kingsleys great-granddaughter say of her ancestors legacy: It is obviously a profoundly moving story. Its also a story which, in my view, has extraordinary complexity and contradictions. My great-grandmother was not only a slave, she owned slaves . . . so to feel that my great-grandmother had acquired the kind of wealth and the kind of prestige that would allow her to own slaves, I balance that with, She owned slaves! On the other hand, here was a woman of just extraordinary intelligence, ability. And, while I say that, I am conscious that she was probably in no sense uniquewe happen to have her story, but what we dont have, I am convinced, are the countless stories of women of no less intelligence, no less ability, whose stuff is simply lost. Anna Kingsleys Senegalese roots, coupled with the African architectural traditions present at the plantation, make this place a unique site of African American architectural history. The Kingsley story is also a testament to the incredible diversity of Black experiences during this period and the role that material culture can play in helping us understand how people lived and related to one another, oftentimes in more nuanced ways than we can imagine. Similarly, understanding the front porch as a distinctly Black architectural tradition challenges deep-seated assumptions about the diffusion of skill and knowledge in early America. Black people, whether enslaved or free, have long been portrayed as the recipients, not the bearers, of innovation. Nothing could be further from the truth. Excerpted from: A Short History of Black Craft in Ten Objects by Robell Awake, published by Chronicle Books 2025 [Photo: Chronicle Books] Footnotes: 1 John Michael Vlach, The Afro-American Tradition in Decorative Arts (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1978), 13638. 2 James Deetz, In Small Things Forgotten: An Archaeology of Early American Life (New York: Random House, 1977), 228. 3 Deetz, In Small Things Forgotten, 21929. 4 John H. Lienhard, Shotgun Homes and Porches, The Engines of Our Ingenuity, episode 820, University of Houston, accessed January 15, 2024, https://engines.egr.uh.edu/episode/820. 5 Vlach, The Afro-American Tradition, 13637. 6 Susan D. Morris, Tabby, New Georgia Encyclopedia, last modified September 10, 2019, https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/tabby/. 7 Pam James, Mary Mott, and Dawn Baker, Investigating a Tabby Slave Cabin, Project Archaeology: Investigating Shelter Series no. 12, accessed January 15, 2024, https://www.nps.gov/timu/learn/education/upload/KingsleyTeacher-Final-2.pdf. 8 Antoinette T. Jackson, Shattering Slave Life Portrayals: Uncovering Subjugated Knowledge in U.S. Plantation Sites in South Carolina and Florida, American Anthropologist 113, no. 3 (September 2011): 44862, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41407471. 9 Jackson, Shattering Slave Life Portrayals. 10 Quoted in Jackson, Shattering Slave Life Portrayals.
Category:
E-Commerce
The world’s hunger for energy is growing at an unprecedented rate thanks to growing manufacturing and AI data centers. And our current electric generation capabilities just can’t cope with the demand. The situation is so dire that the International Energy Agency predicts a tripling of solar panel installations in ten years, a surge that will require a near doubling of the workforce. The U.S. solar industry is currently installing approximately 15,000 modules per hour which is laughable when industry experts are saying it needs to reach a staggering 50,000 modules per hour by 2035 to keep up with electricity demand. The reality is that humans cant build wind and solar farms fast enoughwhich is why utility and energy generation company AES has invented Maximo, an AI-powered robot designed to double the speed of solar farm deployment. Building a solar farm requires moving and installing modules weighing more than 60 pounds and measuring an unwieldy 6.5 x 3.25 feet each. It’s a tedious and potentially dangerous task. Maximo (nicknamed Max) is a medium-to-large, light gray robot that runs on two sets of tracks that is designed to make that operation a breeze. [Image: AES] Its boxy chassis with curved corners has a central platform that holds the multi-jointed robotic arm that lifts and places the solar panels. Small sensor modules dot the robot, mapping its surroundings so it knows where it is at all times as it reaches into the cradle on its back that holds the panels. Its a machine that looks like the future, thanks to the design work of industrial and brand design studio Fuseproject. Introduced last summer, AES says Maximo has become the first proven solar installation robot on the market. And while the company claims that Maximo isn’t intended to replace human workers, it doesn’t really need to. The solar industry faces an extreme shortage of skilled labor, so it cant tackle the sheer scale of the task at hand without using machines like this smart buggy with robotic eyes and arms. The genesis of Maximo began two years ago, as Yves Béhar, founder and principal designer of Fuseproject, told me during an interview. We had a really interesting initial discussion about increasing the capacity of solar power and making it more efficient, Béhar says. His experience with robotics and electric vehicles made the project particularly appealing to him. The combination of vehicle and robotics really at the service of accelerating the installation and the capacity of solar energy was something that I was very, very interested in. [Image: AES] Design principles The design process focused on several key principles. Scalability was paramount, as was seamless integration into existing workflows. Crucially, Maximo needed to be friendly in the field, a trustworthy friend to the human workers it would collaborate with. It’s not meant to replace workers, Béhar says. It’s really meant to complement. Its a tool to accelerate the transition to renewable energy, reducing the physical demands of having to lift panels [and accelerating the installation]. Fuseproject wanted to give Maximo a distinct identity aligned with AESs brand, while following very specific function requirements to maximize efficiency in the movements and manufacturing cost-effectiveness. The design needed to be scalable, too, as the vision was to have an army of bots covering deserts and plains with oceans of dark silicon panels. One of the most important criteria was to visually integrate all the different parts, Béhar explains, as Maximo is basically a tank platform that needs to carry a lot of eclectic components. It has two mechanical arms for installation, a cradle that holds all the panels that need to get installed, the power unit, and the AI module. Béhar tells me that these disparate elements needed to be tied under a single form. His team came up with a metallic sine wave-shaped ribbon that expresses what the product does, while also providing essential protection from the elements. This continuous form turned out to be the most visually significant element of the robot. Deise Yumi Asami, AES’s founder, says that Fuseproject did a phenomenal job on really getting into the fundamentals of what we wanted to convey with Maximo. The sine wave-like design incorporated into Maximo’s shape is a subtle nod to the alternating current of electricity. It’s really tied to our core existence of energy, she explains. Other design elements, such as the aqua color, references the AES logo. The specific shade was carefully chosen, Asami explains, as was the light gray color of the main body: White on the construction site can be very challenging, so Fuseproject helped them tune the color to a very light color of gray that would, you know, be enough to meet our kind of like this kind of clean futuristic visuals of Max. [Image: AES] How it works Maximo’s functionality is as important as its form. The ribbon sine wave, for example, also houses an integrated LED safety system that signals when human workers can approach Max. That was another core requirement from AES: The robot needed to be field-friendly, especially whenits volume and power is so unwieldy. Max was really developed to carry all the heavy lifting, but not only that, it had to really accelerate the pace in which we are installing solar panels, Asami tells me. Maximo moves on its own, recognizing the terrain around it. An operator simply engages a safe switch just in case something bad happens and then Maximo takes over the entire operation thanks to a combination of computer vision, artificial intelligence, and a behavioral tree the company developed with Amazon AWS. It knows where to go. And it will decide what’s the best path from path A to path B, Asami says. This allows Maximo to operate in the dynamic, uncontrolled environment of a construction site, a key difference from typical factory robots that are fixed in a single point and perform repetitive tasks always in the same place. This outdoor operation presented the most significant technological challenge, Asami says, requiring the development of robust AI and computer vision systems capable of handling glare and other visual issues that happen under different weather conditions and the changing position across different terrains. Safety was the third core requirement, not only through the integrated LED light system integrated in the ribbonwhich turns red, signaling to workers to maintain a safe distance when Max is working, even if its not movingbut with ultrasonic sensors that detect if anyone enters the operating zone, triggering an immediate stop. We have an abundance of redundancy, Asami points out. [Image: AES] The cradle that holds the solar panels was a unique design challenge. It seems like its the only module not perfectly integrated in the design. When I told Asami and Béhar, they acknowledged that there was no way around this, as it needed to adapt to different panel sizes. It needs to be continually accessible too, Asami says. And mechanically speaking, it adjusts to the different sizes of the solar modules. [Image: AES] The adaptability of every aspect of its design is key to Maximo’s autonomous nature. When it arrives to the solar farm, a worker carefully loads a rack of solar panels into the waiting cradle using a forklift. With its cargo secured, Maximo embarks on its journey along the solar farm, relying on its sophisticated computer vision and brain to chart the most efficient course and identify where each panel should go. Once it gets to the first solar array support structure, Maximo uses its arm to pick up a panel from the cradle, smoothly rotating it and carefully placing the panel onto the pre-installed mounting structure, called the torque tube, before securing it firmly in place. The mechanical installation is complete and then, the process repeats. Panel after panel, Maximo moves along the torque tube building the farm. The human operator only acts as a supervisor, ensuring everything runs smoothly, ready to intervene if needed. Once the cradle is empty, a worker reloads, and the cycle begins again. [Image: AES] Shiny skies ahead Maximo has already installed nearly 10 megawatts of solar and is projected to install 100 MW in 2025. From these first experiences, plans are going to be put on warp 9. AES claims it plans to deploy Maximo to help build up to 5 gigawatts of its solar project pipeline over the next three years. While AES isn’t disclosing specific production numbers, Asami says they are seriously ramping up production of the robot for their clients. Asamis ambition is to make Maximo a standard in solar farm construction. With the increasing labor shortages in the industry and the growing demand for solar installations, it seems that it is going to be a must have rather than a may need. The challenge, she noted, is not just about building more solar farms, but also about bringing them online quickly. The majority of the time that it’s spent on the site, it is spent on the installation of solar modules, she explains, making Maximo’s contribution to installation speed crucial. We do believe that Max will have a big impact, she says. And that’s why we see a lot of emerging competitors as well because everyone understands the need in the industry for something like Maximo. Heres to seeing more of these friendly beasts with their glowing aqua and red ribbons signaling the beginning of a new shiny solar world despite the dark stormy clouds now looming over us.
Category:
E-Commerce
Three decades before TikToks obsession with tinned fish brought us sea-cuterie boards, tinned fish cookbooks, and trendy brands like Fishwife and Scout, there was Bela Brand Seafood. This OG tinned fish purveyor hit grocery store shelves back in 1997 with aesthetic, design-centric packagingand now, its refreshing its brand identity to remind modern audiences that it took a bet on tinned fish before it was cool.Bela (formerly known as Bela Brand Seafood) was founded by native New Englander Joshua Scherz and his mom, Florence. The brand has remained family-owned since its inception, quietly growing without any funding from outside investors. But during the pandemic, Scherz says, canned food of all kinds experienced a kind of renaissance. Tinned fishincluding Belas inventory of sardines, mackerel, and codfishbegan flying off of shelves and onto screens via a deluge of influencer reviews and recipes, earning it the official title of hot girl food. Joshua Scherz [Photo: Bela]But along with that consumer demand, Scherz notes, has come a wave of tinned fish products with a higher price point, designed with trendiness and exclusivity in mind. Meanwhile, the core of Belas business model remains centered around sustainability and accessibility (the latter is a key feature, Scherz says, for a product originally designed as a utilitarian pantry staple). The brands bold new look and digital presence brings it into the 21st century while emphasizing Belas roots as a 90s brand for the everyman.[Photo: Bela]Bela makes a splashBack in the late 90s, Scherz says, tinned fish was a dying industry. For Scherz, though, it had always been a constant. Growing up in the Boston area in an Eastern European family, sardines were a staple for his family; and, when he served in the U.S. Air Force for four years, they became even more of a mainstay at mealtime. Once Scherz returned from his time in the military, he and Florence saw an opportunity to turn their love of sardines into a family business. But, as they began to search for a cannery partner in New England, they realized that the number of options had dwindled sharply over the years. So, they decided to partner with a cannery in the coastal town of Olho, Portugal that aligned with their goals. Back then, sustainability meant supporting a local economy that was disappearing, Scherz says. We wanted to save a lifestyle, a way of life, a business, a product that was that fast declining. The canneries in Maine had gone away; the canneries in California had gone away; there were no canneries left in the United States. When we went to Portugal, sustainability meant creating a product and keeping it going.ScreenshotThe OG aesthetic tinned fishFrom the start, Bela set itself apart by packing its fish in extra virgin olive oil rather than hydrogenated soybean oil. And the company literally stood out on grocery store shelves for its playful, ultra-detailed packaging, featuring a lipstick-wearing fish mascot (or spokesfish, as Scherz nicknamed her) and a simple, sans-serif font.[Photo: Bela]One of the things about our design back in 1997 was that we were one of the first lithograph, six-color process cans, Scherz says. Everything else was a wrap, or a box, or it was dirty and dingy on a shelf with a plastic wrap. We got shelf placement instantaneously 30 years ago, because we were always a very design-focused brand.The choice to put package design front-and-center has proven to be a prescient move for Bel, as tinned fish has suddenly found itself in an unlikely spotlight.I call us pandemic gold, Scherz says. Unfortunately, the pandemic was what made sardines so popular. I mean, Ive been selling sardines for 23 years before the pandemic, and we were always in stores trying to gain trialbut the pandemic was a forced trial. People were concerned about cooking food or getting groceries and wiping them down. We forget how paranoid we were five years ago, but this product was clean, it was safe.[Photo: Bela]According to Scherz, Belas growth plan of 8-10% per year has consistently doubled in the years following the pandemic. And per a report from IndustryARC, the global canned fish market is expected to reach $11.3 billion by 2027. The surge of interest in the product has caused new companies like Fishwife and Scout to emerge with their own carefully curated packaging and flavors (both companies sell their wares for around $35 per three-pack or more, depending on the variety). Meanwhile, new high-end brands are charging as much as $75 for a three-pack of smoked eel or $26 for a single can of tuna.But Bela wants to assert that you can have your aesthetic fish and eat it, toofor prices ranging between just $5 and $7 per tin. With its new branding, Bela is emphasizing its accessibility and family-owned business model with slogans like Fish is family (amazing) and Everyones welcome to the table. And, the company is inviting a younger generation to enjoy its products with a modernized website that allows customers to purchase its products directly for the first time.[Photo: Bela]New design, same 90s vibeOn shelves, Bela is sticking to its iconic 90s packaginga smart choice, given the current resurgence of 90s-inspired CPG branding and the emphasis on visually exciting tinned fish designs (see Fishwifes popular packaging, for example). But the brands digital presence is getting a major overhaul, spearheaded by the design agency Vicious Studio, with a new logo, website, and merch that even Gen Z can get behind.The Bela wordmark is now rendered in an ultra-bright-blue custom font. Its an all-caps sans-serif, in keeping with the brands packaging, but now in a much bolder and bubblier form to bring the brands look up to 2025s speed. [Photos: Bela]Belas new look is bold, bright, and impossible to ignorejust like the New England I grew up in during the 90s, says Vicious Studio designer Nicholas Jackson. The wordmark has Fat letterforms with ink trapsa nod to old-school industry but with a fun, modern edge. Its punchy, super legible, and stands up on a shelf like it owns the place.The spokesfish mascot, Bela, has also gotten a makeover. Now, instead of being a full fish, shes a sort of talking head, a more versatile design that can be oriented vertically or horizontally. Her signature eyelashes and lips remain.[Image: Bela]The fish, still Bela at heart, got a digital-first glow-up, says Jackson. We tightened her up, focused on her head, eyes, and lips, and made her sharper, more scannable, and built for now. Shes no longer hand-drawn, but shes still got that same energy, now with knocked-out outlines and a halftone texturea little throwback to vintage print and the grittier, hard-worn aesthetic of New England docks and fish markets.Bela is also test-driving a lifestyle move la Sweetgreen and Erewhon with its own merch. The launch includes a trendy canvas tote bag, graphic crewnecks, and some retro-inspired banners (somehow, Bela is not the first fish-forward company to invest in trendy merch in the past several monthssee Gortons fish stick tote bag designed for Gen Z).In the coming months, Scherz says, customrs can expect an even larger branding overhaul from Bela. For now, though, hes focused on ushering in a new era that he calls tinned fish 3.0.If you look at Bela 1997 as tinned fish 1.0, then tinned fish 2.0 would be around the pandemic time, when it started to morph a little bit, Scherz says. Going forward, were going to start tinned fish 3.0rebranding with fish-forward flavors and getting back to the utilitarian roots and authenticity of tinned fish. This 3.0 version is not going to be about glamour; its going to be about the fact that its a protein, it has omega-3, and its a delicious fish.
Category:
E-Commerce
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