Fractal Forest at Pickathon 2025

“What if we trained builders by building something beautiful—and then turned that into shelter?”

That was the vision of Eric Wenzel of Scott Edwards Architecture, and it’s now taking shape as the Fractal Forest at Pickathon in collaboration with Creative Neighborhoods.

Designed intentionally for reuse, this Grove Stage installation will be deconstructed after the festival and transformed into bike shelters, garden beds, and seating for transitional housing villages built by Home Building Foundation.

The build is also a training ground. Through HBF’s Building to Scale program, emerging builders are gaining hands-on experience in modular construction—working side-by-side with industry mentors and contributing to real-world housing solutions.

Trainees from Building to Scale recently joined mentors from Bremik Construction for a full day of fabrication at Bremik’s commercial shop, constructing the modular fractal components now being installed at Pickathon.

“Eric came with a vision to create something beautiful and lasting, designed from the start to become part of our shelter villages,” says Regan Schutz, Executive Director of HBF. “Working with Eric and SEA has been inspiring. And launching Building to Scale alongside this project has been electric. We’re creating new ecosystems here.”

The stage is being installed onsite at Pickathon by the full collaborative team—Pickathon, Creative Neighborhoods, Scott Edwards Architecture, Bremik Construction, HBF, and Building to Scale.

This project is part of Pickathon Creative Neighborhoods, a visionary platform that empowers artists, architects, educators, and tradespeople to collaborate on bold, practical ideas that shape the built environment. By investing in modular, upcycled designs with planned second lives, Creative Neighborhoods is redefining what it means to build with purpose.

Watch the story unfold at pickathon.com or ​⁠‪@pickathon‬