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Wowhaus is a collaboration between Scott Constable and Ene Osteraas-Constable. For over a decade, Wowhaus has created works in the public realm, operating at the interstices of art and design. Our work includes permanent and temporary public art, furniture, architecture and environmental design. Wowhaus explores the common denominators of everyday experience, the central question of how things, places and relationships acquire meaning. We are interested in the social underpinnings of "ordinary" or vernacular forms; in the social networks that sustain and foster community and innovation. Our projects seek to connect communities to their current ecological and societal realities, aiming to strengthen the mutually beneficial potential of each. Recent projects include Oakland Fusion, a lenticular ceramic mural commission, Wishing Wands, stainless steel/crystal sculptures, and the Sunnyside Menagerie, a collection of cast bronze sculptures. Past projects have included the creation of a mobile micro radio station and audio archive in San Francisco, a series of lenticular murals reflecting the ecology of a local river, and the Friesel, a mobile biodiesel processor. A series of furniture commissions over the past decade reflect our interest in innovation as it relates to common forms such as the chair or table.
Our main studio and home are on 3 acres in Sonoma County. Bordering a redwood forest, the site includes organic vegetable gardens, a small orchard, and our studios; we're 15 minutes from the Pacific Ocean and 20 minutes from the beautiful Russian River. Please contact us for a studio visit if you are in the region. CONTACT INFORMATION: Wowhaus be@thewowhaus.com OAKLAND STUDIO: (510) 604-9588 More About Us
While teaching at the California College of the Arts, Scott developed transdisciplinary courses including “Fieldwork: Visceral Inquiry” and “Comfort: Origins and Consequences”. Scott has also taught at University of California at Berkeley, and presented workshops at conferences and symposia, including “American Institue of Graphic Artists: Power of Design” and at “Craft & Design: Hand, Mind and the Creative Process” for the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum. In 1996 Scott founded Wowhaus with his wife and collaborator, Ene Osteraas-Constable.
The daughter of an Estonian immigrant, Ene accompanied her parents at age 8 while collecting oral histories in West Africa. This formative experience contributed to Ene's interest in cultural identity and oral traditions such as gardening and cooking. Ene has utilized a variety of media, including photography, audio and multimedia to explore how narrative - the stories we tell each other and ourselves - help shape our understanding of place, community, and the environment. Ene produced multimedia for Paramount Pulishing, McGraw Hill and Purple Moon; her photographs have been published in national publications including the Utne Reader, Sierra, and Land & People. Ene assisted in establishing the Edible Schoolyard, an organic gardening and cooking program in Berkeley, California, founded by Alice Waters of Chez Panisse restaurant. She also developed and taught a "Cultural Gardening" course for the Merritt College Department of Landscape Horticulture, leading site visits to diverse vernacular gardens in the Bay Area.
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Welcome to Wowhaus
Scott Constable is a woodworker who uses his craft to explore the social and philosophical issues of everyday life. His work, ranging from furniture to architecture and environmental sculpture, has exhibited internationally and garnered numerous design awards. The recipient of the Center for Cultural Innovation's Investing in Artists Grant, Scott created the Deep Craft initiative, a forum for fostering reexamination of the role of craft in the realm of contemporary art and design. His 
