EXPLORE OUR DIGITAL SOCIAL DESIGN DIRECTORY
LEARN ABOUT THE PEOPLE AND PRACTICES WHO USE DESIGN AS A TOOL FOR SOCIAL CHANGE

Aprovecho Research Center Aprovecho Research Center Are open source, global standards for clean, efficient cook stoves possible? Aprovecho Research Center (ARC) is dedicated to researching, developing, and disseminating appropriate technological solutions for meeting the basic human needs of refugees and impoverished people. Are open source, global standards for clean, efficient cook stoves possible? bcWORKSHOP bcWORKSHOP Can architects build community as well as buildings? bcWORKSHOP works in neighborhoods lacking access to designers. Its programs are committed to building community and begin by acknowledging that social structure is the best guide to designing physical structures. Can architects build community as well as buildings? School children picking up drinking water. Ashok Gadgil Can low cost, simple designs be implemented at scale? For over twenty years, US engineer Dr. Ashok Gadgil’s work has focused on designing low-cost technologies that help the world’s poorest and most vulnerable. Can low cost, simple designs be implemented at scale? Katrina replacement house, Biloxi, MS. Credits: Alan Karchmer Gulf Coast Community Design Studio How can the community be integrated into the rebuilding process? A professional service and outreach program of Mississippi State University’s College of Architecture, Art + Design, Gulf Coast Community Design Studio (GCCDS) was established in Biloxi, Mississippi in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to provide design services to devastated communities throughout the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Over time, it has evolved to address long-term issues of equitable community resilience. How can the community be integrated into the rebuilding process? Co-design is at the heart of the thinkpublic philosophy, we believe in designing with people. There is a animation we made here https://vimeo.com/3143657. Image Credit: thinkpublic thinkpublic Can better human services be co-designed? Founded in 2004 as the first of its kind, Thinkpublic is a London-based social design agency that works with public sector and nonprofit organizations to improve the quality of the services they provide. Can better human services be co-designed?
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Prize Winners

Learn about our Prize Winners, Grantees, and Design Circle.

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Podcasts

Social Design Insights podcast. Conversations with the leading voices of the social design movement.

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Videos

Short, inspiring films about social design pioneers around the globe.

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Initiatives

Community Design Agency collaborates with communities to use architecture and design to create sustainable change

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CSF’s Mission is to empower the practice of community-driven social design

The Curry Stone Design Foundation supports groups and individuals using design to build healthier, more vital communities. Over time, this support has taken the form of an annual prize, a podcast, grants, and an honorary circle. Currently, resources are being focused on Community Design Agency

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Community Design Agency, an initiative of Curry Stone Design Collaborative, is an architecture and design agency that collaborates with diverse communities in need to create sustainable change.

CDA envisions an inclusive world where every human enjoys access to vibrant, safe and healthy spaces to live, work and play. Its mission is to work alongside communities, drive social and spatial improvements through participatory planning, community-driven design and architecture, advocacy and consultation for those in need.

Learn more about CDA and our process of community driven social design here.

Social Design Insights is a weekly podcast of conversations with leading designers who discuss innovative projects and practices that use design to address pressing social justice issues.

Hosted by Eric Cesal, Produced by Baruch Zeichner.

Listen to the latest episode of Social Design Insights here.

IN MEMORIAM

Jockin Arputham dedicated his life to working with slum dwellers to build representative organizations into powerful partnerships with governments and international agencies for the betterment of urban living.

Mr. Jockin Arputham

We are saddened to learn of the passing of our dear friend, colleague and incredible humanitarian Mr. Jockin Arputham.

Jockin dedicated his life to working with slum dwellers to build representative organizations into powerful partnerships with governments and international agencies for the betterment of urban living. Arputham was the president of the National Slum Dwellers Federation which he founded in the 70s and of Slum Dwellers International which is now a network of slum and shack dweller organizations and federations from over twenty countries across the world.

The National Slum Dwellers Federation works closely with Mahila Milan, a collective of savings groups formed by homeless women and women living in slums across India, and with SPARC, a Mumbai-based NGO that was awarded the Curry Stone Design Prize for their instrumental work in supporting tens of thousands of the urban poor access housing and sanitation throughout India.

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