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

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? Portrait of David Allen Burns and Austin Young with cats, 2014. Photo credit: Jim Newberry Fallen Fruit What if our cities become places that grow natural resources for anyone to share? The art collective Fallen Fruit plants fruit trees in public spaces for everyone to share. They invite citizens to re-imagine public participation, urban space and the meaning of community. What if our cities become places that grow natural resources for anyone to share? Three images of a poster with a red background and a black bull charging forward, with Adbusters written on top and Occupy 2.0 written at the bottom Adbusters Does Design Create Politics or Vice Versa? Adbusters Media Foundation has launched numerous international campaigns, including Buy Nothing Day, TV Turnoff Week, and Occupy Wall Street, and is known for their "subvertisements" that spoof popular advertisements. Additionally, it publishes the reader-supported, advertising-free Adbusters, an activist magazine devoted to challenging consumerism. Does Design Create Politics or Vice Versa? People moving into their new homes at Vashi Naka, Mumbai from settlements near the Railway tracks as part of the resettlement and rehabilitation program under the Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP). SPARC What can slum dwellers teach design professionals? SPARC organizes, legitimizes and advocates for India’s urban poor, seeking improved living conditions and advancements in rights. SPARC believes that with structural support, the urban poor can make their destinies. What can slum dwellers teach design professionals? Theaster Gates Theaster Gates Can we design community engagement? Based in the South Side of Chicago, Theaster Gates is an artist, professor, social innovator, and founder of Rebuild Foundation, which reimagines the potential of vacancy and abandonment through the power of arts, culture, and creative empowerment by building a constellation of spaces that unearth the value and beauty in Black space. Can we design community engagement?
VIEW ALL PRACTICES

Prize Winners

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

Learn More

Podcasts

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

Listen Here

Videos

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

Watch Here

Initiatives

Supporting inspiring work around the world

Read More

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.

LEARN MORE ABOUT CSF

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.