OUR MISSION IS TO INSPIRE AND EMPOWER COMMUNITY-DRIVEN SOCIAL IMPACT DESIGN
Maya Pedal Can bicycles power essential tasks and support microbusinesses? In rural Guatemala, energy sources are scarce. Maya Pedal repurposes donated bicycles into pedal-powered machines that can blend food, grind corn and lift water from wells, without requiring electricity. Can bicycles power essential tasks and support microbusinesses?City Repair Project How can public space be reclaimed to forge stronger communities? The City Repair Project addresses America’s lack of outdoor community hubs by supporting neighborhoods in creatively re-purposing public areas such as road intersections into gathering spaces. How can public space be reclaimed to forge stronger communities?Sanergy Can waste management create jobs and improve hygiene? Launched in Nairobi’s slums, Sanergy is a business and sanitation initiative. Low-cost pay toilets are run by locals as a business. Waste is processed into fertilizer and sold to commercial farms. Can waste management create jobs and improve hygiene?Urbz How can slum dwellers be protected against profit-minded developers? Mumbai based Urbz confronts a daunting problem: a slum’s real estate value. It fights against city planners and developers who execute a common form of slum rehabilitation-- level & relocate. How can slum dwellers be protected against profit-minded developers?Luyanda Mpahlwa Can a community be built with sand? Luyanda Mpahlwa is part of a vanguard re-envisioning South Africa’s post-apartheid architectural landscape. Mpahlwa pioneered a new style of architecture, integrating and elevating African-inspired design in rural and urban settings. Can a community be built with sand?
Podcasts
Social Design Insights podcast. Conversations with the leading voices of the social design movement.
Curry Stone Design Collaborative (CSDC) is an architecture and design studio that works alongside diverse communities in identifying and addressing their collective needs for an improved built environment through participatory planning, community-driven design and architecture, advocacy and consultation.
CSDC believes that in a world where social, economic and political inequalities manifest themselves into inequalities of built spaces, thoughtfully designed, safe and functional spaces are vital for robust communities and individual flourishing.
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.
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.
