OUR MISSION IS TO INSPIRE AND EMPOWER COMMUNITY-DRIVEN SOCIAL IMPACT DESIGN
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?PICO Colectivo Is design about the process or the result? PICO focuses on interventions in gathering spaces. They believe that architecture is not an end it in itself. The process of understanding the interaction of life and space is vital. Is design about the process or the result?Rural Studio Can we design community engagement? The Rural Studio is a groundbreaking off-campus designbuild program of Auburn University. Founded in 1993 by D.K. Ruth and Samuel Mockbee, the program established a new breed of community-based design education. Can we design community engagement?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?D-Rev Can high quality, low cost medical equipment be broadly available to the world’s poorest? D-Rev, a San Francisco based nonprofit product development company designs and distributes radically affordable, world-class medical products to some of the world’s poorest citizens. Can high quality, low cost medical equipment be broadly available to the world’s poorest?
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.
