The Curry Stone Design Prize, in celebration of it’s 10th Anniversary, is acknowledging a group of 100 of the most influential socially engaged design practices as this year’s winners. A group we’re calling the Social Design Circle. Each practice named to the Social Design Circle has helped define the Social Design movement over the last decade through the impact of their work. The Prize will name 100 practices over the next twelve months as part of the Circle. Each will receive a feature page dedicated to their work on the Prize’s website. To further publicize the work of these extraordinary practitioners, the Curry Stone Foundation has also launched a new podcast: Social Design Insights, which will air every Thursday beginning on January 5th, 2017. It will be co-hosted by Prize Director Emiliano Gandolfi and award-winning author, architect and post disaster expert, Eric Cesal. The two will interview the movement’s leaders on twelve questions over the next twelve months:

  • Should Designers be Outlaws?
  • Is The Right To Housing Real?
  • Can Design Challenge Inequality?
  • Can Design Prevent Disaster?
  • Can We Design Community Engagement?
  • Can Design Reclaim Public Space?
  • Can We Design a Slum Friendly City?
  • How Do We Design With Scarcity?
  • What Can Design Do To Promote Peace?
  • Can a City Work As An Ecosystem?
  • Does Design Create Politics or Vice Versa?
  • How Do We Democratize Design?

We’re also unveiling new interactive web features, complimenting their existing website, where visitors can map all the honorees search thematically through their accomplishments.

“In the past ten years the Curry Stone Design Prize has been recognizing some of the most impactful and inspirational international practices,” says Emiliano Gandolfi, the Prize Director. “Their work is part of a larger movement of individuals and groups who see design as a necessary tool to make our societies more just, environmentally sustainable, and socially inclusive. We formed the Social Design Circle to illustrate the significance of this movement and to share with a wider audience the great potential of these transformative practices.”

Social Design Insights will feature conversations with Teddy Cruz & Fonna Forman, Santiago Cirugeda (Recetas Urbanas), Arquitectura Expandida, Mark Lakeman (City Repair Project), in January, reflecting on the question: Should Designers be Outlaws?

“Social Design Insights will be a forum to hear from the Social Design Movement’s leading practitioners about their own methods, in their own words. By drawing dozens of practitioners from all fields into one conversation, we hope that we can examine Social Design’s current challenges and future potential,” adds Eric Cesal, co-host, Social Design Insights.

Social Design Insights airs every Thursday on our website and will also be featured on iTunes, Android and RSS feeds. In addition to the podcast interviews, at the beginning of every month new honorees of the Social Design Circle will be announced to the public.

A copy of our formal press release can be found here. For all media inquiries, contact Diana Bianchini diana@dimodapr.com.