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What is Social Impact Design?
- Overview
- Most Urgent Questions
About the Foundation
Social Design Insights Podcast

What is Social Impact Design?
- Overview
- Most Urgent Questions
About the Foundation
Social Design Insights Podcast

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Education

Active Social Architecture

Social Design Circle Honoree

Does school design have value beyond creating a place to educate children? Kigali based Active Social Architecture (ASA) builds schools. Its designs contribute to the child’s growth and stimulation and the schools are conspicuously situated, providing symbolic value for the entire community.

Advocacy
Community Development

Anna Heringer

2009 Prize Winner

Is sustainability about working within scarcity or finding natural abundance? Studio Anna Heringer is a leader in architecture using low-tech, natural materials, often in collaboration with local community craftspeople. The resulting structures are beautiful, resilient and sustainable.

Advocacy
Community Development

Antonio Scarponi

2008 Prize Winner

Are you ready to co-opt mass consumerism? Antonio Scarponi uses elements from architecture, multimedia arts, and design to “jam” the conventional social order.

Environment

Aprovecho Research Center

Social Design Circle Honoree

Are open source, global standards for clean, efficient cook stoves possible? Cooking with wood and charcoal causes health and climate challenges. US based Aprovecho pioneers designs for clean, efficient stoves and develops open source technology and testing used around the globe.

Advocacy
Community Development

Architecture for Humanity

2013 Prize Winner

Vision Award Recipient

What is the role of architects in communities in need? Cameron Sinclair and Kate Stohr, recipients of the first Curry Stone Design Prize Vision Award, have been committed to social impact design since co-founding Architecture for Humanity in 1999.

Community Development
Conflict and Disaster

Asian Coalition for Housing Rights

Social Design Circle Honoree

Is the Right to Housing Real? The Asian Coalition is a broad coalition of grassroots organizations, NGOs, architects and engineers currently working in 215 cities across Asia.

Advocacy
Housing

Asiye eTafuleni

Social Design Circle Honoree

Can design reclaim public space? Asiye eTafuleni is a South African NGO set up to support informal traders, market vendors, and others who use public space in their work.

Community Development

Atelier d’Architecture Autogérée

2011 Prize Winner

Can a new urban future grow out of a vacant lot? Atelier d’Architecture Autogérée is a collective of architects that transforms urban spaces. It is recognized as an engine for engaging citizens in shaping their own cities through experimentation and renewal.

Urban Strategies

Auroville Earth Institute

Social Design Circle Honoree

Can traditional building techniques serve modern needs? Auroville Earth Institute leads in the research and implementation of earth-based & sustainable building. Their work inspires groups all over the world to take up the practice of sustainable building.

Community Development
Environment

Bait al Karama

Social Design Circle Honoree

How can a women-led culinary school promote peace and understanding? Bait al Karama, Palestinian Nablus’ first women’s center, combines a culinary social enterprise with cultural activities. Translated as “House of Dignity,” it is located in an area devastated by conflict.

Advocacy
Community Development

Barefoot College

Social Design Circle Honoree

Can the rural poor attain self-sufficiency through design? The Barefoot College is a groundbreaking Indian social organization with an international reach. It supports the rural poor, especially women, in attaining self-sufficiency by tapping their wisdom, skills and resourcefulness.

Community Development

Basurama

Social Design Circle Honoree

Can waste be a resource for urban transformation? Best known for creating colorful playgrounds from common landfill waste, Basurama is a collective of Spanish artists whose projects provide cultural amenities while facilitating wider conversations about waste as a resource.

Urban Strategies

Build Change

Social Design Circle Honoree

What is needed to rebuild resiliently after a disaster? Denver-based non-profit Build Change designs disaster-resistant houses and schools for emerging nations, then trains builders, homeowners, engineers and government officials to build them using simple, culturally appropriate, and cost-effective techniques.

Community Development
Conflict and Disaster

Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems

Social Design Circle Honoree

How is consideration of the full life cycle of products a means to achieve sustainability? The Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems designs systems that identify and utilize the full life cycle of products, buildings and regions resulting in smarter and more sustainable practices.

Advocacy
Environment

Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP)

2012 Prize Winner

Can design increase civic participation? The Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP) uses design and art to increase civic engagement. Collaborating with artist /designers, community advocates and policymakers, CUP creates simple, accessible visual explanations for civic issues.

Advocacy
Community Development

Civic City

Social Design Circle Honoree

Can graphic arts be an agent of political change? The team of Vera & Ruedi Baur / Civic City are widely credited with launching a wave of political activism within the fields of graphic design and its allied professions.

Advocacy

Coloco

Social Design Circle Honoree

Can a city work as an ecosystem? Coloco believes landscape is an opportunity for collective thought and action. Coloco seeks to create places that can bring communities together and create new ideas among diverse populations.

Community Development
Environment
Urban Strategies

Conflictorium

Social Design Circle Honoree

Can a museum help people face and resolve conflict? The Conflictorium is a participatory museum that addresses the theme of conflict. It uses art and interactive exhibits to neutrally address how conflicts begin and how they can be resolved.

Advocacy
Conflict and Disaster

Ctrl+Z

Social Design Circle Honoree

Is architecture more about community participation than materials? Ctrl+Z Architecture practices collaborative, participatory, self-construction initiatives throughout the world. It believes that at its heart, architecture is more about interaction with communities than specific materials or approaches.

Environment

Decolonizing Architecture Art Residency

Social Design Circle Honoree

How can design address colonization and displacement? Palestine based Decolonizing Architecture Art Residency (DAAR) is an architectural studio and residency program that combines spatial interventions, theoretical writings and collective learning to address colonization, conflict and displacement.

Advocacy
Conflict and Disaster

Design for Extreme Affordability

Social Design Circle Honoree

Can social change be taught? Design for Extreme Affordability is a graduate course offered by Stanford University where students are asked to design products and services which will change the lives of the world’s poorest citizens.

Advocacy
Healthcare

Echeverri & Fajardo

2009 Prize Winner

Can improving the built environment in impoverished neighborhoods transform a city? Fajardo and Echeverri implemented a bold program in Medellín. By training architects to build parks and public buildings in impoverished neighborhoods, Medellin was transformed from “world’s deadliest city” into a vibrant, livable place.

Advocacy
Community Development
Urban Strategies

El Equipo Mazzanti

Social Design Circle Honoree

Why is all architecture social? Colombian architectural firm El Equipo Mazzanti blurs the lines between “social design” and traditional practice. In Medellin, its work was part of the extensive renewal known as the “Medellin Miracle.”

Advocacy
Community Development

Episode 10 | Emily Pilloton and John Peterson Argue for Design as the Great Equalizer, Part I

Social Design Circle Honoree

Can design challenge inequality? John Peterson and Emily Pilloton share their practices and discuss how design can subvert structural inequality.

Advocacy
Community Development

Episode 11 | Emily Pilloton and John Peterson Argue for Design as the Great Equalizer, Part II

Social Design Circle Honoree

Can design challenge inequality? We continue our discussion with John and Emily about what role design can play in challenging rising economic and social inequality.

Advocacy
Community Development

Episode 12 | Why All Architecture is Social

Social Design Circle Honoree

Can design challenge inequality? Giancarlo Mazzanti shares his thoughts on transforming Medellin and how great architecture can bring neighborhoods together.

Community Development
Urban Strategies

Episode 14 | Combining Ancient Traditions and Contemporary Social Design

Social Design Circle Honoree

Can design challenge inequality? Active Social Architecture is a Kigali-based architecture practice that designs and builds contemporary re-elaborations of vernacular Rwandan architecture.

Advocacy
Community Development

Episode 16 | Design, Development and Disaster Mitigation in Pakistan

Social Design Circle Honoree

Can design prevent disaster? Yasmeen Lari details the growth of resilient architecture and sustainable development in Pakistan.

Conflict and Disaster

Episode 17 | Mitigating Climate-Based Disaster Before it Strikes

Social Design Circle Honoree

Can design prevent disaster? Mohammed Rezwan of Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha details his designs for floating communities.

Advocacy
Community Development
Environment

Episode 18 | Unifying First and Third World Strategies for Disaster Mitigation

Social Design Circle Honoree

Can design prevent disaster? Geohazards International shares their groundbreaking methods for disaster mitigation.

Advocacy
Conflict and Disaster

Episode 19 | The Trajectory of Social Design, Pt. I

Social Design Circle Honoree

Can we design community engagement? Sergio Palleroni discusses his thirty year career in Social Impact Design

Community Development
Environment
Housing

Episode 2 | Reimagining the Border, Part II

Social Design Circle Honoree

Should designers be outlaws? Teddy Cruz and Fonna Forman of Estudio Teddy Cruz + Fonna Forman continue their discussion of design & politics at the San Diego/Tijuana border.

Community Development
Urban Strategies

Episode 20 | The Trajectory of Social Design, Pt. II

Social Design Circle Honoree

Can we design community engagement? Sergio Palleroni outlines the lessons of his practice at a project scale.

Community Development
Environment
Housing

Episode 23 | How do we make life into art, and vice versa?

Social Design Circle Honoree

Can we design community engagement? Project Row Houses is a neighborhood based nonprofit art and cultural organization working on grassroots development in Houston’s 3rd ward.

Advocacy
Community Development

Episode 27 | How All Space Becomes Public Space, Pt. I

Social Design Circle Honoree

Can design reclaim public space? EXYZT and Basurama detail new ways to think about public space.

Urban Strategies

Episode 28 | How All Space Becomes Public Space, Pt. II

Social Design Circle Honoree

Can design reclaim public space? EXYZT and Basurama tell us strategies for how to take over public space.

Urban Strategies

Episode 29 | Recognizing the Unrecognized

Social Design Circle Honoree

Can we design a slum-friendly city? Urban-Think Tank discusses their urban strategy and how they work against structural inequality in cities.

Community Development
Urban Strategies

Episode 30 | The New Informal City Pt. II

Social Design Circle Honoree

Can we design a slum-friendly city? Urban-Think Tank shares their ideas on how to make the formal informal, and vice versa.

Community Development
Urban Strategies

Episode 32 | Slum Networking, Explained.

Social Design Circle Honoree

Can we design a slum-friendly city? Himanshu Parikh discusses the evolution of cities and slums, and how a historicist read can lead us to new engineering innovations.

Environment
Healthcare
Housing

Episode 36 | Changing the Way We Make Fire

Social Design Circle Honoree

How do we design with scarcity? Dean Still of Aprovecho talks to us about the history of Aprovecho and their work to improve cookstove technology.

Advocacy
Community Development

Episode 37 | Finding Holistic Design Through History

Social Design Circle Honoree

How do we design with scarcity? Yatin Pandya discusses his philosophy of ‘holistic design’ and how he seeks new solutions for India’s future.

Environment
Housing

Episode 38 | The Architecture of Stateless Nations, Pt. I

Social Design Circle Honoree

What can design do to promote peace? Alessandro Petti and Sandi Hilal introduce their work on statelessness and human rights.

Advocacy
Conflict and Disaster

Episode 39 | The Architecture of Stateless Nations, Pt. II

Social Design Circle Honoree

What can design do to promote peace? Alessandro Petti and Sandi Hilal discuss the details of how they work between the temporary and the permanent.

Advocacy
Conflict and Disaster

Episode 40 | Activating Community Voices

Social Design Circle Honoree

What can design do to promote peace? Isella Ramirez of Hester Street discusses their strategies for making communities be heard.

Advocacy
Community Development
Housing

Episode 42 | A Green Vision for the Future of Cities Pt. I

Social Design Circle Honoree

Can a city work as an ecosystem? Gail Vittori and Pliny Fisk introduce our hosts to their work, thinking at multiple scales about how to live & work ecologically.

Advocacy
Environment

Episode 43 | A Green Vision for the Future of Cities Pt. II

Social Design Circle Honoree

Can a city work as an ecosystem? Gail Vittori and Pliny Fisk expand on the lifecycle design, ecology and the future of cities.

Advocacy
Environment

Episode 46 | Gardening as Urban Action

Social Design Circle Honoree

Can a city work as an ecosystem? Marco Clausen of Prinzessinnengärten discusses how they came to pioneer a form of mobile gardening, and the positive impacts it has had on their city.

Community Development
Environment

Episode 49 | Designing the Politics of the City

Social Design Circle Honoree

Does design create politics or vice versa? Vera and Ruedi Baur of Civic City discuss how graphic design can be a tool of political change.

Advocacy

Episode 55 | Designing for the Future, Pt. 1

Social Design Circle Honoree

How do we democratize design? Diébédo Francis Kéré discusses the origins of his practice, and how good design builds community.

Community Development
Environment

Episode 56 | Designing for the Future, Pt. 2

Social Design Circle Honoree

How do we democratize design? Diébédo Francis Kéré discusses offers lessons for young designers about how to design the future.

Community Development
Environment

Episode 58 | Public Interest Design, Past & Future

How do we design resistance? John Cary is an American connector, writer, speaker and curator focused on social change.

Advocacy

Episode 59 | Architecture at the Border of Design and Politics

How do we design resistance? Ronald Rael is an applied architectural researcher, design activist, author, and thought leader in the fields of additive manufacturing and earthen architecture.

Advocacy

Episode 62 | Finding Empathy, Making Art

How do we design resistance? Suzanne Lacy talks to us about the role of art in the pursuit of social justice, and how to navigate the lines between art, activism, design and space.

Advocacy

Episode 68 | Bringing Designers Together, Pt. I

Can design education promote social justice? Sergio Palleroni and Jane Anderson offer a history of the collective effort to establish a global network of social design teachers and practitioners.

Advocacy

Episode 69 | Bringing Designers Together, Pt. II

Can design education promote social justice? Ursula Hartig and Bryan Bell offer us a glimpse into how Design for the Common Good can provide resources to practitioners and educators across the globe.

Advocacy

Episode 70 | Demanding More from Design Education

Can design education promote social justice? Peggy Deamer and David Langdon of the Architecture Lobby discuss how cultures in education shape problems in the profession.

Advocacy

Episode 71 | Teaching Design, Teaching Leadership

Can design education promote social justice? Dr. Barbara Brown Wilson discusses the Design Futures Student Leadership Forum and how it seeks to train tomorrow’s leaders of public interest design.

Advocacy

Episode 72 | Teaching Change

Can design education promote social justice? Dr. Jonathan Massey talks about the future of design education, and what radical experiments are underway.

Advocacy

Episode 8 | Growth, Equity & Asian Cities

Social Design Circle Honoree

Is the right to housing real? The Asian Coalition for Housing Rights is a large broad-based coalition of like-minded groups fighting for housing advocacy throughout Asia; they share with us their strategies.

Advocacy
Housing

Episode 9 | Add, Transform, and Reuse!

Social Design Circle Honoree

Is the right to housing real? Lacaton & Vassal Deconstructs Their Widely Acclaimed methods for the Readaptation of Modernist housing blocks in France.

Housing

Estudio Teddy Cruz + Forman

Social Design Circle Honoree

How can borders be places of innovation, creativity and exchange? Central to Estudio Teddy Cruz + Forman’s work is the idea that “borders” are not places to be defended, but can promote innovation and exchange.

Community Development
Urban Strategies

Fallen Fruit

Social Design Circle Honoree

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.

Community Development
Environment

Farm Cultural Park

Social Design Circle Honoree

Can rejuvenation through art transform a forgotten town? Farm Cultural Park is an organically conceived art-driven revitalization of the formerly abandoned center of Favara, Sicily. Visitors explore galleries, shops and cafes. Building exteriors are canvases for artists.

Advocacy
Community Development
Urban Strategies

Foldit

Social Design Circle Honoree

Can an online puzzle game crowdsource solutions to preventing and curing disease? Foldit is an online game where players contribute to scientific research via an addictive puzzle game. Crowdsourcing is Foldit’s success: the creative problem-solving of thousands of people refines complex computations.

Advocacy
Healthcare

Francis Kéré

Social Design Circle Honoree

Can an architect truly straddle both first world success and community development in the developing world? Diébédo Francis Kéré is a Burkinabe architect based in Berlin, Germany, whose work straddles community development in the developing world and award-winning architecture in the first world.

Community Development
Environment

FrontlineSMS

2011 Prize Winner

Can SMS technology be harnessed as a powerful information dissemination tool? Frontline SMS is software that acts as an information dissemination service for text messages. It uses cell service not internet access to create communication networks and exchange information.

Advocacy
Community Development

GeoHazards International

Social Design Circle Honoree

Can best practices in seismic safety be employed in the developing world? GeoHazards International (GHI) is a California based non-profit which works to bring the best practices in seismic safety from the developed world to the developing world.

Advocacy
Conflict and Disaster

Goonj

Social Design Circle Honoree

How can donated clothing be translated into community renewal? Goonj is a non-governmental organization based in Delhi. It barters clothing and other donated items to pay laborers from the community to carry out development projects in poorer areas.

Advocacy
Community Development
Environment

Heritage Foundation of Pakistan

Social Design Circle Honoree

Can post disaster housing be sustainable and respectful of local vernacular? The Heritage Foundation of Pakistan is one of the world’s most successful providers of sustainable, resilient disaster relief structures. They are also involved in historic conservation projects in Pakistani villages.

Conflict and Disaster

Hester Street Collaborative

Social Design Circle Honoree

How can neighborhoods be shaped by the people who live in them? Hester Street works to ensure neighborhoods are shaped by the people who live in them. They offer planning, design and community development assistance to community-based organizations, government and other agencies.

Advocacy
Community Development
Housing

Himanshu Parikh

Social Design Circle Honoree

What happens when gravity replaces modern technology as a tool to design urban infrastructure? Himanshu Parikh is an Indian engineer who developed of the concept of ‘slum networking,’ which stems from how the traditional organization of cities was based on natural features such as topography and gravity.

Environment
Healthcare
Housing

Hunnarshala

2013 Prize Winner

How can artisans build a resilient community? Hunnarshala works with artisans to combine traditional building techniques with innovation. They are also engaged in training and empowering artisan entrepreneurs, bringing them into the mainstream of construction.

Conflict and Disaster
Environment
Housing

Institute of Play

Social Design Circle Honoree

Can video games form the basis of a school curriculum? Founded by game designers in New York City, Institute of Play pioneers new models of learning and engagement rooted in the principles of game design.

Advocacy

Interbreeding Field

Social Design Circle Honoree

Can Design Reclaim Public Space? Interbreeding Field is a Taiwanese educational program that creates installations in and about public space. Interbreeding Field’s work makes provocative commentary on how a space should or could be used.

Community Development
Urban Strategies

Isla Urbana

Social Design Circle Honoree

Can DIY harvesting of rainwater solve a water crisis? Isla Urbana has engaged the ongoing water crisis in Mexico City by developing rainwater harvesting kits that are affordable and easy to install.

Community Development
Urban Strategies

Lacaton & Vassal

Social Design Circle Honoree

Is it better to refurbish and reuse than rebuild? Paris-based Lacaton & Vassal is known for restoring and rehabilitating post-war affordable housing blocks that were threatened with demolition in Paris, Saint-Nazarre and Bordeaux.

Housing

Liter of Light

2012 Prize Winner

Can a plastic bottle bring light where electricity is scarce? Philippines based Liter of light is a global, open-source, grassroots movement committed to providing affordable, sustainable light to people with limited or no access to electricity.

Community Development

Luyanda Mpahlwa

2008 Prize Winner

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.

Advocacy
Community Development
Housing

MASS Design Group

2012 Prize Winner

Why invest in architecture in resource-limited settings? MASS Designs has worked in over a dozen countries, bringing the value—and power, of architecture to resource-limited communities.

Conflict and Disaster
Healthcare

Mohammed Rezwan

Social Design Circle Honoree

How can design help flood prone communities to function when facilities and resources are under water? Mohammaed Rezwan and his organization Shindulai Swanivar Sangsthata operates a fleet of floating schools, libraries and health clinics that help people overcome the challenges of living in flood-prone northwest Bangladesh.

Advocacy
Community Development
Environment

MVD

Social Design Circle Honoree

How do we democratize design? MVD is an Austrian collective that works to bring a political view to how public space is utilized.

Housing
Urban Strategies

Orkidstudio

Social Design Circle Honoree

How do we design with scarcity? Orkidstudio is a nonprofit active throughout Africa. They advocate design/build as economic development: The choices of what and how you build dramatically effect jobs, local earnings, and micro-economies.

Advocacy
Environment

Plan Selva

Social Design Circle Honoree

How can design address the problem of education for internally neglected communities? Plan Selva is the Peruvian Education Ministry’s plan to bring quality education to remote regions. The result self-empowers indigenous people to cultivate their knowledge and live productively in the Amazon.

Community Development
Environment

Prinzessinnengärten

Social Design Circle Honoree

Why should citizens and activists reclaim public space? Prinzessinnengärten is a community garden initiative that is leading conversations about public space. Its belief is that as cities grow, they must develop sustainable ways of eating, living and moving.

Community Development
Environment

Project H Design

Social Design Circle Honoree

Can design challenge inequality? Project H Design is a Berkeley-based design education non-profit focused on developing leadership skills for youth through design-build courses.

Advocacy
Community Development

Project Row Houses

Social Design Circle Honoree

Can artists create solutions instead of just social commentary? Located in Houston’s Northern Third Ward, Project Row Houses believes artists can catalyze social change and that art community are integrally linked– neither is viable without the other.

Advocacy
Community Development
Housing

Proximity Designs

2013 Prize Winner

Can design help raise the income of small hold farmers in Myanmar? Proximity Designs is a sustainable development group that works to improve the lives of the rural poor in Myanmar.

Community Development

Public Architecture

Social Design Circle Honoree

How can standard design firms be supported in pro-bono work? San Francisco based Public Architecture formalizes pro bono service within architecture, interiors and landscape design. Their flagship program, 1+, supports firms in donating 1% of their time to pro-bono work.

Community Development

Raumlabor Berlin

Social Design Circle Honoree

If utopia eluded us, what’s next? Raumlabor Berlin practices “research-based design.” Their practice intersects city planning, architecture, art and urban intervention. Central to their work are projects that disrupt a community’s notions about space.

Community Development
Urban Strategies

Refugee Academy

Social Design Circle Honoree

Can refugees be a national asset? Berlin’s The Refugee Academy responds to the influx of refugees into Germany. Their work is about designing new ways to think about migration.

Advocacy
Conflict and Disaster

Repair Café

Social Design Circle Honoree

Can anyone repair everyday objects? The Repair Café is both an organization and a global network of cafés that emphasize the repair of everyday objects in order to promote a culture of sustainability and reuse.

Community Development

Rural Studio

Social Design Circle Honoree

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.

Community Development
Housing

Rural Urban Framework (RUF)

2015 Prize Winner

Can design address China’s rural to urban migration? Imbalances caused by rural to urban migrations is an urgent geopolitical issue. In China, the issue is accelerating. Rural Urban Framework (RUF) works to stabilize and rebuild depopulated Chinese villages.

Community Development
Housing

Semillas para el Desarrollo Sostenible

Social Design Circle Honoree

Can schools address development challenges? Semillas para el Desarrollo Sostenible “Seeds for Sustainable Development” is a Peruvian nonprofit confronting development challenges, especially a lack of schools, in the Peruvian Amazon.

Advocacy
Community Development

Sergio Palleroni

Social Design Circle Honoree

Can social impact design be taught? Sergio Palleroni is a leader, practitioner and educator in social impact design. In 1995, Palleroni founded the BASIC Initiative, a program that moved students from the design studio into communities.

Community Development
Environment

Slow/d

Social Design Circle Honoree

Can the product-to-consumer supply chain be made more equitable? Slow/d is an Italian organization seeking to disrupt traditional supply chains in design by connecting designers, consumers & artisans directly.

Advocacy
Community Development

STEALTH.unlimited

Social Design Circle Honoree

What are the limits of architectural practice? STEALTH.unlimited challenges notions about architectural practice by connecting arts, urban research, cultural activism and interventions. They have a particular focus on ‘common’ spaces shared by both the private and the public.

Advocacy
Community Development
Urban Strategies

Studios Kabako

2014 Prize Winner

Can art transform a nation torn apart by conflict and strife? Studios Kabako addresses post-war social memory, fear, and hope. It creates a network for artistic expression at home in the Congolese city of Kisangani and through international commissions.

Community Development
Conflict and Disaster

Sustainable Health Enterprises {SHE}

2010 Prize Winner

Can menstrual pads contribute to economic opportunities for women? 18% of women and girls in Rwanda miss school and work because they cannot afford menstrual pads. SHE developed affordable, locally produced pads that provide sanitary protection and business opportunities.

Healthcare

Suzanne Lacy

Social Design Circle Honoree

What is the role of art in engaging the public in social justice issues? American artist and activist Suzanne Lacy tackles gender violence, segregation and other social justice issues. Her work evokes discussion and debate and often engages audiences directly, outside of institutional structures.

Advocacy

TAMassociati/Emergency

2013 Prize Winner

How can architecture bring dignity in war-torn regions? Studio TAMassociati is a nonprofit architecture firm recognized for designing healthcare facilities in war-torn areas [...] in partnership with Emergency, an Italian NGO, that provides medical treatment to war victims.

Community Development
Environment

The Association La Voûte Nubienne

Social Design Circle Honoree

Can resurrecting building techniques from antiquity solve a West African housing crisis? West Africans face unique challenges in sourcing materials for sustainable, cost-efficient housing. In response, The Association la Voûte Nubienne (“AVN”) is bringing back an ages old technique: mud brick.

Housing

Theaster Gates

Social Design Circle Honoree

Can we design community engagement? Theaster Gates is an artist, curator, urbanist and facilitator. His projects catalyze social engagement and political change. Gates’ studio practice works in tandem with urban interventions integrating art and community regeneration.

Advocacy
Community Development

thinkpublic

Social Design Circle Honoree

Can better human services be co-designed? London-based Thinkpublic is a social design agency helping improve services of public sector and nonprofit organizations. Thinkpublic’s collborative “co-design” approach identifies and addresses problems which may not have been apparent.

Advocacy
Community Development

Turquoise Mountain

Social Design Circle Honoree

Can revitalizing traditional crafts bring economic stability to areas of conflict? Non profit Turquoise Mountain regenerates urban areas and stimulates the traditional craft industry in Afghanistan, Myanmar and Saudi Arabia. It revives traditional skills, creates jobs and business development opportunities.

Community Development
Conflict and Disaster

Urban-Think Tank

Social Design Circle Honoree

How can urban dwellers participate in the construction of their own built environment? Urban-Think Tank (UTT) is an interdisciplinary design studio dedicated to high level research and design at a variety of scales, principally concerned with contemporary architecture and urbanism.

Community Development
Urban Strategies

Wes Janz

2008 Prize Winner

How can designers address poverty in American cities? Architect Wes Janz focuses on the potential of informal settlements and camps housing 1 billion of the world’s poor. He sees these as a utilitarian beauty wrought of necessity.

Advocacy
Environment
Housing
Urban Strategies

YA + K

Social Design Circle Honoree

Can design free the public from hierarchical constraints in society? YA + K is a French collective that seeks new ways of understanding and defining public space. Their projects focus on low-tech innovation and the creation of new economies.

Community Development
Environment

Yatin Pandya

Social Design Circle Honoree

How do we design with scarcity? Yatin Pandya is the founder and executive director of Footprints E.A.R.T.H. (Environment, Architecture, Research, Technology, Housing), an Indian professional services organization focused on research, design and the promotion of more sustainable urban futures.

Environment
Housing

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The Curry Stone Foundation (CSF) is the brainchild of architect, urban planner and developer Clifford Curry, FAIA, and the historical archeologist Dr. Delight Stone, RPA. It was inspired by a shared conviction that design thinking and design actions can—and should, serve those wishing to contribute to community vitality and human dignity. Most of all, we believe that design should be available to those most in need.

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