Skip to main content?
Curry Stone Foundation
  • What is Social Impact Design?
    • Overview
    • Most Urgent Questions
  • About the Foundation
    • Overview
    • Initiatives
    • People
    • Awards
      • Overview
      • Grantees
      • Curry Stone Design Prize Winners
      • Social Design Circle Honorees
    • News
    • Connect with Us
  • What is Social Impact Design?
    • Overview
    • Most Urgent Questions
  • About the Foundation
    • Overview
    • Initiatives
    • People
    • Awards
      • Overview
      • Grantees
      • Curry Stone Design Prize Winners
      • Social Design Circle Honorees
    • News
    • Connect with Us
  • Practices
  • Explore by Keyword
  • Advanced Search
  • Advocacy

  • Community Development

  • Conflict and Disaster

  • Education

  • Environment

  • Healthcare

  • Housing

  • Resilience

  • Urban Strategies

Slum Development

26 | Making Public Space Productive

Podcast
Social Design Circle Honoree
Can design reclaim public space? Chelina Odbert and Jennifer Toy of the Kounkuey Design Initiative share their thoughts on how to engage community.
  • Community Development
  • Environment

32 | Slum Networking, Explained.

Podcast
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

37 | Finding Holistic Design Through History

Podcast
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

Community Design Agency

Design Foundation Initiative
CSF Grantee
How can art and design be used to strengthen communities? Community Design Agency is an architecture and design agency that collaborates with diverse communities in need to create sustainable change.
  • Advocacy
  • Community Development
  • Housing

Himanshu Parikh

Social Design Circle Honoree
Podcast
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

Kounkuey Design Initiative

Social Design Circle Honoree
Podcast
How can conversation with residents and deep engagement lead to community empowerment? Kounkuey Design Initiative is a non-profit based in Kenya and California. Using extensive community engagement, KDI reveals systemic needs and enlists the community in constructing solutions.
  • Community Development
  • Resilience

Liter of Light

2012 Prize Winner
Video
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.
  • Advocacy
  • Community Development
  • Resilience

Luyanda Mpahlwa

2008 Prize Winner
Video
Can a community be built with sand? Luyanda Mpahlwa is part of a vanguard of designers reshaping and re-envisioning South Africa’s post-apartheid architectural landscape.
  • Advocacy
  • Community Development
  • Housing

Museo dell’Altro e dell’Altrove di Metropoliz

Social Design Circle Honoree
Can a former salami factory be a home, gallery, film set and a commentary on eviction? Simultaneously a gallery, film project, home for two hundred displaced people (including fifty children) and a profound social and political commentary on an all­ too ­common problem: eviction, the Museo dell’Altro e dell’Altrove di Metropoliz (MAAM), “Museum of the Other and the Elsewhere” is a space unlike any other.
  • Advocacy
  • Housing

Slum Redevelopment

Design Foundation Initiative
How can a designer build trust among residents under a constant threat of eviction? The residents of a Ahmednagar slum live under a constant threat of eviction. CDA is focusing on trust building, empowering residents to take on development and construction of their homes.
  • Community Development
  • Housing
  • Resilience
  • Urban Strategies

SPARC

2016 Prize Winner
Vision Award Recipient
Video
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.
  • Advocacy
  • Community Development

Urban-Think Tank

Social Design Circle Honoree
Podcast
How can urban dwellers participate in the construction of their own built environment? Urban-Think Tank (U-TT) is an interdisciplinary design studio dedicated to high-level research and design at a variety of scales. The studio champions collaborative work with intended users as a tool to develop spaces and projects that reinterpret the potential of unbuilt areas.
  • Advocacy
  • Community Development

Urbz

Social Design Circle Honoree
How can slum dwellers be protected against profit-minded developers? Urbz is an experimental action and research collective specialized in participatory planning and design. They work with citizens, associations, local governments, and private clients in Mumbai, Bogotá, and Geneva.
  • Advocacy
  • Community Development
  • Resilience

Yatin Pandya

Social Design Circle Honoree
Podcast
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

Connect With Us currystonefdn

currystonefdn

Sandhya Naidu Janardhan (@sandhyajnaidu) wins the Sandhya Naidu Janardhan (@sandhyajnaidu) wins the prestigious Berkeley Rupp Prize (@ced_berkeley)! We are so proud to have been a part of her and her Mumbai-based studio Community Design Agency's (@communitydesignagency) journey. Under Sandhya's leadership the studio has created benchmarks in what empathetic and collaborative neighborhood regeneration, rooted in sustainability, community building and joy, can truly look like. Many congratulations on this well-deserved recognition, Sandhya!  Read more about the award through the link in our bio and visit @communitydesignagency's page to learn more about their work.  Picture credits: Community Design Agency, Rajesh Vora, Tejinder Singh Khamkha  #berkeleyruppprize #communitybasedesign #mumbai #slumredevelopment #participatorydesign #publichousing
Ep. 62: Finding Empathy, Making Art Snippet from Ep. 62: Finding Empathy, Making Art  Snippet from Dr Suzanne Lacy's (@suzanne.lacy) conversation with @ericjcesal on the #SocialDesignInsights #Podcast  The #SocialDesignCircle honoree recently launched the second iteration of her ongoing project, Uncertain Futures, which looks at the inequalities and insecurities facing women over 50 in Manchester, England, relating to work and worklessness. Produced in collaboration with Manchester Art Gallery (@mcrartgallery), 2 universities and an Advisory Group of 15 women, the second iteration sees the launch of a short film and its research findings following interviews of a 100 women over 50 and the impact of interconnected issues of gender, age, labour, class, migration, status, disability and race on women's paid and unpaid work. The impressive case study has also been featured among UN's Decade of Healthy Ageing Progress Report 2021-2023. Click on the link in our bio to learn more about Uncertain Futures and to listen to Dr. Lacy on the Social Design Insights podcast.  Images from Dr Lacy's performance installations De tu Puno y Letra (2014-15) and The Circle and The Square (2015-17)  #performancearts #suzannelacy #artactivism
As a supporter of the Architects Foundation's (@oc As a supporter of the Architects Foundation's (@octagonmuseum) Diversity Advancement Scholarship, that invests in the next generation to bring diversity in the field of design and architecture, CSF is proud to be a part of Zuleika Baldeo's journey as she pursues her degree from Morgan State University. CSF co-founders and directors Clifford Curry and Dr. Delight Stone meet with her often to offer support and mentorship, which she says is as valuable as the financial support she is receiving from the scholarship funded by the duo. Click on the link in the bio to read more about Zuleika's journey.  Philanthropy partners of @aianational, the Architects Foundation is launching its year end #GivingTuesday campaign today and you can learn more about supporting students like Zuleika by visiting @octagonmuseum's website.  #aianational #architecturescholarship #scholarship #scholarships #givingtuesday #CSF #CurryStoneFoundation #AIA #architectsfoundation #diversityscholarship #diversityscholars #architectsfordiversity #hbcu #blackdesigners #blackarchitects #blackarchitecture #designjustice #morganonsocial #howarduniversity #howardu #aias #nomas #minorityarchitecturestudents #minorityarchitects #minoritydesigners
Iyad Issa, architect at the Curry Stone Design Pri Iyad Issa, architect at the Curry Stone Design Prize winning  studio @riwaq_palestine and Curator of the Engaged Margins exhibit at the @venice.architecture.biennale, talks about the restoration of the archeological site Kafr 'Aqab in the outskirts of Jerusalem and how restoration projects should create room for pause and reflection in the regeneration of physical spaces.  The work is on display till 26th November as a part of the Time Space Existence exhibition at Pallazzo Bembo in Venice and we encourage those attending the Biennale to engage with the nature and context of Riwaq's work and support their efforts.  Video courtesy: European Cultural Center, Italy/YouTube @ecc_italy  Cover Image courtesy: RIWAQ @riwaq_palestine  #riwaq #palestine #jerusalem #architecture #venicebiennale #venicearchitecturebiennale #venicebiennale2023 #conservation #restorativedesign #restorativearchitecture #currystonefoundation #currystonedesignprize #CurryStone #currystonedesign #conservativearchitecture #palestinianheritage #architecturalheritage #architecturalheritageconservation

Get Our Newsletters

Occasional newsletter that keeps you up to date on our recent podcasts, social impact design news and more.

Curry Stone Foundation - Home

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.

  • What is Social Impact Design?
  • About the Foundation
  • Awards
  • Social Design Insights
  • Connect with Us
  • Explore by Keyword
  • Accessibility

Contact Us

1560 NW 25th Avenue, Portland, OR 97210-2426, USA

541.323.2299
info@currystone.org

Level A conformance,
 W3C WAI Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1

REQUESTS FOR FUNDING

Marginalized communities around the world are still dealing with the aftermath of COVID-19. The looming recession and geo-political issues have also been a major cause of concern for all.

Curry Stone Foundation continues to receive numerous requests for support. Many of these causes have significant merit, and we understand the need is great.

We continue to honor our prior commitments, to projects in India and elsewhere, who have needed additional support to reach completion. Since these projects impact fragile, marginalized populations, and are at the crucial stage of scaling, our funds are committed to them.

For these reasons, we will not be able to assist financially with any immediate requests for funds.

Appreciatively,

Curry Stone Foundation

© 2025 Curry Stone Foundation. All Rights Reserved.