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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Urban Strategies

01-02 | Reimagining the Border, Part 1 & 2

Should designers be outlaws? Teddy Cruz and Fonna Forman of Estudio Teddy Cruz + Fonna Forman discuss their practice at the Tijuana/San Diego border and how design transcends politics.

Community Development

03 | The Street As a Revolution

Podcast

Should designers be outlaws? Mark Lakeman of the City Repair Project discusses motives and methods for igniting neighborhood change, street by street.

Community Development
Environment

08 | Growth, Equity & Asian Cities

Podcast

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

09 | Add, Transform, and Reuse!

Podcast

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

12 | Why All Architecture is Social

Podcast

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

15 | A Homeowner-driven Approach to Rebuilding After Disaster

Podcast

Social Design Circle Honoree

Can design prevent disaster? Dr. Elizabeth Hausler of Build Change details a homeowner-driven approach to rebuilding after disaster.

Advocacy
Housing

18 | Unifying First and Third World Strategies for Disaster Mitigation

Podcast

Social Design Circle Honoree

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

Advocacy
Conflict and Disaster

21-22 | Building Community a Block at a Time, Part 1 & 2

Podcast

Social Design Circle Honoree

Can we design community engagement? Brent Brown of bcWORKSHOP tells us how they serve marginalized communities in the Rio Grande Valley.

Community Development
Housing

24-25 | Tools for Urban Action, Part 1 & 2

Podcast

Social Design Circle Honoree

Can design reclaim public space? Ecosistema Urbano & Interboro share their stories about how they shaped a practice around public space.

Advocacy
Community Development
Urban Strategies

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

27-28 | How All Space Becomes Public Space, Part 1 & 2

Podcast

Social Design Circle Honoree

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

Urban Strategies

29-30 | The New Informal City, Part 1 & 2

Podcast

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

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

40 | Activating Community Voices

Podcast

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

41 | Recognizing the Unrecognized

Podcast

Social Design Circle Honoree

What can design do to promote peace? Malkit Shoshan of the Foundation for Achieving Seamless Territory discusses the architecture of conflict.

Community Development
Conflict and Disaster

42-43 | A Green Vision for the Future of Cities Part 1 & 2

Podcast

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

44 | The Blue Economy of the Future

Podcast

Social Design Circle Honoree

Can a city work as an ecosystem? Jan Jongert of Superuse Studios shares experiences in designing new forms of ecology within the city.

Community Development
Environment

48 | Nurturing Collective Imagination in Rome

Podcast

Social Design Circle Honoree

Does design create politics or vice versa? Lorenzo Romito of Stalker discusses the ‘territory’ of architecture and how it can be expanded.

Advocacy
Environment
Urban Strategies

49 | Designing the Politics of the City

Podcast

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

51 | Collective Mapping as a Tool for Social Change

Podcast

Social Design Circle Honoree

Does design create politics or vice versa? Iconoclasistas discusses the practice of collective mapping and how it can be mobilized to achieve social justice.

Community Development
Urban Strategies

53 | Designing After Revolution

Podcast

Social Design Circle Honoree

How do we democratize design? Omar Nagati and Beth Stryker share their thoughts on CLUSTER Cairo, and the design of urban activism.

Urban Strategies

54 | Designing a Post-Industrial Future

Podcast

Social Design Circle Honoree

How do we democratize design? John Fetterman of Braddock, PA, shares his thoughts on how to imagine a new future in a post-industrial landscape.

Advocacy
Community Development
Urban Strategies

65 | Data, Design and Social Practice

Podcast

How do we design resistance? Laura Kurgan of the Center for Spatial Research joins us to talk about how data and the design of data systems can be applied to social justice.

Advocacy

72 | Teaching Change

Podcast

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

Advocacy

83 | Human-powered Resilience in Action

Podcast

Social Design Circle Honoree

Is Resilience Still Relevant? Architect Hsieh Ying-Chun joins host Eric Cesal to talk about how people can power rebuilding after disaster.

Community Development
Conflict and Disaster
Housing
Resilience
Urban Strategies

84-85 | Architecture, Wake Up, It’s a New Day, Part 1 & 2

Podcast

Is Resilience Still Relevant? Mario and Nuno do Rosario discuss the history of design in Mozambique from Independence to the present-day.

Community Development
Conflict and Disaster
Resilience
Urban Strategies

86 | Disaster, Design and Development

Podcast

Is Resilience Still Relevant? As the world faces a rising tide of disasters and climate-induced migration, there are serious questions as to whether the design community is prepared to offer solutions meaningful to the crises humanity faces.

Community Development
Housing
Resilience

87 | Experiments in Resilience Amid the Backloop

Podcast

Is Resilience Still Relevant? Wakefield is an Urban Studies Foundation Research Fellow at Florida International University in the Department of Global and Sociocultural Studies. Her work, developed over the past decade of teaching and research in New York City, explores the diverse practices and technologies of resilient urbanism as both technical phenomenon and catalysts of new kinds of life in the Anthropocene.

Conflict and Disaster
Resilience
Urban Strategies

88 | How to Make Useful Noise

Podcast

Is Resilience Still Relevant? By the middle of this century, up to 300 million people will be displaced by climate change and climate change disasters. What is the ethical role of designers in adapting the built environment to such changes?

Community Development
Conflict and Disaster
Housing
Resilience
Urban Strategies

89 | How to Make More Integrated Humans

Podcast

Social Design Circle Honoree

Is Resilience Still Relevant? We had a chance to speak with Marcin Jakubowski on Social Design Insights, where he and our host Eric Cesal spoke about the future of agriculture, industry, and how to make more evolved humans.

Community Development
Urban Strategies

Architecture for Humanity

2013 Prize Winner

Vision Award Recipient

Video

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

Podcast

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

Assemble

Social Design Circle Honoree

What is the antidote to luxury apartments no one will live in? Assemble is a UK-based collective which critically examines the relationship between design, public space and public life.

Urban Strategies

Basurama

Social Design Circle Honoree

Podcast

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

bcWORKSHOP

Social Design Circle Honoree

Podcast

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.

Community Development
Housing

Breaking Ground

Social Design Circle Honoree

Podcast

What is supportive housing? Breaking Ground innovated “supportive housing. It includes, but goes beyond, shelter. BG repurposes and builds dignified living environments that support residents via services including counseling, job services and more.

Housing
Urban Strategies

Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems

Social Design Circle Honoree

Podcast

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 Spatial Research

Social Design Circle Honoree

Can big data be used in the service of social justice? The Center for Spatial Research links design, architecture, urbanism and humanities with data science. Data is used in the service of justice; creating visualizations to understand cities, conflict and inequality.

Urban Strategies

Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP)

2012 Prize Winner

Video

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

City Repair Project

Social Design Circle Honoree

Podcast

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.

Community Development
Environment

Civic City

Social Design Circle Honoree

Podcast

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

CLUSTER Cairo

Social Design Circle Honoree

Podcast

How do we democratize design? Cairo Lab for Urban Studies, Training and Environmental Research (CLUSTER) engages in critical theorization while being grounded in professional practice; negotiating the blurred boundaries between formal, institutional regulations and urban informality.

Urban Strategies

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

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.

Community Development
Environment
Urban Strategies

Detroit Collaborative Design Center

Social Design Circle Honoree

Can Design Challenge Inequality? The Detroit Collaborative Design Center (DCDC) is a multi-disciplinary non-profit architecture and urban design firm. Its mission is to help revive the urban landscape of Detroit through innovative design and collaborative community practices.

Community Development
Urban Strategies

Echeverri & Fajardo

2009 Prize Winner

Video

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

Podcast

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

Elemental

2010 Prize Winner

Video

Can public housing be designed to encourage resident ownership? Elemental is a Chilean architectural firm that rose to prominence by building low income urban dwellers “half a good house,” that residents could complete on their own.

Community Development
Urban Strategies

Estudio Teddy Cruz + Forman

Social Design Circle Honoree

Podcast

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

EXYZT

Social Design Circle Honoree

Podcast

Can Design Reclaim Public Space? EXYZT was a European multidisciplinary design collective that broke extraordinary ground in challenging traditional notions of how public space can be organized.

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

Foundation for Achieving Seamless Territory

Social Design Circle Honoree

Podcast

Is there a relationship between architecture, planning, politics and human rights? The Foundation for Achieving Seamless Territory (FAST) is a think tank founded from a desire to spark a discussion about how political powers use architecture and architects to implement ideological agendas.

Community Development
Conflict and Disaster

GeoHazards International

Social Design Circle Honoree

Podcast

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

Podcast

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

Gulf Coast Community Design Studio

Social Design Circle Honoree

How can the community be integrated into the rebuilding process? Established in Biloxi, Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina, to provide design services to devastated communities in the Mississippi Gulf Coast, GCCDS' services today include support for long-term sustainability and community prosperity.

Community Development
Urban Strategies

Hester Street Collaborative

Social Design Circle Honoree

Podcast

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

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

Hsieh Ying-Chun

2011 Prize Winner

Video

How can a community contribute to a post-disaster rebuilding process? Hsieh Ying-Chun is a Taiwanese architect who works throughout Asia training villagers to build locally-appropriate dwellings in response to earthquake devastation.

Community Development
Conflict and Disaster
Environment

Hunnarshala

2013 Prize Winner

Video

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

Iconoclasistas

Social Design Circle Honoree

Podcast

Can maps promote equality and strategies of resistance? Iconoclasistas is a Buenos Aires-based design duo. Their mission is to use cartography (maps) and other graphic arts to create new visions of historic representation, societal growth and participation.

Community Development
Urban Strategies

Interboro

Social Design Circle Honoree

Podcast

How can designers create a more inclusive space? Interboro is an architecture, urban design, and planning firm based in Brooklyn, New York. Interboro works across scales and take a participatory, place-specific approach that builds consensus around complex projects.

Advocacy
Community Development
Urban Strategies

Ishinomaki 2.0

Social Design Circle Honoree

How can a disaster be a catalyst for new visions? After the 2011 earthquake and tsunami destroyed their home, the founders of Ishinomaki 2.0 came together with the goal of rebuilding humble Ishinomaki into the ‘most interesting city in the world’.

Advocacy
Urban Strategies

Jeanne van Heeswijk

2012 Prize Winner

Video

Can art mend neighborhoods? Artist Jeanne van Heeswijk’s work centers on the relationship between public space and urban renewal. She embeds herself in communities, working with them to improve neighborhoods and design their futures.

Advocacy
Urban Strategies

John Fetterman

Social Design Circle Honoree

Podcast

How can a town decimated by globalization be revitalized? John Fetterman is an American politician who, as Mayor of Braddock, Pennsylvania, led the urban rejuvenation of a post-industrial city.

Advocacy
Community Development
Urban Strategies

Kounkuey Design Initiative

Social Design Circle Honoree

Podcast

How can conversation with residents and deep engagement lead to community empowerment? The non-profit Kounkuey Design Initiative is based in Los Angeles, CA and Nairobi, Kenya. Using extensive community engagement, it reveals systemic needs and enlists the community in constructing solutions.

Community Development
Environment

Lacaton & Vassal

Social Design Circle Honoree

Podcast

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

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

PICO Colectivo

Social Design Circle Honoree

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.

Community Development
Urban Strategies

Public Architecture

Social Design Circle Honoree

Podcast

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

Rural Urban Framework (RUF)

2015 Prize Winner

Video

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

Stalker

Social Design Circle Honoree

Podcast

Does design create politics or vice versa? Stalker is a collective of artists, architects, activists and others whose work focuses on the margins of the city.

Advocacy
Community Development
Environment
Urban Strategies

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

Superuse Studios

Social Design Circle Honoree

Podcast

Can a “blue” economy be created where one business' waste is raw materials for another? Rotterdam based Superuse Studios is at the leading edge of ecological thought. Their work pioneers ideas around an economy where the waste of one business becomes raw materials for another.

Environment

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

Transition Network

2009 Prize Winner

Video

Can your neighborhood become a self-sufficient community? The Transition Network is a global network of communities responding to global warming and declining oil with local self-sufficiency in food, energy and more.

Community Development
Environment

Urban-Think Tank

Social Design Circle Honoree

Podcast

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

Urbz

Social Design Circle Honoree

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.

Community Development
Urban Strategies

USINA CTAH

Social Design Circle Honoree

Can the built environment escape a profit-driven motive? USINA Centro de Trabalhos para o Ambiente Habitado is a Brazilian group that works across disciplines to assist working people in planning and developing of their own communities.

Housing
Urban Strategies

Violence Prevention Through Urban Upgrading

Social Design Circle Honoree

Podcast

Can urban upgrading reduce crime? In Cape Town’s Khayelitsha township, Violence Prevention Through Urban Upgrading (VPUU) uses urban planning to fight crime, developing interventions in high-crime spots. They create decent, livable communities through local planning.

Community Development
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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