What Now for Social Impact Design? Our Special Projects Director Eric J. Cesal is a designer, writer, noted post-disaster expert, and podcast host.
Crisis in Climate, Crisis in Design Dr. Ken Yeang is a Malaysian architect, ecologist, planner and author celebrated for both his built & theoretical work in green urbanism.
Crisis in Climate, Crisis in Design Alex Steffen is an award-winning writer, speaker and foresight consultant, focused on climate change and planetary sustainability.
Crisis in Climate, Crisis in Design Bruce King, PE, natural building advocate, joins us to discuss his new book “The New Carbon Architecture: Building to Cool the Planet”
Crisis in Climate, Crisis in Design Mary Ann Lazarus is an American architect and longtime leader in the field of sustainable design.
Crisis in Climate, Crisis in Design Starhawk is an author, activist, permaculture designer and teacher, and a prominent voice in modern earth-based spirituality and ecofeminism.
Crisis in Climate, Crisis in Design Kian Goh is an Assistant Professor of Urban Planning at the University of California Los Angeles whose research focuses on the intersections of ecological design, spatial justice and climate change. Goh’s work is known for centering racial and social justice within the climate change conversation.
Crisis in Climate, Crisis in Design Eric Corey Freed award-winning American architect, author, speaker and green strategist, joins us to talk about the state of the union in green design.
Engaging + Reframing the 'Refugee' Crisis Rania Qawasma of Architecture for Refugees joins us to discuss what designers can do to help welcome refugees.
Engaging + Reframing the 'Refugee' Crisis Anna Meddaugh joins us to talk about the origins and development of The Night Loo, a reusable personal urinal designed for women and girls in refugee camps.
Engaging + Reframing the 'Refugee' Crisis Tasha Freidus of NeedsList joins us to discuss tech solutions to humanitarian crises.
Engaging + Reframing the 'Refugee' Crisis The Refugee Academy is a Berlin-based non-profit that creates learning spaces for refugees seeking to assimilate.
Engaging + Reframing the 'Refugee' Crisis Mariam Chazalnoel of IOM joins us to discuss how to advance the topic of migration within the current Climate Change dialogue
Engaging + Reframing the 'Refugee' Crisis Dr. Nina Hall is an Assistant Professor of International Relations at John Hopkins University School of Advanced International Relations, where she studies the global organizations that preside over issues of climate change, migration and displacement.
Engaging + Reframing the 'Refugee' Crisis Kilian Kleinschmidt of IPA/Swixtboard is an internationally regarded expert in international development, emergency response, and resource mobilization.
The Narrative of Design & Activism Amanda Baillieu is the founder of architecture platform Archiboo, which organizes talks and networking events, as well as the annual Archiboo Web Awards.
The Narrative of Design & Activism Asad Syrkett is the Deputy Editor at Curbed, where he directs a portfolio around architecture, decor, urbanism, technology, fashion, art, travel, and issues of race and gender in the design world.
The Narrative of Design & Activism Spencer Bailey of Phaidon publishing joins us to discuss concepts of ‘slow’ media, and how to be more conscientious about the media we consume.
The Narrative of Design & Activism Diana Budds is a producer and design writer based in New York City. She writes on all facets of design and how designers affect and reflect culture.
The Narrative of Design & Activism Aaron Seward is editor of Texas Architect magazine, where he curates, writes and produces an ongoing dialogue about architecture & urbanism.
The Narrative of Design & Activism Jerome Harris is an American graphic designer and educator whose research focuses on omitted narratives of African American designers in the field of graphic design.
The Narrative of Design & Activism Pedestrian Activist Alissa Walker joins us to talk about the walkability of cities, sustainable transportation and development.
Design at the Intersection of Technology and Humanity Daniel Feldman and Adam Reineck of Ideo.org join us to talk about human-centered design.
Design at the Intersection of Technology and Humanity Hal Aronson, Ph.D, is the Director of Technology and Education and the co-founder of WE CARE Solar – an organization working to provide light & power to medical facilities across the developing world.
Design at the Intersection of Technology and Humanity Michelle Moghtader is the Director of Global Development & Co-Founder of Shared Studios, as well as a journalist and community organizer.
Design at the Intersection of Technology and Humanity D-Rev, a nonprofit product development company based in San Francisco designs, develops and distributes radically affordable world-class medical products
Design at the Intersection of Technology and Humanity Ken Banks is the author of two books on social innovation and entrepreneurship: The Rise of the Reluctant Innovator, and Musings of a Mobile Anthropologist: Tales of Technology, Anthropology, Conservation and Development.
Who Designs the Designers? Emiliano Gandolfi and Eric Cesal reflect on a full year of Social Design Insights.
Who Designs the Designers? Katie Crepeau joins us to talk about the challenges of starting and growing a social design practice.
Who Designs the Designers? Cheryl Heller is the Founding Chair of the first MFA program in Design for Social Innovation at the School of Visual Arts in New York, New York, and President of the design lab CommonWise.
Who Designs the Designers? Kyle Reis is widely known throughout the philanthropic world as a champion of social design.
Who Designs the Designers? Orkidstudio is a social enterprise based in Nairobi, Kenya, which focuses not only on the design of great buildings, but on the design of design & construction processes in ways that promote equity, inclusion, and social development.
Who Designs the Designers? For twenty years, the Prince Claus Fund and the Prince Claus Award has supported cultural development and practice in Latin America, Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and Eastern Europe. The Fund supports artists and practitioners from many different fields, ranging from artists, to architects and cartoonists.
Who Designs the Designers? Swenson is currently undertaking a Loeb Fellowship at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where she studies the role of love as an animus for design – asking how our cities and neighborhoods might look if we accepted love as the primary motivator of design.
Who Designs the Designers? Jason Schupbach is the director of The Design School at the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University. There, he’s undertaking an ambitious effort to ‘redesign design school,’ looking for ways to create a design school for the 21st century.
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.
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?
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.
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.
Is Resilience Still Relevant? Mario and Nuno do Rosario discuss the history of design in Mozambique from Independence to the present-day.
Is Resilience Still Relevant? Architect Hsieh Ying-Chun joins host Eric Cesal to talk about how people can power rebuilding after disaster.
Is Resilience Still Relevant? Mathew Sanders details the pioneering struggle of the people of Isle de Jean Charles in confronting climate change.
Is Resilience Still Relevant? Zander Rose of the Long Now Foundation speaks with us about how designers can design better by thinking differently about time.
How can cities be reimagined by their citizens? Two central figures in public art and community building unveil how they help communities take control of their own futures.
Can design education promote social justice? Black in Design is a student-led biennial gathering which confronts issues of race and equity throughout the design professions.
Can design education promote social justice? Dr. Sharon Egretta Sutton, FAIA is an activist educator and public scholar who promotes inclusivity in the cultural makeup of the city-making design professions.
Can design education promote social justice? Christian Benimana is Rwandan architect dedicated to addressing the rapid growth and urbanization of Africa’s population.
Can design education promote social justice? Doina Petrescu is an architect and educator who currently serves as the Chair of Architecture and Design Activism at the School of Architecture, University of Sheffield.
Can design education promote social justice? Hosts Eric Cesal and Karen Kubey visit with Coleman Coker, of the Gulf Coast Design Lab, and Sarah Curry, of AIAS to discuss the evolution of social design.
Can design education promote social justice? Dr. Jonathan Massey talks about the future of design education, and what radical experiments are underway.
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.
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.
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.
How do we design resistance? Ersela Kripa and Stephen Mueller of Agency Architecture reveal their global projects on urbanism and resistance.
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.
How do we design resistance? Bryan C. Lee Jr. and Sue Mobley of Colloqate Design join us to discuss how design can support or deconstruct systems of institutional oppression.
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.
How do we design resistance? Deanna Van Buren and Raphael Sperry join us to discuss the architecture of incarceration, and how their respective work campaigns for reform.
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.
How do we design resistance? John Cary is an American connector, writer, speaker and curator focused on social change.
How do we design resistance? Cliff Curry and Delight Stone join Eric and Emiliano to discuss the first year of Social Design Insights and look to what’s ahead.
How do we democratize design? Diébédo Francis Kéré discusses the origins of his practice, and how good design builds community.
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.
How do we democratize design? Omar Nagati and Beth Stryker share their thoughts on CLUSTER Cairo, and the design of urban activism.
How do we democratize design? Dr. Silver of the Centre for Vision in the Developing World shares how his groundbreaking design for self-adjusting glasses can address a serious lack of optometrists in the developing world.
Does design create politics or vice versa? Iconoclasistas discusses the practice of collective mapping and how it can be mobilized to achieve social justice.
Does design create politics or vice versa? Kalle Lasn discusses ‘culture-jamming’ and political resistance.
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.
Does design create politics or vice versa? Lorenzo Romito of Stalker discusses the ‘territory’ of architecture and how it can be expanded.
Does design create politics or vice versa? Kathryn Ewing and Don Shay of VPUU outline how community-based planning can make real results in crime prevention.
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.
Can a city work as an ecosystem? Nance Klehm shares her experiences as a ‘radical ecologist’ and her strategies for helping cities connect with nature.
Can a city work as an ecosystem? Jan Jongert of Superuse Studios shares experiences in designing new forms of ecology within the city.
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.
What can design do to promote peace? Malkit Shoshan of the Foundation for Achieving Seamless Territory discusses the architecture of conflict.
What can design do to promote peace? Isella Ramirez of Hester Street discusses their strategies for making communities be heard.
What can design do to promote peace? Alessandro Petti and Sandi Hilal introduce their work on statelessness and human rights.
How do we design with scarcity? Yatin Pandya discusses his philosophy of ‘holistic design’ and how he seeks new solutions for India’s future.
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.
How do we design with scarcity? Ashok Gadgil speaks to us about simple, low cost solutions to global public health.
How do we design with scarcity? Line Ramstad discusses the origin of Gyaw Gyaw and introduces their methods.
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.
Can we design a slum-friendly city? Anshu Gupta of Goonj discusses his unique methodology for community development: clothes as currency.
Can we design a slum-friendly city? Urban-Think Tank discusses their urban strategy and how they work against structural inequality in cities.
Can design reclaim public space? Chelina Odbert and Jennifer Toy of the Kounkuey Design Initiative share their thoughts on how to engage community.
Can design reclaim public space? Ecosistema Urbano & Interboro share their stories about how they shaped a practice around public space.
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.
Can we design community engagement? Brent Brown of bcWORKSHOP tells us how they serve marginalized communities in the Rio Grande Valley.
Can we design community engagement? Sergio Palleroni discusses his thirty year career in Social Impact Design
Can design prevent disaster? Geohazards International shares their groundbreaking methods for disaster mitigation.
Can design prevent disaster? Mohammed Rezwan of Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha details his designs for floating communities.
Can design prevent disaster? Yasmeen Lari details the growth of resilient architecture and sustainable development in Pakistan.
Can design prevent disaster? Dr. Elizabeth Hausler of Build Change details a homeowner-driven approach to rebuilding after disaster.
Can design challenge inequality? Active Social Architecture is a Kigali-based architecture practice that designs and builds contemporary re-elaborations of vernacular Rwandan architecture.
Can design challenge inequality? David Barragán of Al Borde discusses how design can empower a community to become their own designers & builders.
Can design challenge inequality? Giancarlo Mazzanti shares his thoughts on transforming Medellin and how great architecture can bring neighborhoods together.
Can design challenge inequality? John Peterson and Emily Pilloton share their practices and discuss how design can subvert structural inequality.
Is the right to housing real? Lacaton & Vassal Deconstructs Their Widely Acclaimed methods for the Readaptation of Modernist housing blocks in France.
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.
Is the right to housing real? Jonathan Kirschenfeld and Brenda Rosen share their thoughts on the right to housing, and methodologies for doing supportive housing well.
Should designers be outlaws? Santiago Cirugeda - Spain’s 'Guerrilla Architect’ - explains how he challenges urban authority and makes neighborhoods work for everyone.
Should designers be outlaws? Arquitectura Expandida discusses its approach to working in informal communities alongside (and sometimes around) government.
Should designers be outlaws? Mark Lakeman of the City Repair Project discusses motives and methods for igniting neighborhood change, street by street.
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.
Should designers be outlaws? Eric Cesal and Emiliano Gandolfi, co-hosts of Social Design Insights, are interviewed by SDI Producer Baruch Zeichner.
