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.
Does Design Create Politics or Vice Versa?
Adbusters seeks to "advance the new social activist movement of the information age." Its activities include a magazine challenging consumerism, anti-consumeristic spoof ads and inspiring and/or launching subversive public awareness campaigns.
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.
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.
Should designers be outlaws?
Arquitectura Expandida is a design collective based in Bogota, Colombia that builds structures of public assembly for communities which cannot afford to go through official channels for design and construction.
How can global practices and individuals share ways to effect change within the built environment?
Arquitecturas Colectivas is a massive, open-source network interested in the participatory construction of the built environment. The common thread is a willingness to manipulate the fabric of the built environment.
Can low cost, simple designs be implemented at scale?
Engineer Ashok Gadgil designs low-cost technologies for the vulnerable. Whether they eliminate arsenic from ground water or make cooking safer for refugees, Gadgil’s solutions are simple and broadly implementable.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Can high quality, low cost medical equipment be broadly available to the world’s poorest?
D-Rev, a San Francisco based nonprofit product development company designs and distributes radically affordable, world-class medical products to some of the world’s poorest citizens.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
Can design challenge inequality?
John Peterson and Emily Pilloton share their practices and discuss how design can subvert structural inequality.
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.
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 prevent disaster?
Dr. Elizabeth Hausler of Build Change details a homeowner-driven approach to rebuilding after disaster.
Can design prevent disaster?
Mohammed Rezwan of Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha details his designs for floating communities.
Can design prevent disaster?
Geohazards International shares their groundbreaking methods for disaster mitigation.
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 design reclaim public space?
Ecosistema Urbano & Interboro share their stories about how they shaped a practice around public space.
Can design reclaim public space?
Interboro and Ecosistema Urbano get tactical and walk our hosts through the nuts and bolts of how they do their work.
Can we design a slum-friendly city?
Anshu Gupta of Goonj discusses his unique methodology for community development: clothes as currency.
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?
Dean Still of Aprovecho talks to us about the history of Aprovecho and their work to improve cookstove technology.
What can design do to promote peace?
Alessandro Petti and Sandi Hilal introduce their work on statelessness and human rights.
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.
Should designers be outlaws?
Arquitectura Expandida discusses its approach to working in informal communities alongside (and sometimes around) government.
What can design do to promote peace?
Isella Ramirez of Hester Street discusses their strategies for making communities be heard.
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.
Can a city work as an ecosystem?
Gail Vittori and Pliny Fisk expand on the lifecycle design, ecology and the future of cities.
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?
Vera and Ruedi Baur of Civic City discuss how graphic design can be a tool of political change.
Should designers be outlaws?
Santiago Cirugeda - Spain’s 'Guerrilla Architect’ - explains how he challenges urban authority and makes neighborhoods work for everyone.
Does design create politics or vice versa?
Kalle Lasn discusses ‘culture-jamming’ and political resistance.
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 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 design resistance?
John Cary is an American connector, writer, speaker and curator focused on social change.
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?
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?
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?
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?
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?
Bryan C. Lee Jr. and Sue Mobley of Colloqate Design continue our discussion about design as a tool against oppression.
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?
Ersela Kripa and Stephen Mueller of Agency Architecture reveal their global projects on urbanism and resistance.
How do we design resistance?
Ersela Kripa and Stephen Mueller of Agency Architecture reveal their global projects on urbanism and resistance.
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.
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.
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?
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?
Dr. Jonathan Massey talks about the future of design education, and what radical experiments are underway.
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?
Doina Petrescu is an architect, researcher, and educator, focused on ideas of co-production and equity in design.
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.
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?
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?
Hosts Eric Cesal and Karen Kubey talk to Courtney Sharpe and Amanda Miller of Black in Design about how to start student movements.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
What happens when traditional and modern design techniques are blended?
Inteligencias Colectivas focuses on the ‘fringe’ of construction practice. Between highly mechanized construction and ancient methods are blended practices with their own wisdom. Inteligencias Colectivas¬ collects, collates and shares these.
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.
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’.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Can a former salami factory be a home, gallery, film set and a commentary on eviction?
Museo dell’Altro e dell’Altrove di Metropoliz is simultaneously a gallery, film project, home for 200 displaced people and a profound social and political commentary on a common problem: eviction.
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.
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.
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.
How can citizens take planning into their own hands?
Santiago Cirugeda is the founder and principal of Recetas Urbanas (Urban Recipes), a design & advocacy collective of architects, lawyers and social workers based in Seville, Spain.
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.
Can restoration work in Palestine reinforce cultural identity?
RIWAQ Centre for Architectural Conservation documents Palestinian heritage through restoration of the built environment. For Riwaq, conservation and historic restoration are tools for advancement; creating spaces where contemporary communities thrive.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
