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Advocacy

Here you’ll find practices that work in pursuit of new laws, ideas, codes and understandings of how people, buildings and space can interact. These practices blur the line between design and activism; practicing both at the same time.

Related Keywords
  • Advocacy
  • Education
  • Architecture
  • Civic Empowerment
  • Community Development
  • North America
  • Art Activism
  • Community Engagement
  • Urban Strategies
  • Research
  • Environmental Sustainability
  • Innovation

00 | Emiliano Gandolfi & Eric Cesal

Podcast
Should designers be outlaws? Eric Cesal and Emiliano Gandolfi, co-hosts of Social Design Insights, are interviewed by SDI Producer Baruch Zeichner.
  • Advocacy

04 | Engaging Community, Engaging Practice

Podcast
Social Design Circle Honoree
Should designers be outlaws? Arquitectura Expandida discusses its approach to working in informal communities alongside (and sometimes around) government.
  • Advocacy
  • Community Development
  • Urban Strategies

05 | Flirting with Illegality

Podcast
Social Design Circle Honoree
Should designers be outlaws? Santiago Cirugeda - Spain’s 'Guerrilla Architect’ - explains how he challenges urban authority and makes neighborhoods work for everyone.
  • Advocacy
  • Community Development

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

10-11 | Emily Pilloton and John Peterson Argue for Design as the Great Equalizer, Part 1 & 2

Podcast
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

103 | Considering Just Transit for a Just City

Podcast
The Narrative of Design & Activism Pedestrian Activist Alissa Walker joins us to talk about the walkability of cities, sustainable transportation and development.
  • Advocacy

104 | Omitted Narratives in Graphic Design

Podcast
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.
  • Advocacy

105 | Taking a Critical Stance on Design

Podcast
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.
  • Advocacy

106 | Making Design a Part of the Conversation

Podcast
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.
  • Advocacy

107 | In Defense of Slowness

Podcast
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.
  • Advocacy

108 | How to Kick the Building

Podcast
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.
  • Advocacy

109 | All the Stories Left to Tell

Podcast
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.
  • Advocacy

113 | Opening the World to Refugees

Podcast
Engaging + Reframing the 'Refugee' Crisis The Refugee Academy is a Berlin-based non-profit that creates learning spaces for refugees seeking to assimilate.
  • Advocacy
  • Community Development
  • Conflict and Disaster

14 | Combining Ancient Traditions and Contemporary Social Design

Podcast
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

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

17 | Mitigating Climate-Based Disaster Before it Strikes

Podcast
Social Design Circle Honoree
Can design prevent disaster? Mohammed Rezwan of Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha details his designs for floating communities.
  • Advocacy
  • Community Development
  • Environment

18 | Unifying First and Third World Strategies for Disaster Mitigation

Podcast
Social Design Circle Honoree
CSF Grantee
Can design prevent disaster? Geohazards International shares their groundbreaking methods for disaster mitigation.
  • Advocacy
  • Conflict and Disaster

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

Podcast
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

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

31 | Clothing, Currency and Community

Podcast
Social Design Circle Honoree
Can we design a slum-friendly city? Anshu Gupta of Goonj discusses his unique methodology for community development: clothes as currency.
  • Advocacy
  • Community Development
  • Environment

35 | Big Problems, Simple Solutions

Podcast
Social Design Circle Honoree
How do we design with scarcity? Ashok Gadgil speaks to us about simple, low cost solutions to global public health.
  • Advocacy

36 | Changing the Way We Make Fire

Podcast
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

38-39 | The Architecture of Stateless Nations, Part 1 & 2

Podcast
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

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

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

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

50 | How to Mobilize a Billion People

Podcast
Social Design Circle Honoree
Does design create politics or vice versa? Kalle Lasn discusses ‘culture-jamming’ and political resistance.
  • Advocacy

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

57 | Social Design Insights 2017 Year in Review

Podcast
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.
  • Advocacy

58 | Public Interest Design, Past & Future

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

59 | Architecture at the Border of Design and Politics

Podcast
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

60-61 | Justice, Incarceration & Design, Part 1 & 2

Podcast
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.
  • Advocacy

62 | Finding Empathy, Making Art

Podcast
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

63-64 | Design as Protest, Protest by Design, Part 1 & 2

Podcast
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.
  • Advocacy

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

66-67 | Fronts: Security in the Developing World, Part 1 & 2

Podcast
How do we design resistance? Ersela Kripa and Stephen Mueller of Agency Architecture reveal their global projects on urbanism and resistance.
  • Advocacy

68-69 | Bringing Designers Together, Part 1 & 2

Podcast
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

70 | Demanding More from Design Education

Podcast
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

71 | Teaching Design, Teaching Leadership

Podcast
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

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

73 | Public Interest Design, Past, Present & Future

Podcast
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.
  • Advocacy

74 | Co-Producing Design Education

Podcast
Social Design Circle Honoree
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.
  • Advocacy

75 | New Forms of Design Education for New Forms of Cities

Podcast
Can design education promote social justice? Christian Benimana is Rwandan architect dedicated to addressing the rapid growth and urbanization of Africa’s population.
  • Advocacy
  • Environment
  • Urban Strategies

76 | Design School as a Site of Insurrection, Then and Now

Podcast
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.
  • Advocacy

77-78 | Building Social Movements from the Ground Up, Part 1 & 2

Podcast
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.
  • Advocacy

79-80 | Inciting Radical Communities, Part 1 & 2

Podcast
Social Design Circle Honoree
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.
  • Advocacy
  • Community Development
  • Urban Strategies

81 | The Resiliency of Right Now

Podcast
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.
  • Advocacy
  • Environment
  • Resilience

90 | Building Coalitions the Right Way

Podcast
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.
  • Advocacy
  • Community Development

91 | Designing with Love

Podcast
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.
  • Advocacy
  • Community Development
  • Environment
  • Healthcare
  • Housing

92 | Do Good Stuff While You’re Here

Podcast
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.
  • Advocacy
  • Community Development
  • Conflict and Disaster
  • Healthcare

93 | Developing New Forms of Community Design

Podcast
Social Design Circle Honoree
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.
  • Advocacy
  • Community Development
  • Housing

94 | The Evolving Picture of Design Philanthropy

Podcast
Who Designs the Designers? Kyle Reis is widely known throughout the philanthropic world as a champion of social design.
  • Advocacy
  • Community Development

95 | Designing Intergalactically

Podcast
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.
  • Advocacy

96 | Knowing the Business of Social Design

Podcast
Who Designs the Designers? Katie Crepeau joins us to talk about the challenges of starting and growing a social design practice.
  • Advocacy
  • Community Development

97 | 2018 Year in Review

Podcast
Who Designs the Designers? Emiliano Gandolfi and Eric Cesal reflect on a full year of Social Design Insights.
  • Advocacy
  • Community Development
  • Conflict and Disaster
  • Environment
  • Healthcare
  • Housing

Active Social Architecture

Social Design Circle Honoree
Podcast
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

Adbusters

Social Design Circle Honoree
Podcast
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.
  • Advocacy

Alliance of Community Trainers

CSF Grantee
Can design increase civic engagement? The Alliance of Community Trainers works with communities to create a shared vision and to empower communities with tools for problem solving, conflict resolution, alternative technology, environmental sustainability and more.
  • Advocacy
  • Community Development
  • Conflict and Disaster
  • Environment
  • Resilience
  • Urban Strategies

Anna Heringer

2009 Prize Winner
Video
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

Aprovecho Research Center

Social Design Circle Honoree
Podcast
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

Arquitectura Expandida

Social Design Circle Honoree
Podcast
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.
  • Advocacy
  • Community Development
  • Urban Strategies

Arquitecturas Colectivas

Social Design Circle Honoree
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.
  • Advocacy
  • Community Development

Ashok Gadgil

Social Design Circle Honoree
Podcast
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.
  • Advocacy

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

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

Blue Star Integrative Studio

CSF Grantee
How can design support community development? Blue Star Studio works with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe to discover creative solutions to develop and protect their land.
  • Advocacy
  • Environment
  • Housing

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 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

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

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

D-Rev

Social Design Circle Honoree
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.
  • Advocacy
  • Healthcare

Decolonizing Architecture Art Residency

Social Design Circle Honoree
Podcast
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

Design for the Common Good

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

Designing Justice + Designing Space

CSF Grantee
How can designers challenge structural racism? Oakland-based Designing Justice + Designing Space (DJDS) is an architecture and real estate development non-profit that addresses America's structural racism, inequity and mass incarceration by integrating architecture and design with the philosophy of restorative justice.
  • Advocacy
  • Community Development
  • Resilience

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

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

FrontlineSMS

2011 Prize Winner
Video
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
Podcast
CSF Grantee
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

Girls Garage (formerly Project H Design)

Social Design Circle Honoree
Podcast
Can design challenge inequality? Girls Garage (formerly Project H Design) is a Berkeley-based design education non-profit focused on developing leadership skills for young women through hands-on exposure to designing and building.
  • Advocacy
  • Community Development

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

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

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

Inteligencias Colectivas

Social Design Circle Honoree
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.
  • Advocacy
  • 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

Luyanda Mpahlwa

2008 Prize Winner
Video
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

Means of Exchange (MOE)

CSF Grantee
How can we democratize currency? Means of Exchange is working on the reinvention of exchange currencies using local community currencies, shared resource platforms, crowdfunding and more.
  • Advocacy
  • Community Development

Mohammed Rezwan

Social Design Circle Honoree
Podcast
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

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? 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.
  • Advocacy
  • Community Development

Myna Mahila Foundation

CSF Grantee
How can education be supported through design? Myna Mahila Foundation charges women to speak about menstruation and empowers them through education and micro-entrepreneurship.
  • Advocacy
  • Healthcare

Open Architecture Collaborative

CSF Grantee
Can design increase civic engagement? Open Architecture Collaborative works through participatory engagement and by fostering grassroots design coalitions to build power within underserved communities.
  • Advocacy
  • Community Development

Orkidstudio

Social Design Circle Honoree
Podcast
How do we design with scarcity? James Mitchell and Tatu Gatere are designers and social entrepreneurs at Orkidstudio, a multi-disciplinary firm at the intersection of design, business and social good. Tatu and James discuss their innovative approach to designing the process of social impact design.
  • Advocacy
  • Environment

Project Row Houses

Social Design Circle Honoree
Podcast
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

Qigong Sensory Training Institute

CSF Grantee
What is the role of parent education in the healthcare of autistic children? Qigong Sensory Therapy is a revolutionary approach to treating autism developed by integrating Western and Chinese medicine.
  • Advocacy
  • Healthcare

Recetas Urbanas

Social Design Circle Honoree
Podcast
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.
  • Advocacy
  • Community Development

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
  • Community Development
  • Conflict and Disaster

RIWAQ

2012 Prize Winner
Video
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.
  • Advocacy
  • Conflict and Disaster

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

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

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

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

Suzanne Lacy

Social Design Circle Honoree
Podcast
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

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

Wes Janz

2008 Prize Winner
Video
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

Connect With Us currystonefdn

  • Congratulations to Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal on winning the Pritzker Architecture Prize 2021. Through their writing, teaching and practice, Lacaton and Vassal have successfully argued that re-adaptation of social housing stock is preferable in aesthetic, economic and ecological terms. The #SocialDesignCircle #Honorees have always led by their dictum of “Never demolish, never remove or replace, always add, transform, and reuse!" Click on the link in our bio to listen to the duo on the #SocialDesignInsights #Podcast and learn more about their work. Images: 1) Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal. Photo courtesy of Laurent Chalet. 2) Transformation of G, H, I Buildings, Grand
  • Click on the link in our bio to catch Debbie Aung Din Taylor, co-founder of Curry Stone Design Prize winning practice Proximity Designs (@proximitydesigns) on the Paradigms podcast, where she discusses the work of the Myanmar-based organization. Proximity Designs works closely with small farmers to design affordable solutions to agrarian processes, offers low risk loans and supports community-owned rural infrastructure projects to make agriculture a viable and sustainable source of livelihood. Image Credits: @proximitydesigns #CSF #CurryStoneFoundation #CurryStone #CSDP #designprize #myanmar #agriculture #agrariancrisis #smallfarmers #supportsmallfarmers #farmtech #designforagriculture #farmfinance #empathydrivendesign #proximitydesigns #smallfarmirrigation #irrigationsystem #irrigationsystems #sustainablefarmingpractices #sustainablefarming #sustainableagriculturalpractices #sustainableagriculture
  • We are proud to share that CSF has pledged $125,000 to the Architects Foundation
  • Subscribe to our quarterly newsletter for updates and stories from the field of social design, featuring practices from the Curry Stone network and around the world! Link in the bio. #CurryStoneFoundation #CSF #CurryStone #quarterlynewsletter #newsletter #socialdesign #socialdesignnews #socialjusticenews #socialjustice #communitydesign #communitydesigners #socialarchitecture #socialarchitect
  • Wishing all our followers and friends a warm and safe 2021! #CurryStoneFoundation #CurryStone #CSF
  • Riwaq (@riwaq_palestine), a Curry Stone #DesignPrize winner and Palestine-based architecture and heritage conservation organisation is hosting a virtual tour of Jerusalem villages and a Christmas concert on Saturday, 12th December 2020, at 1:00 pm (CST), 2:00 pm (EST), through Zoom. Purchase tickets on their website (link in the bio) and support their efforts to rebuild and preserve the cultural heritage of Palestine. #CSF #CurryStoneFoundation #CurryStone #palestine #conservativearchitecture #palestinianheritage #architecturalheritage #architecturalheritageconservation #jerusalem #riwaq #christmasconcert

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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.

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REQUESTS FOR FUNDING

We are struggling to comprehend the magnitude and horror during this period of Covid-19.

The deaths, the illnesses, millions unemployed, millions in quarantine, borders closed and the disruption of normalcy.

Curry Stone Foundation is receiving numerous unsolicited requests for support in light of this crisis. Many of these have significant merit, and we understand the need is great.

Prior the Pandemic, our budget for 2020 and 2021 was committed to projects still in process, in India and elsewhere. Now, as a direct result of the crisis, we anticipate that these will need supplemental funds to reach completion. As these projects impact fragile, marginalized populations, we need to reserve emergency funds for that purpose.

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

Appreciatively,

Curry Stone Foundation

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