Environment

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

117 | What a Great Time to Be Alive

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.

Environment

118 | Design Politics in the Climate Emergency

Crisis in Climate, Crisis in Design Dr. Kian Goh, RA, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Urban Planning at UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. She researches the relationships between urban ecological design, spatial politics, and social mobilization in the context of climate change and global urbanization.

Education
Environment

119 | Redesigning Our Relationship with the Earth

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.

Environment

120 | Beyond Green Design

Crisis in Climate, Crisis in Design Mary Ann Lazarus is an American architect and longtime leader in the field of sustainable design.

Environment

121 | Buildings Made of Sky

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”

Environment
Housing
Urban Strategies

122 | Imagining New Futures for the Planet

Crisis in Climate, Crisis in Design Alex Steffen is an award-winning writer, speaker and foresight consultant, focused on climate change and planetary sustainability.

Environment

123 | Design’s Race & Rescue Mission

Crisis in Climate, Crisis in Design Dr. Ken Yeang is a Malaysian architect and ecologist delivering and pioneering the field of hyper-green architecture.

Environment

124 | Five Things About Social Impact Design

What Now for Social Impact Design? Our Special Projects Director Eric J. Cesal is a designer, writer, noted post-disaster expert, and podcast host.

Environment

17 | Mitigating Climate-Based Disaster Before it Strikes

Can design prevent disaster? Mohammed Rezwan of Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha details his designs for floating communities.

Advocacy
Community Development
Environment

19-20 | The Trajectory of Social Design, Part 1 & 2

Can we design community engagement? Sergio Palleroni discusses his thirty year career in Social Impact Design

Community Development
Environment
Housing

26 | Making Public Space Productive

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

31 | Clothing, Currency and Community

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

32 | Slum Networking, Explained.

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

33-34 | Finding Plenty in a World of Scarcity, Part 1 & 2

How do we design with scarcity? Line Ramstad discusses the origin of Gyaw Gyaw and introduces their methods.

Community Development
Environment

37 | Finding Holistic Design Through History

How do we design with scarcity? Yatin Pandya discusses his philosophy of ‘holistic design’ and how he seeks new solutions for India’s future.

Environment
Housing

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

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

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

45 | Finding Nature Beneath our Feet

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.

Environment

46 | Gardening as Urban Action

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.

Community Development
Environment

48 | Nurturing Collective Imagination in Rome

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

55-56 | Designing for the Future, Part 1 & 2

How do we democratize design? Diébédo Francis Kéré discusses the origins of his practice, and how good design builds community.

Community Development
Environment

59 | Architecture at the Border of Design and Politics

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. Additionally, he works extensively in the field of research at the intersection of politics and architecture at the U.S. Mexico Border.

Advocacy
Environment

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

Can design education promote social justice? Christian Benimana is a senior principal and managing director at Mass Design. He also is the founder of the African Design Center.

Advocacy
Environment
Urban Strategies

81 | The Resiliency of Right Now

Is Resilience Still Relevant? Alexander Rose of the Long Now Foundation speaks with us about how designers can design better by thinking differently about time.

Advocacy
Environment
Resilience

82 | Resilience’s Frontline

Is Resilience Still Relevant? Mathew Sanders details the pioneering struggle of the people of Isle de Jean Charles in confronting climate change.

Community Development
Environment
Housing

87 | Experiments in Resilience Amid the Backloop

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.

Education
Environment
Resilience

89 | How to Make More Integrated Humans

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.

Advocacy
Environment
Housing

91 | Designing with Love

Who Designs the Designers? Katie Swenson is a nationally recognized design leader, researcher, writer, and educator. Her work explores how critical design practice can and should promote economic and social equity, environmental sustainability, and healthy communities.

Advocacy
Community Development
Environment
Healthcare
Housing

97 | 2018 Year in Review

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

Alliance of Community Trainers

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

Is sustainability about working within scarcity or finding natural abundance? Anna Heringer is an award-winning leader in architecture who utilizes the skills of the communities she works in as well as low-tech, sustainable materials like mud and bamboo.

Community Development
Environment
Resilience

Antonio Scarponi

Are you ready to co-opt mass consumerism? Dr. Antonio Scarponi is an architect, designer, educator, and the founder of Conceptual Devices, a Zurich-based office with the mission to develop design strategies with social, economic, and poetic impact.

Environment

Ashok Gadgil

Can low cost, simple designs be implemented at scale? For over twenty years, US engineer Dr. Ashok Gadgil’s work has focused on designing low-cost technologies that help the world’s poorest and most vulnerable.

Advocacy
Environment
Healthcare

Atelier d’Architecture Autogérée

2011 Prize Winner

Can a new urban future grow out of a vacant lot? Atelier d’Architecture Autogérée is a collective of architects that transforms urban spaces. It is recognized as an engine for engaging citizens in shaping their own cities through experimentation and renewal.

Advocacy
Community Development
Environment

Auroville Earth Institute

Can traditional building techniques serve modern needs? Auroville Earth Institute (AVEI) is a pioneering organization that has led in research and implementation of earth-based & sustainable building.

Community Development
Environment

Basurama

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.

Advocacy
Community Development
Environment

Blue Star Integrative Studio

How can design support community development? Blue Star Integrative Studio (BSIS) is a Tribally Owned, Indigenous American professional services firm in Tulsa, Oklahoma offering feasibility studies, planning, and design services. It illuminates opportunities through collaboration to support the sustainability of people, places, and the planet.

Advocacy
Environment
Housing

BuildX Studio (formerly Orkidstudio)

How do we design with scarcity? BuildX Studio (formerly Orkidstudio) is a Nairobi-based architectural, engineering, and construction company creating real estate projects for positive social and environmental impact.

Advocacy
Community Development
Environment

Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems

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

City Repair Project

How can public space be reclaimed to forge stronger communities? Portland, Oregon-based City Repair Project (CRP) seeks to address America’s lack of community gathering spaces by empowering neighborhoods to reclaim public spaces and creatively repurpose them to bring people together.

Community Development
Environment

Civic City

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
Environment

Coloco

Can a city work as an ecosystem? Coloco is a collective of landscapers, artists, urban planners, and botanists working in a variety of mediums including mapping, physical gardening, and advocacy.

Community Development
Environment
Urban Strategies

Ctrl+Z

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

Earth Activist Training

Can we design education for environmental sustainability? Author, activist and founder Starhawk offers Earth Activist Training in permaculture, nature awareness, earth based spirituality and more for individuals, teachers and community groups.

Community Development
Environment
Resilience
Urban Strategies

Fallen Fruit

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

Francis Kéré

Can an architect truly straddle both first world success and community development in the developing world? Diébédo Francis Kéré is a Pritzker Architecture Prize winning Burkinabé architect recognized for creating innovative works that are often sustainable and collaborative in nature.

Community Development
Environment

Goonj

How can donated clothing be translated into community renewal? Goonj is a non-governmental organization based in Delhi since 1998 which undertakes poverty alleviation work, using the city's discard as material to fuel widespread development work across village India.

Conflict and Disaster
Environment

Gulf Coast Community Design Studio

How can the community be integrated into the rebuilding process? A professional service and outreach program of Mississippi State University’s College of Architecture, Art + Design, Gulf Coast Community Design Studio (GCCDS) was established in Biloxi, Mississippi in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to provide design services to devastated communities throughout the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Over time, it has evolved to address long-term issues of equitable community resilience.

Conflict and Disaster
Education
Environment
Resilience

Gyaw Gyaw

Can architecture help stateless people put down roots? Gyaw Gyaw is a community development non-profit that works with the Karen people at the border between Myanmar and Thailand. The organization combines low-cost, sustainable building techniques with community input to ensure designs are appropriate to the customs and culture of each village.

Community Development
Conflict and Disaster
Environment

Himanshu Parikh

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

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.

Conflict and Disaster
Environment
Housing

Hunnarshala

2013 Prize Winner

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

Isla Urbana

Can DIY harvesting of rainwater solve a water crisis? Isla Urbana is a project dedicated to contributing to water sustainability in Mexico through rainwater harvesting.

Advocacy
Environment

Jonathan Kirschenfeld

Can excellent design be for everyone? Jonathan Kirschenfeld is a New York architect recognized for design excellence over a wide range of environmentally and socially sustainable projects including supportive housing, childcare centers, recreation, and performance facilities.

Education
Environment
Housing

L’Oeuf

What is the definition of sustainability? Montreal-based L’Oeuf is known for sustainable architecture, urban housing and renovation. It emphasizes building community over building buildings; the interplay between building, occupant and environment inspires innovation.

Environment
Housing

Lorenzo Romito

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

Environment
Urban Strategies

Marjetica Potrč

Can participatory design inspire sustainable prosperity? Marjetica Potrč is an artist and architect who works on community-based projects characterized by participatory design and a concern for sustainability.

Community Development
Education
Environment

Maya Pedal

2010 Prize Winner

Can bicycles power essential tasks and support microbusinesses? In rural Guatemala, energy sources are scarce. Maya Pedal repurposes donated bicycles into pedal-powered machines that can blend food, grind corn and lift water from wells, without requiring electricity.

Environment

Mohammed Rezwan

How can design help flood prone communities to function when facilities and resources are under water? Founded by Mohammed Rezwan, Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha is a nonprofit that works to support the environment and people affected by climate change-induced flooding in Bangladesh by transforming waterways into pathways for education, information, and technology.

Education
Environment
Resilience

Nance Klehm

Can a city work as an ecosystem? “Radical ecologist” Nance Klehm fosters awareness of how plants and animals coexist. She is an ecological systems designer, landscaper, horticultural consultant and permacultural grower focused on soil, ecology and community.

Environment

Open Source Ecology

What are the fifty machines essential to modern life—and can their designs be open-sourced? Open Source Ecology is dedicated to an open-source economy. At their core are plans for fifty fundamental machines; what is required to create a small, modern civilization.

Environment

Plan Selva

How can design address the problem of education for internally neglected communities? Plan Selva is the Peruvian Education Ministry’s plan to bring quality education to remote regions. The result self-empowers indigenous people to cultivate their knowledge and live productively in the Amazon.

Community Development
Environment

Prinzessinnengärten

Why should citizens and activists reclaim public space? Prinzessinnengärten is a bottom-up community garden in Berlin notable for both its scale and its ingenuity in starting a public conversation about the democratic use of public space.

Community Development
Environment

Proximity Designs

2013 Prize Winner

Can design help raise the income of small hold farmers in Myanmar? Proximity Designs is a not-for-profit social enterprise working to reduce poverty for rural families in Myanmar.

Advocacy
Education
Environment

Repair Café

Can anyone repair everyday objects? The Repair Café is both an organization and a global network of cafés that emphasize the repair of everyday objects in order to promote a culture of sustainability and reuse.

Environment

Sanergy

Can waste management create jobs and improve hygiene? Launched in Nairobi’s slums, Sanergy is a business and sanitation initiative. Low-cost pay toilets are run by locals as a business. Waste is processed into fertilizer and sold to commercial farms.

Community Development
Environment

Shawn Frayne

Can wind energy be harnessed with a handheld device? Shawn Frayne invented a non-turbine wind-powered generator that could help people in poor communities power lamps, keep small vaccine refrigerators cool and charge cell phones for relatively little cost.

Environment

Stalker

Does design create politics or vice versa? Stalker Lab is an experimental collective of architects and researchers. Founded in Rome by a group of university students, artists, scientists, and planners, all later joined. Now, it operates as a laboratory for urban art and spatial exploration. Their international exhibitions and conferences look at different ways to transform space.

Advocacy
Community Development
Environment
Urban Strategies

Superuse Studios

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

Sustainable Health Enterprises (SHE)

2010 Prize Winner

Can menstrual pads contribute to economic opportunities for women? Sustainable Health Enterprises (SHE) has designed a menstrual pad made from banana tree fibers—a local, renewable resource that SHE sources from two (largely female) farming co-ops in the eastern region of the country.

Environment
Healthcare

Transition Network

2009 Prize Winner

Can your neighborhood become a self-sufficient community? The Transition Network is an organization whose role is to inspire, encourage, connect, support, and train communities as they create initiatives that rebuild resilience and reduce CO2 emissions.

Community Development
Environment

Wes Janz

How can designers address poverty in American cities? Dr. Wesley Janz is a Professor Emeritus of Architecture at Ball State University, Indiana and the founder of OneSmallProject. Currently, he is working to draw attention to the issues central to the U.S. prison system.

Advocacy
Environment
Housing
Urban Strategies

YA + K

Can design free the public from hierarchical constraints in society? YA+K brings young architects, urban planners, and designers together around projects that question and simultaneously invest in urban planning, architecture, design, and cultural action. The collective aims to create playful and evolving situations that stem from the imaginary to reality.

Community Development
Environment

Yatin Pandya