Social Design Insights

Our Special Projects Director Eric J. Cesal is a designer, writer, noted post-disaster expert, and podcast host.

Dr. Ken Yeang is a Malaysian architect, ecologist, planner and author celebrated for both his built & theoretical work in green urbanism.

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

Bruce King, PE, natural building advocate, joins us to discuss his new book “The New Carbon Architecture: Building to Cool the Planet”

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

Starhawk is an author, activist, permaculture designer and teacher, and a prominent voice in modern earth-based spirituality and ecofeminism.

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...

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.

Rania Qawasma of Architecture for Refugees joins us to discuss what designers can do to help welcome refugees.

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.

Tasha Freidus of NeedsList joins us to discuss tech solutions to humanitarian crises.

The Refugee Academy is a Berlin-based non-profit that creates learning spaces for refugees seeking to assimilate.

Mariam Chazalnoel of IOM joins us to discuss how to advance the topic of migration within the current Climate Change dialogue

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.

Kilian Kleinschmidt of IPA/Swixtboard is an internationally regarded expert in international development, emergency response, and resource mobilization.

Amanda Baillieu is the founder of architecture platform Archiboo, which organizes talks and networking events, as well as the annual Archiboo Web Awards.

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.

Spencer Bailey of Phaidon publishing joins us to discuss concepts of ‘slow’ media, and how to be more conscientious about the media we consume.

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.

Aaron Seward is editor of Texas Architect magazine, where he curates, writes and produces an ongoing dialogue about architecture & urbanism.

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.

Pedestrian Activist Alissa Walker joins us to talk about the walkability of cities, sustainable transportation and development.

Daniel Feldman and Adam Reineck of Ideo.org join us to talk about human-centered design.

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.

Michelle Moghtader is the Director of Global Development & Co-Founder of Shared Studios, as well as a journalist and community organizer.

D-Rev, a nonprofit product development company based in San Francisco designs, develops and distributes radically affordable world-class medical products

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.

Emiliano Gandolfi and Eric Cesal reflect on a full year of Social Design Insights.

Katie Crepeau joins us to talk about the challenges of starting and growing a social design practice.

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.

Kyle Reis is widely known throughout the philanthropic world as a champion of social design.

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...

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...

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...

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...

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.

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...

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...

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.

Mario and Nuno do Rosario discuss the history of design in Mozambique from Independence to the present-day.

Mario and Nuno do Rosario discuss the history of design in Mozambique from Independence to the present-day.

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

Mathew Sanders details the pioneering struggle of the people of Isle de Jean Charles in confronting climate change.

Zander Rose of the Long Now Foundation speaks with us about how designers can design better by thinking differently about time.

Two central figures in public art and community building unveil how they help communities take control of their own futures.

Two central figures in public art and community building unveil how they help communities take control of their own futures.

Black in Design is a student-led biennial gathering which confronts issues of race and equity throughout the design professions.

Black in Design is a student-led biennial gathering which confronts issues of race and equity throughout the design professions.

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.

Christian Benimana is Rwandan architect dedicated to addressing the rapid growth and urbanization of Africa’s population.

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.