Professional Documents
Culture Documents
and
A Cross-Sectoral
Agenda for Design
Education, Research,
and Practice
Social
impact Smithsonian
Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum
Design
and
A white paper based on the
“Social Impact Design Summit,”
a convening by the Smithsonian’s
Cooper-Hewitt, National Design
Museum; the National Endowment
for the Arts; and The Lemelson
Foundation at The Rockefeller
Social
Foundation offices in New York
on February 27, 2012.
impact Smithsonian
Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum
© 2013 Smithsonian Institution
Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum
Smithsonian Institution
2 East 91st Street
New York, NY 10128
www.cooperhewitt.org
Published by The Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design
Museum, in conjunction with the National Endowment for the Arts and
The Lemelson Foundation.
Produced by:
Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum
Bill Moggridge, Former Director (1943–2012)
Caroline Baumann, Acting Director
Caroline Payson, Education Director
Cynthia E. Smith, Curator of Socially Responsible Design
Sarah Freeman, Public Education Manager
Executive Summary 6
I. Gaps and Challenges II. Models
Introduction 8 Definition 20 Hybrid Models 26
Summit Format 10 Knowledge Sharing 21 Design Center Models 29
50 Years of Socially 12 Standards and Ethics 22 Incubator Models 29
Responsible Design
Cultural Bias 22 Contextual Models 30
Sustainability 23 Parallel Model 31
Implementation 24
Value and Impact 24
Appendixes
A. Summit Participants 41
B. Participant Survey 42
Summary Remarks
table of contents 5
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Social impact design—one term that refers to the Stretching across several design disciplines—including
practice of design for the public good, especially in product design, graphic design, urban design, and architec-
disadvantaged communities—has attracted powerful ture—and far from formalized in many aspects of its practice,
interest in recent years. Increasingly, both practicing social impact design also possesses a number of gaps and
designers and students are seeking opportunities in faces a variety of challenges.
this burgeoning discipline. But are the professional
and academic structures in place to support them? Among the forces inhibiting social impact design today, sum-
And how might such structures be improved? mit participants singled out the lack of a clear understanding
of what the term means. Greater clarity, they proposed,
On February 27, 2012, the “Social Impact Design Summit” would lead to better-defined goals and would boost appre-
was convened at The Rockefeller Foundation headquarters ciation of the value of the field. Participants also pointed to
in New York to address the challenges and opportunities a dearth of accepted standards and ethical guidelines that
within the field today. Organized by the Smithsonian’s would help normalize the practice, as well as a lack of knowl-
Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, with the National edge-sharing structures among social impact designers,
Endowment for the Arts and The Lemelson Foundation, the especially those who work across design disciplines.
one-day event brought together 34 leaders of social impact
design and a dozen representatives of foundations that Cultural bias was seen as a potential hazard, especially
support social programs. when designers lacked understanding of local culture. And
the difficulties of implementing and sustaining social impact
The summit participants—who represented both nonprofit design projects constituted a large part of this discussion.
and for-profit organizations, as well as academic programs, Finally, participants called for more stringent measures
government agencies, and non-governmental organizations to assess the effects of social impact design and thereby
(NGOs)—drew a picture of a professional area that has demonstrate its value. Social impact design, it was noted,
demonstrated many achievements and much promise. is both an art and a science, demanding not just creative
skills but also rigor in its practice.
executive summary 7
Introduction
The Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, in a variety of locations. As designers, who have always been
The Lemelson Foundation, and the National Endowment for professional problem solvers, have moved more assuredly
the Arts, with support from the Surdna Foundation, organized to authoring systems and strategies as well as objects,
a daylong meeting at The Rockefeller Foundation’s head- they have turned their sights to the needs of underserved
quarters in New York City with a select group of designers, communities. At the same time, design students, many of
educators, and foundation representatives who are active in whom have come of age in economically turbulent times, are
the growing field of design for social impact. Socially respon- redefining the purposes of their studies and ambitions and
sible design is an overarching term for design that is socially, finding increasing value in humanitarian work.
environmentally, and economically sustainable—three qual-
ity-of-life pillars defined and addressed by an international Occupying wide geographic and disciplinary territories, the
community.1 The field is also known as public-interest design, field encompasses domestic and international projects in
social design, social impact design, socially responsive both rural and urban environments. It involves the design of
design, transformation design, and humanitarian design. graphic and digital communications, of domestic products,
In this report, the terms social impact design and socially medical devices and farming equipment, of buildings and
responsible design will be used interchangeably.2 transportation, and of large infrastructure systems. These
designers also tackle critical issues that are less concrete—
The “Social Impact Design Summit” brought together such as the fragility and lack of equal access to natural
a range of participants and stakeholders from nonprofit resources, or the barriers to health and educational services
organizations and for-profit businesses and design firms; in poor communities globally. Such designers can be found
government agencies and NGOs; and universities. Working on equally in the realms of economic development, community
international and United States–based projects, the group was improvement, and disaster relief.
selected to represent an array of approaches, experiences,
and perspectives, and testified to the diverse arenas and Social impact design has been a subject—both exclusively
modes in which social impact design is undertaken. and tangentially—of a number of recent public programs
and exhibitions. Its practitioners have occupied the stages
Socially motivated design has enjoyed a renaissance in at conferences on technology, the environment, business,
recent years, and the seeds of interest have sprouted and culture. They are staples at forums sponsored by design
organizations such as American Institute of Architects (AIA), that design is the critical translator for that user perspective,”
Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA), AIGA (a she said. “What can private foundations and the government
multidisciplinary design association that was formerly known sector do to promote this field?”
as the American Institute of Graphic Arts), and American
Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), as well as by Answers to all of these questions were sought in three
university design departments. In 2007, Cooper-Hewitt’s discussion topics formulated by representatives of Cooper-
groundbreaking “Design for the Other 90%” exhibition Hewitt, who organized and moderated the summit:
brought socially responsible design to the public’s attention
in a museum context; a sequel, “Design with the Other 90%:
CITIES,” opened at the United Nations Headquarters in 2011. 1. Where are the gaps in the field of socially
responsible design? What are the biggest
In his summit opening remarks, Jason Schupbach, Director challenges to this area of design?
of Design Programs at the National Endowment for the Arts,
stated that the goals of the “Social Impact Design Summit” 2. What are organizational models of
were to build a stronger support structure for social impact successful and sustainable ways of working
design and to help young designers who want to enter the in socially responsible design? What are
arena understand what their opportunities are. “We want to current organizations missing? What are they
know more today about what’s happening right now in the doing wrong?
field,” Schupbach said. “We want to know what are the big
needs of the field, what are the big issues, and to come out 3. How can we effectively prepare future
of here today with a few incremental ideas of ways to move generations of designers for this growing area
forward.” of design? Is this a viable career path? If so,
how do we raise awareness of this profession?
Abigail Sarmac, Program Officer at The Lemelson
Foundation, which supports invention in the service of
improving lives, stressed the importance of the user’s
perspective in shaping innovation. “Lemelson believes
Introduction 9
summit format
The Limits to
Growth by
Meadows, Mead-
ows, Randers, Small is Beautiful:
and Behrens 3 is Economics as
Whole Earth published and lays if People Mattered
Catalog launched the foundation for by British
by Stewart Brand sustainable design economist E. F.
includes alterna- by modeling how Schumacher
tive technology “global ecological popularizes the
and design sec- constraints would concept of “appro-
tions by designer have significant priate technology”
Jay Baldwin and influence on global (manufacture us-
inspires a gener- developments in ing local resources
ation. the 21st century.” for local needs).
This timeline
represents
highlights spanning
fifty years of socially
responsible design
compiled from
Summit attendees,
with additional Resolutions,
research sources legislation, and
from John Cary, publications
Jane Margolies, that influenced
Leslie Speer, design.
Anthony Schuman,
and Kate Stohr.
Where are the gaps in the field of socially exposed the complex and global nature of the issues these
responsible design? What are the biggest designers are addressing.
challenges to this area of design?
Because the summit brought together participants who
Social impact design is a nascent field with represented so many diverse areas of socially responsible
innumerable pockets and few conventions. For this design, they not only reflected on but also enacted the
reason alone, summit participants were able to cite struggle of finding a common language.
numerous challenges to the practice of social impact
design and a range of innovative organizational models, Kenneth Bailey, founder of the Design Studio for Social
but not one definitive version to follow. Although the Intervention, a nonprofit that assists social justice
summit format called for the articulation of hurdles as organizations with design-minded approaches, boiled the
a first topic of conversation, in many cases the citation question down to its essence when he asked the morning
of gaps and challenges quickly evolved into discussions assembly, “How do we define socially responsible, and how
of opportunities and solutions. This white paper follows does it get measured, and who gets to frame what we mean
the summit’s organizational structure in delineating by socially responsible?”
obstacles first. Subsequent sections address some
of the many models of excellence and offer proposals “Socially responsible is often the wrong term to define what it
for future practice. is trying to address,” noted Laura Kurgan, Associate Professor
of Architecture at Columbia University, where she directs the
Spatial Information Design Lab. “Often, socially responsible
Definition design implies a) solving the problem of poverty, or b) priori-
tizing people and use in a design problem rather than design
Due to social impact design’s relatively new and growing
itself, or c) sustainable design, which is equally hard to define.
status, several participants pointed to a lack of agreement
Being socially responsible—or solving urban problems through
about the field’s definition and parameters. The conversation
design—means addressing politics, globalization, health,
was not representative of an identity crisis, but rather
education, criminal justice, or economics among others.”
In addition to a body of knowledge tapped by design pro- The deeply ethical foundation of ubuntu—a philosophy
fessionals across disciplines, some participants called for a shared, under different names, by numerous African cul-
stronger exchange of ideas between designers and recipients tures—can be instructive for practitioners of social impact
of design services. “What are we getting from the communi- design, Dr. Richie Moalosi said. Translated from the Bantu
ties we’re engaging with? What are we leaving behind, and language as “I am because we are,” ubuntu, he explained,
how do we create a dynamic exchange of knowledge in that “defines a process for earning respect by first giving it and
framework?” asked Mariana Amatullo, Vice President of gaining empowerment by empowering others. Everyone is
the Designmatters initiative at Art Center College of Design. invited to contribute toward the goals and common wealth
“That doesn’t happen as often as it should.” of the community. . . . If this concept is applied to socially
responsible design, it could result in the mobilization and
A recurrent theme at the summit was the underappreciated development of sustainable lifestyles.” 5
knowledge held by local populations. “There is more chance
for socially responsible design to take off in the developing
world and emerging markets than in Western countries,”
insisted Bernard Amadei, Professor of Civil Engineering at Cultural Bias
the University of Colorado. “The young entrepreneurs there Social impact designers working globally have a mandate to
have a lot to teach us. They know the market; they know the tread sensitively within the cultures to which they’re providing
constraints and are very creative. So socially responsible services, or they will create the perception, if not the reality,
design should be seen as a two-way street, where we learn of saddling a community with ineffective or inappropriate
Value and Impact Simply publicizing the gains made by social impact
The biggest gap observed by participants was the absence design would benefit the popular perception of its value,
of perceived value of social impact design, particularly as suggested Sergio Palleroni, Professor and Senior Fellow
demonstrated through metrics. With limited quantitative data at the Institute for Sustainable Solutions at Portland
State University. Palleroni proposed, in his written survey is the cost of so many people dying of malaria every year
response, implementing a “media campaign which helps the in terms of the national productivity? What are the costs of
public, communities in need, and public agencies gain an undernourishment in terms of economic growth? What are
understanding of what social design is, how it operates, the the costs of smoking and lung cancer to the general welfare
success stories, and how to access such services.” of the population?” Addressing summit participants, de la
Peña said, “What may be missing—and I don’t know if you’ll
Benjamin de la Peña, Associate Director for Urban Devel- find it—is the question of what are the social costs of lack of
opment at The Rockefeller Foundation, commented on the or bad design? Until you come up with that, then you’re stuck
idea of a parallel field, public health, as a historical example with objects and processes that have no way of capturing the
of an undervalued emerging discipline that had proved its imagination of ever solving anything big.” 7
worth and as a result gained credence and authority. Public
health had done so, he said, by demonstrating the economic Ideas for collecting and sharing data are discussed in greater
costs of not having public health programs or policies: “What detail in the section “Proposals” (page 36).
Nonprofit Design Organization for disaster relief. Today, it is a nonprofit design, construction,
working under and development firm with 100 architects in 22 countries.
auspices of a Larger NGO “Just because you’re a nonprofit working with nonprofits
doesn’t mean you can’t act like a for-profit,” said Sinclair who
Mass Design Group attributed AFH’s recent “exponential growth” to its new role
Founded in 2010 by two Harvard architectural school financing and managing construction. AFH pays its architects
graduates, Michael Murphy and Alan Ricks, MASS (Model on a par with professionals in the private commercial sector,
of Architecture Serving Society) Design Group grew out of Sinclair said, and it issues contracts that secure revenue for
a hospital project in Rwanda that took innovative, practical post-occupancy evaluation and knowledge sharing. The point,
steps to reduce transmission of disease. The studio has he explained, is to “enhance and support social design as a
expanded its activities in Rwanda (it recently completed a research tool, because nobody funds that.”
primary school in Kigali), while undertaking the construction
of medical facilities in Haiti. MASS Design Group currently Catapult Design
operates under the fiscal supervision of Partners in Health, Cofounded in 2009 in San Francisco by summit participant
an organization with which it frequently collaborates, while it Heather Fleming, Catapult Design creates products and
waits to secure its own nonprofit status. services for fee-paying clients who are geared toward
communities in need. Projects have included solar-powered
lighting for health facilities in rural Rwanda and smokeless
Nonprofit Design Organizations stoves distributed in the developing world. Roughly half of
supported by Fee-for-Service Catapult’s revenue comes from clients, with the other half
and Philanthropic Donations coming from donors. The studio does not use volunteer
workers.
Architecture for Humanity (AFH)
Founded in 1999 by Cameron Sinclair and Kate Stohr,
Design that Matters
Architecture for Humanity originally organized competitions to
According to its website, Design that Matters (DtM) in
spur design innovations in economically challenged communi-
Cambridge, Massachusetts, which is directed by summit
ties and aggregated funds and a network of volunteer workers
Models 29
evolved from unique circumstances and organizational
INCUBATOR MODELS structures in different parts of the world. Such models might
Developing the skills of social design practitioners and nur-
reflect long-standing efforts of governments that have taken
turing projects through their formative stages is the aim of a
an active interest in design as a tool to improve conditions for
variety of organizations with different priorities and strategies.
all residents—even the poorest, as a number of case studies
Ashoka in Latin America were discussed. Or they might reflect re-
Ashoka is an international fellowship program founded by Bill sponses to sudden catastrophes, such as the reconstruction
Drayton in 1980 that singles out and supports social entrepre- project that followed an earthquake in Gujarat, India, which
neurs. As described on its website, the organization’s mission Kirtee Shah, director of the Ahmedabad Study Action Group,
is “to shape a global, entrepreneurial, competitive citizen described.
sector: one that allows social entrepreneurs to thrive and
Gujarat Decentralized
enables the world’s citizens to think and act as changemak- Reconstruction Project
ers.” Fellows, who are nominated by an international body of Summit participant Kirtee Shah, an architect based in India,
advisers, are selected through a rigorous evaluation process singled out the Gujarat Earthquake Rehabilitation and Recon-
involving multiple interviews. struction Project as exemplary for its bottom-up approach.
“In the process,” he recalled at the summit, “an enormous
Currently, the network of Ashoka fellows numbers more than amount of creativity, people’s abilities, people’s design skills,
3,000 in some 70 countries. They are supported by an annual and variety emerged. It became a decentralized program,
budget of more than $30 million. Recent fellow projects which otherwise would have been centralized.”
include efforts to improve educational conditions for the
Roma of Hungary and developing sustainable organic farming In 2001, a 6.9 earthquake left 14,000 dead, 170,000 injured,
practices in Togo. and 400,000 homes destroyed or badly damaged in the state
of Gujarat, India. The Gujarat Earthquake Rehabilitation and
Echoing Green
Reconstruction Project—an initiative funded by the UN, World
Founded in 1987, Echoing Green offers a select group of
Bank, and other agencies—provided for new infrastructure,
emerging social entrepreneurs up to $90,000 over two
landscaping, and earthquake-resistant buildings, giving
years to initiate new organizations. Less than 1 percent of the
residents of 900 affected villages a notable opportunity to
thousands of applicants are accepted into the program, which
participate in the design of their restored homes.
offers not only startup funding but also support services and
connection to a global network of mentors. Thirty-six fellows
One of the “guiding principles” set forth by Narendra Modi,
were selected in 2012 and included individuals working on the
Gujarat’s Chief Minister, was to “involve people and repre-
development of an online platform with life-changing resources
sentative institutions in the decision-making process, and
for children and teens in foster care, and on clean and safe
reflect their priorities and aspirations in program deliver-
energy products for impoverished people in rural India.
ables.” He characterized the project as primarily “a community-
NESsT based, owner-driven program, with technical assistance
Cofounded in 1997 by “Social Impact Design Summit” from engineers provided by the government, building centers,
participant Lee Davis, NESsT seeks to create sustainable NGOs, etc. Owners will organize reconstruction, repairs,
social enterprises by providing organizations with “the tools and strengthening through informal or formal contracts with
and strategies of business leadership, entrepreneurship, and small contractors, artisans, and masons.” 8
investment.” The organization’s mission is to build longevity
Integral Urbanization Projects
into social enterprises by offering financial alternatives to
“Some of the most powerful, progressive models have
foundation support. NESsT’s operations are concentrated
emerged from Latin America in the last two decades,”
primarily in Central Europe and South America. Among the
Guatemalan-born architect Teddy Cruz noted. Among the
groups represented in its portfolio are one in Peru that pro-
examples he singled out was Curitiba, Brazil.
vides disadvantaged children with musical educations and
another in Romania that employs at-risk youth and adults to
Jaime Lerner—an architect and urban planner who became
produce environmentally friendly shopping bags.
mayor of Curitiba in 1971 (the first of three administrations)
and governor of the state of Paraná, of which Curitiba is
capital, in 1994 (the first of two administrations)—used the
CONTEXTUAL MODELS tools of design at city scale to institute a number of publicly
Summit participants pointed to models of practice that endorsed urban strategies that made the city greener, cleaner,
more pedestrian friendly, and more sensitive to the needs for having demonstrated its value to a skeptical audience
of impoverished residents. Among Lerner’s accomplish- in its early years. (See “Gaps and Challenges,” page 20.)
ments were motivating 70 percent of Curitiba’s population Fisher observed a parallel between public health’s challenge
to separate its garbage for recycling and designing the city’s to traditional medicine and public interest design’s alternative
transportation system: an efficient, energy-saving bus and to for-profit design services.
metro network. The first of its kind, the bus rapid transit sys-
tem accommodated growth while limiting urban sprawl and The problem, Fisher said, is that even socially minded
congested traffic, inspiring similar systems in South America designers are stuck in the equivalent of “a medical model
and internationally.9 of practice.” He continued, “Most designers depend upon
fee-based commissions, which prevents us from doing a lot
of this work. . . . The more quickly we adopt a public-health
PARALLEL MODEL model of practice, the faster we could achieve what we’re
all talking about: a widely differentiated user-centric way of
Looking beyond the examples of effective social impact
design organizations, summit participants considered models delivering health to all people, as opposed to the reactive
in homologous disciplines. Facing the same requirements system of medicine where you wait until somebody is sick be-
for clarity of purpose, public recognition, educational and fore you deal with it. It’s about prevention rather than about
career pathways, and financial support, how did they evolve? curing after the fact.”
Among parallel models the one discussed most frequently
was public health. Fisher further saw public health as not just a model but also
a partner of social impact design. Its representatives, he said,
are eager to work with designers and architects “because
Public Health they’re already realizing that a lot of public health issues are
Introduced at the summit by University of Minnesota’s Dean connected to the built environment. We have to figure out a
of the College of Design Thomas Fisher as a template for way to meet them halfway. They clearly see most diseases of
public interest design (the term more commonly used in affluence—obesity, cancer—as well as diseases of poverty
architecture), the field of public health was cited repeatedly as key to issues of housing, sanitation, and infrastructure.”
Models 31
III. PATHWAYS
How can we effectively prepare future generations said Sharon Haar of the University of Illinois at Chicago.
of designers for this growing area of design? Is this a “Rather, I would like more designers to engage social respon-
viable career path? If so, how do we raise awareness sibility as part of the ethos of their work. There are many
of this profession? ‘traditional’ practices whose work in affordable housing, com-
munity design and development, and institutional building
Attitudes toward this third summit topic were divided is highly ethical and socially responsible [but they] do not
between practitioners who viewed social impact design define themselves as ‘socially responsible’ practices.”
as an approach—a flexible tool used by a variety of
professionals in multiple sectors—and those who saw it Bernard Amadei of the University of Colorado also ex-
as a discipline—a systematically acquired and applied pressed the opinion that social impact design should be a
set of professional skills. The education of designers mode of practice rather than its own discrete pursuit. “This
and architects interested in the public interest varies, is not a profession per se,” he insisted. “It is more about
as more courses and degree programs have emerged integrating a holistic and systems approach into existing dis-
in recent years to train aspiring professionals. The
10
ciplines that are involved in socially responsible design.”
flood of offerings, distributed at myriad scales across
departments and institutions, indicates the growth and Kenneth Bailey, founder of the Design Studio for Social
demand coming from a new generation interested in Intervention, concurred. “Design actually when done well is
this area of design. a point of view,” he said, “a perspective, much more than it
is a profession.”
Social Design as Approach “I question the whole mission of trying to professionalize this
field,” said Robert Fabricant, Vice President of Creative at
The question of how to train and mentor social impact de-
frog. The advantage his company brings to clients, he said,
signers calls for a thorough consideration of whether social
was a facility to serve across all sectors and scales, from
impact design should be regarded as a discipline. “I am wary
UNICEF to Vodafone to small social entrepreneurs. “It’s
of defining socially responsible design as a ‘career path,’”
not a simple thing,” he shared, “but the best designers I’ve
pathways 33
Nontraditional educational programs were also discussed as said, “and it’s only recently that I understood the scientific
preparatory to social design careers. Thomas Fisher of the method, in terms of how do you state your hypothesis, how
University of Minnesota, for instance, described efforts at do you list and prioritize your assumptions, and how do you
the school to develop a nonresidential, multi-institutional on- focus on falsifying your assumptions rather than validating
line certificate program in public interest design. And Camer- your cherished beliefs?”
on Sinclair of Architecture for Humanity is helping to develop
studies in social impact design that are conducted exclusively Bryan Bell of Design Corps advocated a better professional
online. “The fact that so many students are rebelling against education in best practices and appropriate ethics, while
their academic architecture degree or design degree and are Teddy Cruz—who transferred from teaching in the School of
seeking out this sort of knowledge means that there’s a huge Architecture to the School of the Arts at the University of Cal-
opportunity,” Sinclair said. ifornia, San Diego—decried a tendency among institutions to
segregate social responsibility from “artistic experimentation.”
Dan Etheridge of Tulane City Center endorsed augmenting Explaining that her program at Art Center College of Design
a traditional design education with “elective classes in public seeks to help designers move “between the corporate and
health, international development, and other disciplinary envi- noncorporate and . . . navigate both,” Mariana Amatullo
ronments outside of the design school culture.” wondered, “What are the opportunities for careers that can
be hybrid, that can really move across?”
Jon Polhamus of GE Healthcare Global Design referred to his
own heterogeneous schooling as a graphic designer—which Heather Fleming of Catapult Design suggested that the
included courses in manufacturing, engineering, and archi- summit conversation was overemphasizing students and their
tecture—as evidence of the value that broad knowledge can futures at the expense of existing young professionals. “I’m
bring to design activities, especially those that require collab- more interested in how can we effectively capture this gener-
orations with nondesigner colleagues. ation,” she said. “If you look at the designers who are in the
industry right now, who are at the top of their field, it’s hard
Timothy Prestero of Design that Matters recommended that for them to break into this space. . . . Their salaries are going
the next generation learn how to run a disciplined experi- to be lower; you can’t send them off into the field because
ment. “I have many, many years of graduate education,” he maybe they have a family. There’s almost a larger hurdle for
pathways 35
IV. proposals
In the summit’s afternoon session, participants from hubs to integrate information—such as a database of
the morning discussion were joined by 12 additional resources and potential funding opportunities—across
design leaders representing a range of organizations. design disciplines.
Together they reviewed the three topics that • Convene multidisciplinary and discipline-specific meetings
structured the event: Where are the gaps? What about socially responsible design around specific issues,
are the models? How can we prepare the next communities, and geographies.
generation of designers?
Long-term
The participants broke into five groups to formulate • Establish a two-way connection between design profes-
recommendations for the near and distant future. sionals and students working in the developing world and
Themes that emerged from this free play of ideas, the informal modes practiced by local innovators seeking
along with those proposed in the surveys issued resources to put their products into the market. For instance,
before the summit, are summarized below. community innovation centers could be founded where local
inventors receive access to materials, mentoring, and fund-
ing opportunities. The projects could be spun into case stud-
1. Expand Networks ies that would suggest appropriate opportunities for bringing
an initiative to scale, either locally or in a global market.
There is much that members of this diverse, global
• Establish socially responsible design practice residencies
community can learn from one another and from the
within foundations that are doing community development
constituents they serve. Suggestions to foster relationships
work to inform funding.
and pool knowledge in an effort to expand interdisciplinary
• Place designers within mission-based organizations with
research and participation in social impact design include:
specific, funded projects.
• Expand the role of social media as a democratic,
Short-term
participatory tool for making decisions about social impact
• Issue a call for research papers on social impact design,
design efforts.
and develop or build on existing web-based knowledge
Short-term
• Research existing metric systems and work toward an
international system of metrics that evaluates social impact
design.
• Study what does and does not work for social impact design
projects and initiatives rather than only the final results.
proposals 37
Jennifer Toy, Kounkuey
Design Initiative.
Short-term
• Maintain funding through successive iterations of a social
impact design project—rather than just the initial stages—
which will help ensure that the project is fully functional and
meets all its users’ needs.
• Invest in experimental social impact design strategies that
bring higher risk but have great potential gains if they suc-
ceed.
Long-term
• Establish a social capital venture model or platform like Kiva,
the lending website that supports social entrepreneurship,
which would draw in funding from around the world for
investment in local inventors.
• Establish design impact bonds along the lines of social im-
pact bonds (also known as pay-for-success bonds) created
from programs that bring potentially money-saving designs
to scale. Returns on investment would be contingent on the
social benefits achieved through such designs.
1 United Nation’s World Commission on Environment and for Social Change, PhD thesis (Cape Peninsula University
Development, “Towards Sustainable Development,” in of Technology, South Africa, 2009).
Our Common Future: Report of the World Commission on
Environment and Development, (Geneva: United Nations, 6 Michael A. Cohen, “Revisiting Senegal After 40 Years,”
1987), 41–58. (www.un-documents.net/wced-ocf.htm) The Huffington Post, March 23, 2012. (www.huffingtonpost.
com/michael-a-cohen/revisiting-senegal-after-40-
2 For definitions of social impact design, see Ezio Manzini, years_b_1375912.html)
“Small, Local, Open, and Connected: Design for Social
Innovation and Sustainability,” Journal of Design Strategies 7 Dona Schneider and David E Lilienfeld, Public Health:
4, no. 1 (Spring 2010): 8–11. the Development of a Discipline (New Brunswick: Rutgers
University Press, 2008).
3 Donella H. Meadows, Dennis L. Meadows, Jørgen
Randers, and William W. Behrens III, The Limits to Growth: 8 A PDF of the policy can be found at www.gsdma.org.
A Report for The Club of Rome’s Project on the Predicament
of Mankind (New York: Universe Books, 1972). 9 Mike Power, “Common Sense and the City: Jaime Lerner,
Brazil’s Green Revolutionary,” The Guardian, November
4 Bryan Bell, Roberta Feldman, Sergio Palleroni, and David 5, 2009. (www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2009/
Perkes, “Public Interest Practices in Architecture,” 2011 nov/05/jaime-lerner-brazil-green)
Latrobe Prize Progress Report submitted to The College of
Fellows of The American Institute of Architects, December 10 William Drenttel and Julie Lasky, Winterhouse Symposium
31, 2011. on Design Education and Social Change: Final Reports.
(http://changeobserver.designobserver.com/feature/
5 For references to ubuntu, see Heike Winschiers-Theophilus, winterhouse-first-symposium-on-design-education-and-
Nicola J. Bidwell, and Edwin Blake, “Community Consensus: social-change-final-report/22578 and http://changeobserver.
Design Beyond Participation,” Design Issues 28, no. 3 designobserver.com/feature/winterhouse-second-
(Cambridge: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2012): symposium-on-design-education-and-social-change-final-
89–100; Presidential Task Group for a Long Term Vision report/30688)
for Botswana, A Framework for a Long Term Vision for
Botswana—2016, (Gaborone: Government Printer, 2006); M.
K. M’Rithaa, Mainstreaming Universal Design in Cape Town:
FIFA 2010 World Cup—Related Activities as Catalyst
APPENDIX A 41
Maurine Knighton Abigail Sarmac
Senior Vice President of Program Officer, appendix B
Operations and Program The Lemelson Foundation
Director, Arts and Culture,
Nathan Cummings Jason Schupbach
Foundation Design Director, Visual
Arts Division, National
Judilee Reed Endowment for the Arts
Director, Thriving Cultures,
Surdna Foundation Joan Shigekawa
Acting Chairman, National Participant Survey Summary Remarks
Ellen Rudolph Endowment for the Arts
Consultant Introductory remarks by Cynthia E. Smith, Cooper-
Cynthia E. Smith Hewitt, National Design Museum’s Curator of Socially
Regina Smith Curator of Socially Responsible Design, given at the “Social Impact
Senior Program Officer, Responsible Design, Design Summit.” It is a summarized analysis of
Arts Culture, The Kresge Cooper-Hewitt, National summit participants’ responses to a survey about
Foundation Design Museum the status of socially responsible design sent to each
participant prior to the summit’s convening.
Katie Swenson
Vice President of National We have brought together leading practitioners from
Design Initiatives, Enterprise the public, private, and social sectors—working within
Community Partners, Inc. the United States and internationally. Your responses
to our survey to gauge the current status of social
Edwin Torres impact design reflect a broad range of experience
Associate Director for New and perspectives, which helps us to frame the day’s
York City Opportunities conversation. This is evident even in the multitude of
Fund and Innovation, The terms we use to describe this area of design:
Rockefeller Foundation • socially responsible design
• public interest design
• design for social change
Planning Partners
• public design
• social innovation
Jamie Hand
• social impact design
Design Specialist, Visual
• social design
Arts Division, National
• public service design
Endowment for the Arts