Can design mitigate social issues?
DESINE-Lab brings design thinking, practices and outcomes together with innovation and entrepreneurship to address issues of global poverty and social and environmental injustice, while working collaboratively with target populations to facilitate community-driven social and economic development.
It was founded on the premise that design has an important role to play in ensuring social justice. One way to do this is through social and economic development initiatives that utilize structures and processes of design thinking to set ground work and form context for creative catalytic action.
As co-director of the student branch of DESINE-Lab along with my classmates, Patricia Dranoff and Brandon Wang, we assisted in fundraising for projects, hosted events, created networking opportunities, offered coaching sessions and assisted with grant and fellowship awards to any RISD or Brown student interested in getting involved.
DESINE-Lab has worked extensively with partners in South Asia, Africa, and Latin America, however, the organization based in Providence, RI saw an opportunity to work with our own community members in improving the quality of life here in Rhode Island. This public project is sited in an empty parking lot in Central Falls, Rhode Island's smallest, densest, most diverse, and also most economically-stressed city.
The three year long research and planning efforts included a physical master plan for the City of Central Falls that emphasized cultural, recreational, educational, and innovation hubs for this square-mile city. Creating a sense of community, emphasizing the village scale and walkability of the city, the possibilities for greater interconnectedness, and identifying programmatic clustering and potential linkages and partnerships were all part of the plan.
This six-week design-build initiative was carried out by RISD students and faculty in partnership with Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogotaá, Colombia, Brown University, and the City of Central Falls. The site, located at 741 Dexter St, was originally planned to become a public parking lot but is now transformed into a vibrant public plaza for the whole community. With my co-leaders, I assisted in fund-raising, building relationships with the mayor and community, conducted research, organized student meetings and informational sessions, as well as planned the design-build that took place in Summer 2014.
Disclaimer: I did not participate in the 6-week design and build of the plaza.
All photos by official photographer Lucas Vasilko unless otherwise stated.
