What Is Social Design?//Personal

What is it?
Social Design is essentially design for good.  It is design that improves the world in any myriad of ways, from sustainable product design to building recycled homes for the needy.  Social Design requires the acknowledgement that designers have power, and that it can be used for good or ill.  Every decision that a designer makes has an impact, and social design aims to make that impact as positive as possible.

Who does it?

Emily Pilloton.  

Emily founded Project H, which designs systems that improve communities, from the Learning Landscape Network, a playground network, to "educational environments.

Samuel Mockbee.

Samuel Mockbee used architecture to improve communities and individual lives by building homes for the poor, often using recycled materials.  He taught his students to use architecture for good, and even after his death his impact lives on.

Deborah Adler.

Deborah Adler, past known for her innovative prescription bottle design for Target, strives to make people's lives easier and safer through better product design.

Bruce Mau.

Mau both writes and designs for a better, more socially conscious world.  He is a leader of the social design movement and author of the book Massive Change.

Cameron Sinclair.

Cameron Sinclair co-founded Architecture for Humanity and co-edited Design Like You Give A Damn.

What resources are out there?
treehugger
material connexion
GOOD magazine
core 77
design 21
design can change
droog

What is interesting?

Bruce Mau's Incomplete Manifesto for Growth

Tejo Remy's Chest of Drawers.

Architecture for Humanity's school in Ica, Peru.

Project H's Educational Environments.