FWD_ Futures We Desire
Design as a process can redistribute decision-making abilities to historically marginalized communities so they are civically in control of shaping their built environment. – Theresa Hwang, designforequity.org
Intro
How does one design for sustainability, and what does that mean? Designers have always, and still, create solutions in response to problems; however, what was once a field of creatives who designed things to be made is now a cross-disciplinary professional industry of communicators, strategists, capability builders, researchers, and facilitators who "create the right conditions for such creativity to emerge by designing systems and processes." Today, the problems designers are being called to address belong not only to companies, but to communities, cities, countries and entire cultures.
Designers are capable of creating solutions within complex systems to address the most urgent and important problems of our time. And thus, design and the role of the designer has evolved. Designers are enables, and this project is aimed at exploring how design might catalyze, support and scale-up social innovation in ways that engage and empower marginalized communities to make independent declarations about the futures they desire. The ability of design, and the designer, to redistribute power, realign perceptions, and unify purpose as it applies to the affects the built environment has on a community's ability to be resilient is explored.
Process
The following are progress presentations given over the course of this 10 week project. For additional thoughts on the process, I wrote a few blog posts here.
