Eight designers join 2017 Curry Stone Social Design Circle for March

The Curry Stone Foundation announced eight new members who have joined the Social Design Circle for the month of March. Instead of announcing only one winner for the 2017 Curry Stone Design Prize, the Foundation created the Social Design Circle to honor a total of 100 individual designers and practices across the globe whose work is dedicated to addressing an array of social issues in their local communities and cities. 

Throughout 2017, new Social Design Circle honorees will be selected in relation to an issue that the social design movement addresses for that particular month. For March, the Foundation asked “Can Design Challenge Inequality?”. Next month's theme will be: “Can Design Prevent Disaster?”

Have a look at the latest Social Design Circle honorees.

The Detroit Collaborative Design Center (DCDC) is a multi-disciplinary non-profit architecture and urban design firm based at the Detroit Mercy School of Architecture. Founder Stephen Vogel established the DCDC in 1994 with the mission to help revive Detroit's urban landscape through innovative design and community-based practice.

Active Social Architecture (ASA) is a Kigali-based architecture practice founded in 2012 by Nerea Amoros Elorduy and Toma Berlanda, and is currently run by Zeno Riondato, Francesco Stassi and Alice Tasca. The practice works on sustainable design and contemporary re-elaborations of vernacular Rwandan architecture, with a special focus on spaces for children and infants. ASA aims to create flexible spaces that combine Rwandan vernacular tradition with contemporary needs.

D-Rev — short for Design Revolution —is a San Francisco non-profit product development company founded in 2007 by Paul Polak and Kurt Kuhlman that grew out of a collaboration with Stanford University’s D-School. Run by CEO Krista Donaldson since 2009, the group is known for innovative designs like the Brilliance Jaundice Lamp and the Re-motion knee.

Founded in Quito in 2007 by David Barragán and Pascual Gangotena, Al Borde is a collaborative and experimental architecture studio that uses participatory processes to engage people who live on the margins of society. The practice is known for designing extremely affordable projects, most notably a school they built on a $200 budget.

Known for projects like the Parque Biblioteca Espana and Marinilla Educational Park, El Equipo Mazzanti is a Colombian architecture firm that rose to international prominence as part of the “Medellin Miracle” period of extensive urban renewal in the city. Founder Giancarlo Mazzanti believes that “any project is a social project”, if approached in the right spirit.

Based in San Francisco, Public Architecture is a non-profit studio whose mission is to formalize pro bono service in the architecture, interiors, and landscape architecture professions. Founded by John Peterson, Public Architecture developed from his private practice, John Peterson Architects, as he increasingly devoted more of his firm's time to pro-bono projects.

Based in Mexico City, Isla Urbana is a water conservation non-profit group. They addressed Mexico City's ongoing water crisis by developing rainwater harvesting kits that are affordable and easy to install. Most notably, Isla Urbana’s kits are designed to fit onto existing structures, allowing them to be widely deployed in the existing informal sprawl surrounding Mexico City.

Founded in 2008 by Emily Pilloton, Project H Design is a Berkeley-based design education non-profit that focuses on developing leadership skills for youth through design-build courses. Project H's programs include the Studio H in-school design/build class for students in grades 6-12. The program intends to reconnect students with a sense of craft and to directly engage students in socially meaningful projects.

You can learn more about each honoree on the Curry Stone Design Prize's website.