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Posts Tagged ‘SEED Network’
May 18, 2012
Cannon Design Open Hand Studio Forum
As we speak, Cannon Design is holding its annual Open Hand Studio Forum at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. Started just a few years ago in what is now the firm’s Chicago office, Open Hand Studio has come to represent Cannon’s firm-wide commitment to socially responsible design.
Guest speakers for the day-long Forum included Kimberly Dowdell, co-founder of Social/Economic/Environmental Design (SEED) Network; Erinn McGurn, co-founder of SCALEAfrica; Elizabeth Blazevich with the Sustainable Cities Design Academy of the American Architectural Foundation; and PublicInterestDesign.org‘s own John Cary. An anticipated outcome of the Forum is publication of the inaugural “Open Hand Studio Annual Report,” which we look forward to passing along in the coming weeks.
Click here to learn more about Cannon Design’s Open Hand Studio.
May 18, 2012
First of six “SEEDocs” premieres today
Today marks the official release of the first of six “SEEDocs,” part of an exciting, new, short film series, showcasing the winners of the annual SEED Awards. Those awards, and thus the films, recognize design work distinguished in terms of its economic, environmental, and social sustainability. This first film features the Owe’neh Bupingeh Rehabilitation Project, in New Mexico. Five additional SEEDocs will be released online every other month following this initial launch.
The films are commissioned by Design Corps; produced by The Uptake; and supported by a major funding partnership from the Fetzer Institute, whose mission is to foster awareness of the power of love, forgiveness, and compassion. The Fetzer Institute is also a funding partner of PublicInterestDesign.org.
Click here or on the image above to watch the first SEEDoc.
May 9, 2012
HuffPo: “SEEDing a New Kind of STEM”
In his latest column for The Huffington Post, titled “SEEDing a New Kind of STEM,” Thomas Fisher, Dean of the College of Design at the University of Minnesota, takes a look at efforts to grow and expand the “STEM” disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and math. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan frames it in terms “to ensure our competitiveness.” John Maeda, President of the Rhode Island School of Design, meanwhile, is leading a national effort to expand STEM to STEAM, with the added “A” integrating art and design. Fisher, however, turns to another acronym, SEED, short for Social, Economic, Environmental Design–a term coined by architect Kimberly Dowdell and adopted by a network of like-minded professionals.
We should do all we can to encourage students to imagine science that enables us not only to understand nature, but also to steward it; to innovate technology that helps us improve the quality of life not only of the wealthy, but also of the world’s poor; to engage in engineering that allows us to do things not only more efficiently, but also in more culturally and climatically appropriate ways; and to devise mathematics that facilitates our ability to work not only smarter, but also more sensibly and sustainably.
Click here to read Thomas Fisher’s “SEEDing a New Kind of STEM” in at HuffingtonPost.com.
March 23, 2012
PIDI Winds Down, As SFI12 Ramps Up
Today rounds out Day 2 of Bryan Bell‘s Public Interest Design Institute training program at the University of Texas at Austin, with Michael Murphy of MASS Design Group, Maurice Cox of the University of Virginia, Katie Swenson of Enterprise Community Partners, and former Rose Fellow Jamie Blosser of the Sustainable Native Communities Collaborative taking the podium. The two-day affair will culminate with what Bell calls the “SEED Certification Test,” when the 50+ participants will be examined on their familiarity with the principles and practice of the Social Economic Environmental Design Network.
This evening, Bell will kick off the 12th annual Structures for Inclusion conference, also being hosted by and at UT-Austin. Many of the speakers that partook in the above training program populate the conference roster, with several additions, including the likes of Emilie Taylor of the Tulane City Center, Coleman Coker of buildingstudio, and Gail Vittori of the Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems. But first, Bell will screen a cut of the first “SEEDoc,” profiled here previously. That video will hopefully be available online shortly, and we’re told that a live-stream of Structures for Inclusion may be as well. So stay tuned.
Click here to learn more about Structures for Inclusion 12 on the Design Corps website.
March 12, 2012
“SEEDocs” to debut at Structures for Inclusion
Late last week, Design Corps announced an exciting new series of short documentary films, called “SEEDocs,” which it says will “celebrate the best of public interest design.” Produced by The Uptake, the series is supported by a major grant from the Fetzer Institute, whose mission is to foster awareness of the power of love, forgiveness, and compassion. (Fetzer is also a major funder of PublicInterestDesign.org.)
The first film–featuring the Owe’neh Bupingeh Rehabilitation Project–will be screened on Friday, March 23, during the Structures for Inclusion conference, hosted by the University of Texas at Austin, addressing the theme of “Design is Relational.”
Click here to learn more about the Structures for Inclusion conference. Five additional SEEDocs will be released online every other month following this initial launch.
January 27, 2012
SEED announces 2012 award honorees
Design Corps and Social Economic Environmental Design Network, SEED, announced today the winners of its second annual awards program. The 6 winning projects along with 13 honorable mentions were selected from a field of 45 submissions from 14 countries. According to the press release, “The award winners and honorable mentions…offer tangible evidence of how design is effectively playing a role in addressing the most critical issues around the globe…Each project team carefully identified a community’s needs and priorities, then maximized the use of resources to strategically address these.” The six winners will receive $1,000 cash prize plus all-expense-paid trips to present at the twelfth annual Structures for Inclusion conference, taking place March 24-25, 2012, at the University of Texas at Austin.
The six 2012 SEED Award Winners of 2012 are:
Nyanza Maternity Hospital, Nyanza, Rwanda
Maria Auxiliadora School, Los Calderones, Peru
Escuela Ecologica Saludable Initiative: Parque Primaria, Lima, Peru
Owe’neh Bupingeh Preservation Plan and Rehabilitation, Ohkay Owingeh, New Mexico
Bancroft School Revitalization, Kansas City, Missouri
Grow Dat Farm, New Orleans, Louisiana
Click here to read the complete press release, or click here to visit the SEED Award website.
December 7, 2011
GOOD 100: “SEED is the new LEED”
As explained in our first post today, the newly-launched GOOD 100 is ushering in the new, with a series of “_______ is the new _______.” Three design-related entries, authored by PublicInterestDesign.org‘s own John Cary, are among the 100 profiles. This second profile suggests that “SEED (Social/Economic/Environmental Design) is the new LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design).”
LEED has proven itself as a model, method, and viable business enterprise, even if technically a nonprofit venture. SEED, on the other hand, has been slow to grow. It has much to learn from LEED, but also much to offer. In an era of limited funding and demands for greater efficiency, the logical next step for both may very well be a merger. LEED and its well-developed structure could take the SEED principles to scale, and keep itself at the forefront of the sustainability movement. Truly successful and sustainable buildings and developments need to address environmental and social concerns, so why not do both together?
Click here to read why SEED is the new LEED.
November 14, 2011
2nd Annual SEED Award Competition Announced
The Social/Economic/Environmental Design (SEED) Network, is seeking submissions for its Second Annual SEED Awards for Excellence in Public Interest Design. The award criteria align with the network’s five principles: Advocating with those who have a limited voice in public life; building structures for inclusion that engage stakeholders and allow communities to make decisions; promoting social equality through discourse that reflects a range of values and social identities; generating ideas that grow from place and build local capacity; and designing conserve resources and minimize waste.
The deadline for submissions is January 16, 2012, with winners to be announced January 27, 2012. Winners will receive $1,000 cash prize plus an all-expense-paid trip to present at the 12th Structures for Inclusion conference, scheduled to take place in Austin, Texas, March 24-25, 2012. Winners will also be included in a documentary series by The UpTake. The competition, films, and corresponding efforts are sponsored by the Surdna Foundation and the AIA College of Fellows Latrobe Prize.
Click here for more information on the Second Annual SEED Awards.
September 30, 2011
Tulane to host Public Interest Design Institute
The Public Interest Design Institute training program will visit New Orleans for its next convening, November 4-5, 2011. This third official institute will be hosted by the Tulane University School of Architecture, offering in-depth study over two days on methods of how design can address critical issues faced by communities. The PIDI curriculum itself is structured around the Social/Economic/Environmental Design (SEED) metric.
The early-bird registration fee is $350 (a $100 discount), only through October 4, and then $450 thereafter. AIA members are also being offered a 2 for 1 special through October 14 (“AIA241″ promotional code). Click here for more information and to register.
Long a leader in public interest design work, but especially in the years since Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, the Tulane School of Architecture has numerous programs focused on design and service. Chief among them is the Tulane City Center, one of many outcomes of which is the Hollygrove Market & Farm, a community design/build project realized by faculty member Cordula Roser Gray of crgarchitecture along with a team of Tulane students. Credit: Photo by Will Crocker.
August 12, 2011
UNM Public Interest Design Institute
Next month, September 16-17, 2011, the University of New Mexico School of Architecture & Planning in Albuquerque will host the second Public Interest Design Institute (PIDI) training program. The two-day course will provide architecture and design professionals with “in-depth study on methods of how design can address the critical issues faced by communities.” (The PIDI is independent and distinct from this website, despite the similarities in name and values.)
The PIDI curriculum is structured around the Social/Economic/Environmental Design (SEED) metric, a set of standards that outlines the process and principles of this growing approach to design. This process provides a step-by step aid for those who want to undertake public interest design.
The early-bird registration fee (available until August 17) is $350, with the regular $450 fee thereafter. Click here for more information on this and upcoming PIDI programs at Tulane and Yale Universities.
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