My first exposure to the community of social impact design was the Public Architecture sponsored Design Access Summit.   The summit gathered a group of articulate people with depth in the diverse range of assets required for success in this work.   A range of the topics was explored both in short presentations and in very active… Read more »

Cinda Gilliland

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More than half of the world’s population currently lives in urban areas. Of this, 70% of the population is located in developing nations and this percentage is rapidly rising, increasing to about 95% by 2060. Urban populations in developing nations face severe challenges—socially, economically and environmentally.  For example, 30% of urban populations worldwide live in… Read more »

Andrew Watkins

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planting-dead-trees

We have found a wonderful use for some beautiful trees that were felled during Hurricane Ike – we are planting them.  And yes, we know they won’t grow back. [Watch the short video.] Our Houston office is restoring Flewellen Creek as a part of an eco-community we are designing in Fulshear, Texas. The waterway had… Read more »

MattBaumgarten

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Rancho San Ramon Community Park-Bill Tatham-4497.jpg

Is social impact design limited to a design process that engages a community in need, to reach a specific solution or can a meaningful definition also include designs which seek, in some unspecific way, to change a cultural condition for the better, for the public good? When the community to be served is looking for… Read more »

Cinda Gilliland

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Which vessels sink and which ones float?  Houston’s bayous are good for more than draining our floodwaters, they are also places for play. The Rice Design Alliance (RDA) knows this and we were happy to attend the second annual Anything That Floats event on April 28 at Sesquicentennial Park along Buffalo Bayou. Sponsored by the… Read more »

Jenny Janis

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I have always loved drinking fountains. As a child, I knew where every drinking fountain was in the neighborhood and in every store we had ever visited. At the neighborhood park every day, I would climb up and peer down inside the empty shell of the broken drinking fountain, hoping that someone had fixed it. Invariably, its concrete form was still stuffed with candy wrappers and miscellaneous garbage, so I would run to the far end of the park, to the drinking fountain that did work, for a long, glorious drink of fresh cool water.

Josselyn Ivanov

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