In the past 10 years, the Curry Stone Design Prize has grown to become one of the world’s preeminent awards honoring socially impactful design professionals and the influence of design as a force for improving lives and strengthening communities.
This year, in honor of the prize’s 10th anniversary, the Curry Stone Foundation will acknowledge the largest group of influential practices yet, recognizing 100 firms over the next twelve months as members of the “Social Design Circle.” Each firm will be profiled on the award website, as well as participate in the foundation’s new podcast, Social Design Insights, beginning on January 5th, 2017.
“In the past ten years the Curry Stone Design Prize has been recognizing some of the most impactful and inspirational international practices,” says Emiliano Gandolfi, the Prize Director. “Their work is part of a larger movement of individuals and groups who see design as a necessary tool to make our societies more just, environmentally sustainable, and socially inclusive. We formed the Social Design Circle to illustrate the significance of this movement and to share with a wider audience the great potential of these transformative practices.”
The Social Design Circle recipients will be announced on a monthly basis within thematic categories based on their accomplishments. For the month of January, 6 firms were recognized under the theme of “Should Designers be Outlaws?”:
Mark Lakemen (City Repair Project)
These 6 firms will feature in January episodes of the Social Design Insights podcast, co-hosted by Prize Director Emiliano Gandolfi and award-winning author, architect and post disaster expert, Eric Cesal. The pair will engage in conversation with movement leaders over the next 12 months in the following issues:
- January: Should Designers be Outlaws?
- February: Is The Right To Housing Real?
- March: Can Design Challenge Inequality?
- April: Can Design Prevent Disaster?
- May: Can We Design Community Engagement?
- June: Can Design Reclaim Public Space?
- July: Can We Design a Slum Friendly City?
- August: How Do We Design With Scarcity?
- September: What Can Design Do To Promote Peace?
- October: Can a City Work As An Ecosystem?
- November: Does Design Create Politics or Vice Versa?
- December: How Do We Democratize Design?
“Social Design Insights will be a forum to hear from the Social Design Movement’s leading practitioners about their own methods, in their own words. By drawing dozens of practitioners from all fields into one conversation, we hope that we can examine Social Design’s current challenges and future potential,” says Eric Cesal.
The podcast will air each Thursday on the Prize’s website and will be available through iTunes, Android and RSS feeds beginning in January with Teddy Cruz, Santiago Cirugeda (Recetas Urbanas), Arquitectura Expandida, Stalker, and Mark Lakeman (City Repair Project). At the beginning of each month, new honorees of the prize will be announced to the public.
To learn more about the prize and about this month’s recipients, visit the Curry Stone Design Prize website, here.
News via Curry Stone Design Prize.