Design-Build as Social Design Instigation

Public Interest Design (formerly known as Community Design) pedagogy in schools continues to expand exponentially in both courses and school affiliated design centers (i.e. Sharon Haar’s map “Community Design Centers and Community Based Architecture Organizations in the US” hosted on the Association for Community Design’s website). The work of these faculty and students is not simply proposals of potential projects for deserving communities or design work that is later built by a contractor. An increasing portion of this work is being built by students as small-scale design-build projects as an incipient instigation to impact the social landscape within a community. These initial projects can stimulate larger projects and are a key component to building trust and relationships within communities.The proposed paper will site recent publications and reference current Public Interest Design (PID) school affiliated work that designs and builds their projects (or a portion of a project) and seeks to enact social change. The paper will focus on the participatory nature of the work with community members which provides an opportunity for the public to provide design feedback and potential hands-on building experience. The outcomes of these projects from the perspective of the clients will be highlighted as well as how the project has made a social impact in the community.The paper will summarize and disseminate the following:• Best practices of how PID Design-Build can best serve the social issues within communities (both processes and praxis).• Participatory involvement. How do schools engage the public in the design and building process?• Community Buy-in. What is the best way to gain community-wide support for projects?• Projects. How are projects initiated? How do projects begin? • Process. (Researching, Planning, Designing, Building, Post Occupancy Evaluation)• Future. What is next for the social design instigation of PID Design-Build? Where do we go from here?

Volume Editors
Sergio Palleroni, Ted Cavanagh & Ursula Hartig

ISBN
978-0-935502-94-7