In this episode of WLEI Podcast, we welcome Cynthia E. Smith, Curator of Socially Responsible Design at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum and author of Design for the Other 90%. Cynthia speaks about design as a catalyst for change and what it means, as she says, to be in “the collective work of building capacity and agency in communities across the world.” The conversation explores:
- How socially responsible design works and what types of problems it aims to solve (for example, improving quality and access to basic services we all need to live)
- The importance of collaborating closely with local communities throughout the design process and how architects, engineers, designers, and local experts can work together differently
- How design studios can move beyond the fee-for-service model by learning from public health models
- The future of socially responsible design, the “moral imagination”, and what it means to “model the future we want that doesn’t exist yet”
