On Nov. 9 and 10, the
Public Interest Design Institute will offer a two-day course in public interest design at the
University of Cincinnati. Attendees of the conference will receive
SEED® certification and learn ways to get involved with public interest design projects.
The course will feature speakers who will talk about specific public interest design projects and funding for those projects. Bryan Bell, founder of
Design Corps and the Public Interest Design Institute, will be certifying attendees in SEED, or Social Economic Environmental Design. SEED helps guide, evaluate and measure the social, economic and environmental impact of design projects.
Public interest design enhances the existing design practice by putting design skills to use in the community. Many public interest design projects are for nonprofits and are funded through grants, foundations and collaborations with other organizations.
But public interest design isn’t just for designers or planners. The workshop is open to anyone, including students, interested in public interest design, specifically those in the development, government development, planning, urban design, landscape, interiors and industrial design fields.
“There’s an ever-growing recognition of both the need and opportunity for public interest design,” says Michael Zaretsky, associate professor in the
School of Architecture and Interior Design at
DAAP. “We know that in the past, design was really just for those that could afford it, but there are now so many examples of work that is for communities, and everyone benefits from it.”
In recent years, more and more large design firms are beginning to require that their employees donate a portion of their time to public interest design projects, some through organizations like theonepercent.org.
The One Percent Project links nonprofits that need design projects with firms and individuals who want to donate one percent of their time to a project.
“It’s not just volunteering, but a chance to use our skills and knowledge to benefit a community,” says Zaretsky.
The speakers at the workshop include Maurice Cox, an urban designer and architecture professor at the
University of Virginia; Ramsey Ford, co-founder and director of design for
Design Impact; Emilie Taylor, design build manager at the
Tulane City Center; and Zaretsky.
Zaretsky will be talking about a project he worked on in Tanzania with the
Village Life Outreach Project. He serves as director of the Roche Health Center Design Committee, which, along with a nonprofit, helped build a
health center in a rural Tanzanian village that has no power or running water. Zaretsky worked with students and engineering and architecture firms to complete the project.
There’s still time to
sign up for the Public Interest Design Institute’s workshop. The cost for the course is $450; it’s $350 for AIA members and $250 for students.
By Caitlin Koenig
Follow Caitlin on Twitter
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