How I got into Socially Driven Design

Katie Crepeau’s recent blog post on Design Affect got me thinking about why and how I got into Public interest design, Impact Design, socially driven design, humanitarian design or people centred design, however you want to call it. I realized that there wasnt a single moment that lead me to this, more a series of small moments that pulled me in this direction. I’m still very much at the start of my career and learning in this field but it is interesting to look back at the random steps that led me here. 

 I found my personal statement which I used to apply to university a few months ago. In it I wrote of comparing the environment I saw in my community, with the unwelcoming buildings, graffiti and general air of neglect to that of places like Canary Wharf which seemed to gleam and shine. I remember feeling like good design could make an impact in the way people see themselves. It was one of the reasons I got into architecture, I felt like we all had the right to live in beautiful places. 

 Through undergrad I didn’t really think much about this field. My first exposure to it was a lecture by Anna Heringer. She told us about her building in India, and how she’d used the process as a tool for educating the local community and architects about designing sustainably and for the climate. Telling us about the desire for western architecture and how that didn’t work with the climate and even culture. It was amazing to see, my friend and I left the lecture being like this is why we decided to study architecture.

 Another moment was the OMA exhibition at the Barbican, I barely remember any of it but I picked up a piece of paper with some text that has almost become my mantra. I have no idea who wrote it or why but it is a statement that resonates with me totally. 

 
Creatification-

The role of the creative class should be less receiving, rather broader, faithful and responsive

-Economic call

-Social necessity

-Moral obligation 

 During my summer holidays I tried to work for architectures office to build my experience and then worked for two more in my year out. I found working in the office environment difficult, I would get so bored, so easily. And although I ended up working or doing work experiences with about 7 offices I never found one that clicked with me. I loved the people I worked with, enjoyed the projects but just didn’t find them stimulating. It was really interesting to see how much the client and sometimes quantity surveyor drove the project.

It was only when I started my Diploma (the last 2 years of architecture course) that I started to be more exposed to this field and maybe even think about it as a legitimate career path. My dissertation was quite pivotal. I wanted to write about Lagos in Nigeria. I was between writing about a development for middle income clients or a slum called Makoko that I’d somehow come across. And I had a meeting with one of the tutors impressed on me that I had a key choice to make.

This project continued into my thesis project where I designed a maternity centre for Makoko. Again it was having a fantastic tutor while I was on exchange in Vienna that encouraged me to do this. Despite it being totally different from what everyone back in Glasgow was doing.

Final year was tricky, everyone was talking about what they wanted to do next and I knew I didn’t want to go back to working in a traditional office, but I didn’t feel like I had enough courage to go out on my own and do it. There was a symposium at the University, Clean Conscience Dirty Hands that was organised by one of the tutors, who had set up his own humanitarian design studio as a 19yr old student (and is now my colleague). I think that was the biggest turning point for me. Seeing the speakers from a range of countries all working in this field whether in the UK or abroad, made me realize that it was possible. I was still scared of course, I told my brother that the longer I waited to start the more fear would set in.

Since then it’s been a total whirlwind and I am learning so much about people centred design and making a positive impact in communities. I can’t believe I graduated last year.