informal urban practices

GRAMEEN BANK

The Grameen Bank was set up by Muhammad Yunus, and provides credit to the poorest of the people living in Bangledesh. These loans may only be around $27, but this enables them to repay debts they may have, and often start small businesses that are sustainable income for them. His banking model has now been imitated, multiplying the positive social effect of the project.

SOCIAL ENTERPRISE LONDON

This is an organisation that, “works to unite, inspire and lead London’s social enterprise movement,” by connecting social enterprises and allowing them to assist each other, thus demonstrating that social enterprise is the future of business. It holds events and training sessions, offers a consultancy and many other services to social enterprises.

THE STREET VENDOR PROJECT

Working with the street vendors of New York as well as volunteers and graphic designers, the project strives to protect the rights of vendors and promote the beneficial nature of their practice. They educate the vendors and the public, as well as rally councils for fairer laws to allow vendors the opportunity to make a living. Although it is a not-for-profit organisation, it focuses on enabling the small businesses of others.

Lucy Fraser, Industrial Design

Why am I doing the studio?

I was initially drawn to the studio for a few different reasons: the inter-school collaborative structure; the chance to investigate urban use and; an interest in cultural/social habits.

Motivations?

I came to interior design from a performance/acting background and so when I’m designing, I think I naturally tend to focus on the body and its relationship to space. How a body interacts, overlaps and connects with design. Designing for the body - user driven design.

I’m interested in the experience of space and reaction to space – mentally, physically, emotionally and culturally. How deeply does it affect our social experience, our state of mind, our choice of action? Can we influence this experience?

I also believe there is a performative aspect of life/everyday activities which is at its most heightened in public space – this could provide an ineteresting starting point when investigating urban use.

I’d like to gain…

A wider technical knowledge, quicker design visualization, a deeper understanding of social interaction in public space and a higher level of resolution in my design outcomes.

The range of topics and diversity of this course appealed to me immediately. Learning about cultural practices around the world as well as the class’s cross-disciplinary collaborations will allow me to expand my awareness of different influential concepts and how they can be incorporated into my future design processes. I hope to learn how to look at design from more than an Industrial Design perspective and be motivated by the other design styles and ways of thought. I will enjoy learning and communicating with industry professionals from all over the world and with this I hope to expand my design awareness and practice. Creating designs with more than just appealing aesthetics and sound ergonomics is a goal of mine and I hope this course will help me achieve this.