Should designers try to save the world?

Homelessness. Displaced peoples. Crowding. Sustainability.

These are the big issues in the problem area of shelter. These are the problems that governments, engineers, and non-profits spend large budgets and a multitude of time trying to solve. And they are problems that still plague just about every city, state, and country on earth.

So can a designer solve them?

This is a question that we as students are facing in our Re:Studio class this semester. As a class, we are endeavoring to take an idea from concept to launch in the space of a semester. Our overarching problem space is shelter — anything and everything having to do with it.

Now, being able to explore the “anything and everything” of something as broad as shelter means that there are A LOT of possibilities. Small possibilities. Big possibilities. And what sort of thinking would you guess many of us have started this project with?

That’s right. The big possibilities. The saving-the-world possibilities.

I play into this just like a lot of my other classmates. I mean, these ARE the big problems faced by people. So, of course we want to solve them. And it’s not out of the question. There are some great and very interesting solves out there for these very big problems.

IKEA recently won the Beazley Design of the Year for 2016 from the Design Museum in London for their flat-packed refugee housing solution called “Better Shelter.” Almost 65 million of these structures, consisting of a steel frame clad with insulated lightweight polymer panels, have been distributed worldwide. Due its modular nature, additional features such as a solar powered wall can also be integrated into the design.

As the final project for a USC class called Homeless Studio, a group of fourth-year architecture students made the above $25K modular unit to help stem the tide of homelessness in LA. They are quick and easy to build and can house a single person.

A fastcodesign.com article on the project recounts the following about the project: “And while the course started out the way most do — with groups of students designing their own prototypes — the students had converged around a single design by the middle of the semester, with every participant working towards the same idea. The full prototype was finished by the end of the year.” Sound familiar?

Maybe we can save the world after all…