Catalyst: Phase 1
Study of 3 Social Innovation Projects (Week 1)
Debrief 1: Habibi Dome, Social Innovation Project
Habibi dome is a spatial sculpture that can react to different places and social and cultural contexts. The structure was developed at the European Border in Greece. Its creators determined a need for a community room. It has undergone many transformations since its creation, and is now a symbol for an open society. It achieves this by showing that,
“if people from different (cultural) backgrounds bring in their talents, it is constructive and enriching for every project and continually benefits society.”
This project is relevant to our own because it deals with immigration, the struggle to assimilate, and taking pride in cultural identity. While we don’t know the exact budget for this project, we do know that it was funded by Soup and Socks, a non-profit organisation founded in 2015 by a group of young adults who wanted to get active and set signs of solidarity with people who fled their countries. Soup and Socks then founded Habibi.Works, a makerspace for refugees and locals in the north of Greece.
The Concept
- Immigrants, fleeing their home countries and arriving into Northern Greece develop a building together with experts and people from all over the world.
- The design is participatory: Taking and developing this open structure is used as a statement as well as an image: An image for collaboration across borders where people act collectively.
- The room measures 6 meters in its diameter and 3 meters in its height and is still in use in Katsikas.
Key Players and Partners
- It is a project by Ahmad Aljuda Zidane, Ala’Aldin, Florian Horsch, Qussai, Franziska Wirtensohn, Michael Wittmann, and the team of Habibi.Works.
- Habibi.Works is an open, intercultural workshop, a social design lab and platform for education, empowerment and encounters for refugees and Greek locals near Ioannina, Northern Greece.
- It is initiated by Franziska Wirtensohn and Michael Wittmann, both graduates from Academy of Fine Arts Munich and team members of Habibi.Works.
Pivotal Moments
Then, 2018, in Munich, Habibi Dome then functioned as a platform for exchange across supposed borders, as an image for an open-minded Munich. This time, Habibi Dome appeared as a pop-up.
Visitors used the structure as a meeting point, a place to have conversation, and to share knowledge.
Led by Design
Habibi.Works was designed to bring refugees, locals and international experts together to create products and perspectives. In concrete terms, Habibi.Works is a 700m2 space, consisting of 11 different working areas in which people create, learn, teach and meet. Unlike a design agency, Habibi.Works support people to create solutions themselves.
Their design opportunity:
“Can we use art and design to encourage [action and opportunities for self-determination]?”
There is a stereotype that refugees are people who fled their countries as helpless victims. By providing structures such as the Habibi Dome, Habibi.Works brings refugees, locals and international experts together to create products and perspectives. It works to effectively fight the dehumanizing stereotype.
Our Reflection
We think that yes, this is a social innovation project. Self-expression empowers people. Being a maker wipes off the stigma of being passive or helpless and offers caring individuals, brilliant minds and hard working hands new opportunities. The approach of creating solutions instead of waiting for solutions has an incomparable impact on people’s current living situation, on their motivation to continue or use their education and on their confidence to build an independent life within the European societies. This project was created in response to the need for an outlet for self expression. It’s a step forward in creating a more culturally accepting world.
Debrief 2: Ainonghui, Social Innovation Project
“In 2005 in Liuzhou, Guangxi province (China), a group of citizens found that they could not access good, safe food in ordinary markets. They went to villages, about a two-hour drive from the city, and found that traditional agriculture models, though struggling, still survived in the remote countryside.”
With the intention to trying to solve this problem, a social enterprise farmers’ association called Ainonghui was founded, and worked toward an original way to open new opportunities for both farmers and local citizens.
This project is relevant to our own because it deals with the topic of bridging the gap between people through establishing a system that is fairly simple and able to function at a local scale. Despite this project being in the agriculture field, the “connection” building aspect in this project is a key element which we also hope to tackle in and create in our project. While the budget for this project is also unknown, we do know that it was collaboratively designed and developed by a group of local farmers and citizens in the area.
The Concept
This project is a community-supported agriculture idea in which Ainonghui in Liuzhou strived to create direct links between farmers and citizens. By bridging the distance between production and consumption on a local scale, the project creates an effective relationship in which farmers are now better able to sustain traditional farming in the countryside and other local citizens are able to access fresh, organic, and healthy food while reducing economic and environment costs.
The main concept was to first recognize the complementary nature of farmers and citizens’ motivations and capabilities, and then socially innovate to bridge the culture gap and overcome issues to introduce a sustainable lifestyle into the neighborhood through agriculture.
Key Players and Partners
The two main key partners in this project are farmers who wants to increase their income to help them better sustain traditional farming and live a more respected life, and citizens who wants easier access to the delivery of organic and safe food products.
Also, Ainonghui also played a key role in this project as it was founded with the intention of helping farmers and also develop a stable channel for organic food. The farmers’ association was also set up by a group of farmers and citizens.
Pivotal Moments
Despite Ainonghui’s success, the farmers’ association was fairly conservative in terms of development and expansion, and thus mainly developed the project slowly and steadily without key moments and phases that were considered explicitly pivotal. The communication and collaboration with farmers and citizens to build this channel and relationship was developed and strengthened gradually throughout the years since 2005.
However, one pivotal phases in their process was that beyond producing and delivering food, the Ainonghui farmers’ association also now manages four organic restaurants and a community organic food store.
Led by Design
Despite the Ainonghui farmers’ association being made up of commoners and non-designers, design played an important role in which people from both parties (producers and consumers) came together to create a system that taken into account both perspectives and benefits both sides.
“By selling traditionally sourced food to citizens, they also educate them on what traditional/organic agriculture is and introduce a sustainable lifestyle into the city.”
As a result, the impact of this social innovation project can be seen through increase in farmers’ income and also an increase in accessibility to organic food products for citizens.
Our Reflection
We definitely agree that this is a social innovation project as this project as it is a new idea that builds a model that simultaneously meet the social needs and create new social relationships and collaborations. By bridging the gap and distance between producers (farmers) and consumers, this innovative project creates good for the society, proposing a new way of producing and eating between cities and their surrounding countryside. Through this case, we felt that the approach of developing and creating a “direct” link is important and an effective way to initiate change, foster communication, and build relationships especially at a local scale. And overall, despite our project topic being fairly different from this case, various elements and design thinking process definitely inspired us to think about how we may be able to apply similar ways of approach to foster relationship and encourage Asian Americans to find self acceptance and belongingness at CMU.
Debrief 3: Salad Club, Social Innovation Project
Salad Club is a weekly social event created by the Centre for Social Innovation. This weekly event was created by the organization with the intentions to grow a community and get to know each other better within the group.
This project is relevant to our own because it deals with building a community and raising awareness of who they are working with in CSI. Although Salad Club is mainly for those who work in CSI, we hope that we could bring awareness of Asian American cultures to those who have little to no understanding of the culture and also being able form a connection with each other.
The Concept
Salad Club is a social event where members of the CSI come together every week to win friends with salad. It creates the opportunity for them to build a conversation and make new connections. Their purpose is to break down the barriers to make it easy for anyone to participate and all they have to contribute is a food item, either proteins, fruits or vegetables.
During this event people make conversations in different ways. Whether the conversations happen naturally, or if it is facilitated by the event such as writing prompts on the black board for people to discuss or starting the event with a short presentation.
Key Players and and Partners
The main key players are CSI (Centre for Social Innovation) and the members to make a connection with one another. Through this event, the members who attend the event get to know each other and the projects that they are working on. The communication through one another helps them to build a stronger community and lead them to grow into an even bigger one by spreading the word and recruit new members.
Salad club is sponsored by local restaurants and recently they have partnered up with Newman’s Own which is a social enterprise that donates their entire after tax profits to charities and non profit organizations.
Pivotal Moments
The pivotal moment in salad club would definitely be creating a free space for people to easily make conversations with along with a healthy meal. By making connections and spreading awareness of what projects the members of CSI are working on, it often leads to new collaborative projects.
Led by Design
The CSI has their own theory of social change which is based on a pyramid with three levels (Space, Community, and Innovation). They design their event with the first level, space, by creating an energizing and functional space. The next level is community. The group of people attending the event creates a community through consciousness. These two levels lead to innovation which is the moment when there is a mixture of the right people, value, and environment. Through this model, CSI has been able to successfully achieve their social innovation.
Our Reflection
We think that this is definitely a social innovation project. Designing opportunities to bring people together to build a connection leads to a stronger community. By following a design model, the event allows people to connect, collaborate, and also starting an insightful conversation with each other. Creating a space that helps people to connect with each other is important when building a community that gathers people with the right values and similarities.
