Social Design Collaborative is a community driven architectural and art practice whose work was recognized recently with the international award – Beazley Design of the Year 2020 in Architecture. Through interdisciplinary collaborations, the team engages with under-represented communities in Indian cities who are typically left out of urban planning processes. The Delhi based team supports self-organized communities through collective building of schools, anganwadis and community spaces. Working with farmers, street vendors, waste pickers, home based workers and domestic workers, the team also uses the medium of design to help make planning and public policy accessible. The team firmly believes that design has the potential to address and solve many of our society’s current challenges but it cannot do that through design alone. The processes of community engagement, listening and learning-by-doing form a major part of their design approach, over finished design products or architectural artifacts. Their building projects grow and change with the people who build, use or maintain them, instead of becoming static or rigid entities. Since 2017, the studio has been working with community based organizations, social workers, activists, academics, lawyers and government organizations, whilst bringing together the diverse stakeholders involved, on ground as well as at a planning level.
Key works by Social Design Collaborative
