SEED Awards for Excellence in Public Interest Design 2014

Design Corps and the Social Economic Environmental Design (SEED) Network announce the Call for Entries in the fourth annual SEED Awards for Excellence in Public Interest Design competition. Recognizing excellence in social, economic and environmental design, the SEED Awards represent the confluence of forces needed to create truly sustainable projects and change in the world.
 
Deadline for applications is Tuesday, November 12, 2013 by 11:59 p.m. EST. Winners will be announced January 22, 2014. For application details and guidelines, go to www.designcorps.org/awards.
 
Six projects will be selected through a competitive jury process. Winning projects will receive a $1,000 honorarium and an all-expense-paid trip for one team representative to present at the fourteenth international Structures for Inclusion conference (SFI 14) to be held March 22-23, 2014, in New York City at Parsons The New School for Design. A Public Interest Design Institute will follow the conference on March 24-25 at the City College of New York.
 
Three inclusive categories of projects that have been designed or redesigned for the public good will be considered: 1) Products; 2) Places, such as buildings, landscapes and other environments; and 3) Services, Systems, Public Policy and Business Practices. Projects in progress or completed in the past three years are eligible. Student, professional and Do It Yourself projects will be considered. Work may be undertaken anywhere in the world.
 
SEED Award jurors include: Michael Cohen, director of the International Affairs Program at the New School for Public Engagement; Andres Lepik, director of the Architekturmuseum der Technischen Universität München; Cara McCarty, curatorial director at Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum; William Morrish, professor of Urban Ecologies at Parsons The New School of Design in New York City; and Esther Yang, assistant director of the J. Max Bond Center on Design for the Just City at Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture at the City College of New York.
 
Past winning projects are profiled in the SEEDocs series of design documentaries and serve as excellent examples of how Social Economic Environmental Design can impact a community. The SEEDocs can be viewed online at www.SEEDocs.org.
 
The SEED Awards are sponsored by the SEED Network and Design Corps.
 
SEED Network
Social Economic Environmental Design® (SEED) provides a common standard to guide, evaluate and measure the social, economic and environmental impact of design projects. SEED maintains the belief that design can play a vital role in the most critical issues that face communities and individuals, in crisis and in everyday challenges. To accomplish this, the SEED® process guides professionals to work alongside locals who know their community and its needs. This practice of "trusting the local" is increasingly recognized as a highly effective way to sustain the health and longevity of a place or a community as it develops. www.seednetwork.org
 
Design Corps
Design Corps is a 501-c-3 organization committed to providing communities in need with architecture and planning services that create positive change by involving people in the decisions that shape their lives, including the built environment. Design Corps initiatives include the SEED Network (www.seednetwork.org), SEED Awards for Excellence in Public Interest Design (www.designcorps.org/sfi/winners), and the Public Interest Design Institute (www.publicinterestdesign.com). Design Corps is based in Raleigh, NC. www.DesignCorps.org
 
SFI-14
The 2014 Structures for Inclusion (SFI-14) national conference on public service architecture and community design is scheduled for March 22-23, 2014, in New York City at Parsons The New School for Design. A Public Interest Design Institute will follow the conference on March 24-25 at the J. Max Bond Center at the Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture at the City College of New York. SFI-14 will equip participants with the know-how and partnerships to take action in their own practice, school and community to be at the forefront of change. SFI-14 is funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.