Students
Students come to the Parsons MS SDM program from all over the world. Their experience combines studios, seminars, networking, events, symposia, and more. This page will inform you about student projects like First Year Studio and Second Year Studio, student resources, and other opportunities.
Bindu- Building a community around crafts
The organised handicraft sector exploits craftspeople, forcing repetitive work under middle-men who take most profits and stifle creativity. Bindu addresses this by connecting craftspeople directly to the market, promoting inclusion, co-creation, and dialogue. It fosters a loyal community, bridges gaps between craftspeople, NGOs, trade unions, and the government, and preserves traditional crafting techniques. Designer: Souvik Mukherjee RETURN TO GOOD INTERVENTIONS ’24 EXHIBITION
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Andam: Design for Disaster Preparedness
Andam (meaning prepare in Cebuano) is a gamified electronic build kit designed to be used by multigenerational families. The kit facilitates an interaction in which users collaboratively build a solar light and radio (post-disaster essentials), whilst sharing lived experience of disaster and preparedness recommendations, prompted by instructional cards. This project was conducted in collaboration with the University of the Philippines, Cebu, and the Lapu-Lapu Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office. Designer: Tori Simpson RETURN TO GOOD INTERVENTIONS ’24 EXHIBITION
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Augmented City: towards a more humane and empathetic smart city
Augmented City aims to bring collective memory to life by integrating the personal histories of its inhabitants into the city’s physical spaces. Through participatory technology, it enables citizens to share their geolocated memories on a cloud-based platform using images, texts, audio, videos. Users can experience these memories through mobile devices at the locations where they originated, allowing for an immersive and more inclusive contextual exploration of the city’s social reality. Designers: Polise Moreira De Marchi Veronica Pontes Enrique Trevelin Lucas Falcão Artacho Mario de Castro Yuri Lamonica Chuk Michele Alves de Freitas Batista Wesley dos Santos Antonio Araujo Bárbara Dariano…
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Community Enabler
The design project, Community Enabler, aims to transform Grönsakstorget from a parking lot into an inclusive, vibrant summer square. Through 10 weeks of prototyping and public engagement, we explored the site and configurations in collaboration with the municipality of Gothenburg. The focus was on accessibility, creativity, and community input to create a dynamic space for social interaction, artistic expression, and cultural exchange, reflecting the community’s diverse voices and needs. Designers: Anne-Li Liljeblad Inês Moreira Thilo Pantring RETURN TO GOOD INTERVENTIONS ’24 EXHIBITION
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Design’s Role for Socially Responsible Behavior in Public Places
The project is a 16-week M.Des research inquiry into why social responsibility exists, how it results in conflicts, the connection between design and social responsibility, and what might be missing in current universal frameworks for designing strategies. The framework/tool developed hence helps users classify and evaluate the specific actors and contextual factors involved in the acts of spitting chewing tobacco (Gutka), littering, and urinating in public places. Designer: Sharl Pear RETURN TO GOOD INTERVENTIONS ’24 EXHIBITION
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Longevity Planning Blocks (LPBs)
The global population is ever changing; living longer than ever before, society calls for new and creative tools and services to serve a population of adults living longer – and better – than ever before. Preparedness, including financial preparedness, is imperative for quality of life in older adulthood. The financial planning industry, uniquely positioned to serve this growing population of older adults, could benefit from innovative design changes to better serve their clients. This, we explored using tangible design artifacts and gaming frameworks and theories to transform financial planning services to make them more inclusive and enjoyable. Design for Longevity…
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Meaning Making
“Meaning Making” is a card game that aims to create a safe and supportive space for children to express themselves through drawing without fear of judgment or rejection. It tries to foster acceptance and confidence via collaboration. With a set of 36 cards that use the simple interlocking mechanism, these cards can generate over 1600 abstract shapes that are open to interpretation. These shapes appear on both sides of the cards allowing an opportunity for two people to draw their own version. Designer: Yashika Munjal RETURN TO GOOD INTERVENTIONS ’24 EXHIBITION
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Redefining the DoorDasher Experience: A Critical Design Take
The gig economy, often likened to the fourth industrial revolution, spans diverse sectors from food delivery to customer support. DoorDash, a delivery gigwork platform, brands itself to Dashers as “Your time. Your goals. You’re the boss.” However, the reality is different. Dashers face constant challenges and struggle to navigate the platform’s complex ecosystem. This project aims to spotlight these issues through critical design, envisioning a platform where Dashers are empowered. Designer: Samruddhi Prakash Kokate RETURN TO GOOD INTERVENTIONS ’24 EXHIBITION
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Sustainable Death
Our Prospect Park Green Burial Initiative proposes transforming parts of Prospect Park, NYC, into sustainable burial grounds. This project explores eco-friendly interment options like biodegradable urns and memorial trees, enhancing the park’s natural beauty and historical significance. We aim to balance memorialization, public recreation, and ecological preservation, creating a serene space for remembrance while reinforcing the park’s role as a vital green and community hub in Brooklyn. Designers: Chloé de Montgolfier Emma Kowalczyk Matteo Salomoni Isabel Meriales RETURN TO GOOD INTERVENTIONS ’24 EXHIBITION
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Systemic Intervention in Reception of Public Healthcare
AIIMS New Delhi offers high-quality and affordable healthcare but it faces issues in providing seamless experiences to the people. It is often the only option for many individuals from low-income groups to get access to good medical services. AapkaSaathi allows users to pre-plan their visit through a scheduling service in their native language through natural voice and text. It rewards them with travel concessions thereby enhancing the accessibility of healthcare. Designer: Aman Pathak RETURN TO GOOD INTERVENTIONS ’24 EXHIBITION
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