Parsons’ DESIGN FOR SUSTAINABILITY AND SOCIAL INNOVATION (DESIS) LAB recently focused on social innovation in Williamsburg and Greenpoint, Brooklyn, in an exhibition and workshops. Amplifying Creative Communities: North Brooklyn brought together residents, activists, and designers to explore efforts to make Brooklyn more livable. The exhibition, at Arts@Renaissance, documented independent initiatives to effect sustainable change and projects arising from workshops hosted by DESIS with partners like the design consultancy IDEO. The events mark the culmination of DESIS’s urban design research in Brooklyn during the past year, which recorded activities involving sustainable food production, transportation, and resource sharing. The project’s goal, according to DESIS Lab director EDUARDO STASZOWSKI, “is to look at existing social innovations in a neighborhood and identify what positive change is happening and how to amplify it.” The research was supported by the Rockefeller Foundation New York City Cultural Innovation Fund.

www.amplifyingcreativecommunities.net