The MIT Morningside Academy for Design welcomes D-Lab into its growing design ecosystem

The Morningside Academy of Design (MIT MAD) was launched in 2022 with a mission to foster an environment where design acts as a catalyst for positive change.

MAD quickly established itself as a vibrant design hub with a graduate fellowship program, a first-year learning community, a network of makerspaces, and an exciting schedule of design events and initiatives. MAD is also home to MITdesignX, a startup incubator with a design focus, and MAD Making (formerly Project Manus).

Now, MIT D-Lab, a pioneer in the use of participatory design to address global poverty challenges, joins MAD’s growing ecosystem of design programs. The synergy between MAD and D-Lab is so clear that John Ochsendorf, MAD’s founding director, has commented, “If D-Lab didn’t exist, we’d have to invent it.”

CHANGING THE PARADIGM OF INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT THROUGH PARTICIPATORY DESIGN

Founded in 2002 by Amy Smith, a senior lecturer in Mechanical Engineering, D-Lab is known for its robust offering of more than a dozen hands-on, project-based MIT classes, as well as research and long-term international field programs.

“D-Lab’s commitment to enhancing student experiences, inclusive pedagogy, and practical solutions for global poverty reduction aligns with MAD’s dedication to transformative learning, and the use of making and design as catalysts for positive change and community empowerment,” says D-Lab’s executive director Ana Pantelic. “The only way to develop effective and durable solutions to poverty and climate change is to co-design with the communities that are experiencing these complex challenges.”

From the start, D-Lab established a reputation for applying engineering and design principles to the complex issues faced by people living with relatively few material resources. D-Lab describes its guiding design principles as follows:

• Use inclusive practices when designing for people living in poverty
• Engage in effective co-creation when designing with people living in poverty
• Build confidence and capacity to promote design by people living in poverty

The approach used depends on the context of a given design challenge. And sometimes, one approach evolves into another. “We work with D-Lab because our community members not only learn design skills, they become equal design partners on projects that matter,” says Thabiso Mashaba, Founder and CEO of These Hands in Botswana, “and then design leads as the projects move forward and start others.”

More than 4,000 students from across the Institute have enrolled in D-Lab classes over the years, and some have carried their design collaborations forward long after graduation. Emily Young ‘18, co-founder and CEO of Moving Health, was one such student. “Through this incredible collaboration between a Tanzanian NGO and a group of student designers and engineers that D-Lab put together, we were able to take on the critical problem of access to healthcare, and with the community, design and deliver a safe and cost-effective solution.” Now, almost a decade after Moving Health got its start in D-Lab class, Moving Health is serving more than 100,000 people in rural Ghana.

D-Lab’s design approach to international development has not gone unnoticed. In 2019, D-Lab was honored by the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum with a National Design Award for its “work to address the daily challenges of poverty through design.”

It is not surprising, then, that MAD, an interdisciplinary hub that celebrates “the transformative power of design” and exists to “foster innovation, empower individuals, and reshape the way we learn,” would welcome the partnership with D-Lab.

SHARED COMMITMENTS, LONG-STANDING RELATIONSHIPS

D-Lab’s collaboration with MAD has roots in long-standing relationships and shared commitments. MAD Founding Director John Ochsendorf, MAD Associate Director Maria Yang, and MAD Making Director Kim Vandiver collectively have decades of experience working with D-Lab.

Smith recounts that years ago, she and Ochsendorf traveled to Washington, D.C., to present at a World Bank event on behalf of MIT. Inspired by Ochsendorf’s talk, Smith suggested expanding D-Lab courses into building design. “In about two weeks, we got everything in place and made it happen!,” she remembers. Ochsendorf worked with Professor Les Norford to evolve his architecture lab class into D-Lab: Schools, which has contributed to the design of a number of low-cost educational buildings around the world over the past decade.

Looking back even further, Smith reflects that MAD will allow D-Lab to reconnect with a maker-driven culture that shaped its early years. Kim Vandiver was an early champion of D-Lab and gave it its first home at the Edgerton Center.

“The Edgerton Center provided both a physical and institutional home for D-Lab in the early days — a place full of friendly, encouraging, and collaborative people and colleagues,” Smith notes. Over the years, Vandiver has served as D-Lab’s sole faculty director and is the current faculty director for research at D-Lab.

MAD Associate Director Maria Yang has served as D-Lab faculty director for academics since 2017, providing guidance and oversight to a program of 12 or more full-semester MIT classes offered by D-Lab each year, as well as international student fieldwork and research around the world.

A NEW INSTITUTIONAL HOME

Initially organized within what was the office of the MIT Dean for Undergraduate Education, D-Lab then transitioned into the Office of the Vice Chancellor (OVC) in 2017.

“While we will miss having the D-Lab team as part of the OVC family,” stated Dan Hastings, acting vice chancellor at the time the move was taking shape, “MAD will provide a fantastic new opportunity for an endeavor that has become a defining part of many of our students’ educational experiences while at MIT.”

“Design is a powerful tool for community development and personal transformation. I think applying it to global poverty challenges — which is what D-Lab is all about — aligns strongly with MAD’s vision,” concludes Smith.

By partnering with MAD, D-Lab seeks to deepen its impact both at MIT and abroad, engaging with more faculty, staff, and students eager to apply their research and studies to design a more equitable world.

“Developing socially responsible people is a common thread between MITdesignX and D-Lab—both show MIT reaching out into the world in tangible ways,” observes Marion Cunningham, MAD’s director for administration. “That’s what MAD aims to do: connect design with real-world impact. With D-Lab now part of MAD, we’re building on that momentum.”