COMMUNITY FORKLIFT: DECONSTRUCTION & REUSE

(Image courtesy of Community Forklift blog)

Know the old saying, reduce, reuse, recycle? Well the nonprofit, Community Forklift, has been a leading organization in the area for reducing the amount of construction waste from commercial and residential renovations. Plus they stock a ton of vintage items perfect for your older home or just easier on your pocket.

Community Forklift is a nonprofit reuse center for home improvement supplies. We pick up donations of unwanted and salvaged building materials throughout the metro DC region. Then, we make the building materials available to the public at low cost, and provide vintage materials for restoring old homes. We also offer public education about reuse, and distribute free supplies to local nonprofits and neighbors in need.

See upcoming events on their website Community Forklift.

NEW COMMUNITY DESIGN CENTER OPENS DC OFFICE – BUILDING COMMUNITY WORKSHOP

Image courtesy of [bc] website showing project Crossing the Street | Activating Ivy City

Texas based nonprofit community design center, buildingcommunityWORKSHOP, or [bc] for short, has brought their talents to Washington DC. The organization seeks to improve the livability and viability of communities through the practice of thoughtful design and making.

We enrich the lives of citizens by bringing design thinking to areas of our cities where resources are most scarce. To do so, [bc] recognizes that it must first understand the social, economic, and environmental issues facing a community before beginning work.

Read more about their DC-based project Crossing the Street | Activating Ivy City.

DESIGNING A BETTER WORLD

IDEO

image from IDEO.org’s website

IDEO.org is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to improve the lives of people in poor and vulnerable communities through design.

We’re an interdisciplinary mix of designers, storytellers, businesspeople, and systems-makers, a team of creative problem-solvers that is tackling the world’s biggest challenges through design. We partner with NGOs, governments, foundations, and nonprofits, going big in areas where we think design has something serious to say to the challenges of poverty.

The organization was formed in 2011 out of IDEO, a global innovation and design firm. They have created several guides and tools which can be found online in effort to spread their knowledge and the impact of design. IDEO.org’s latest online publication is Impact: A Design Perspective their first impact report. They also partner with Acumen for Human-Centered Design courses which you can read about in this previous post.

Visit IDEO.org for more online material.

WEEKEND IN RICHMOND – ACD CONFERENCE

image from the ACD website

The Association for Community Design will host their annual conference in Richmond, VA this year, from June 25-28. Titled ‘Neighbors’ the schedule includes two full days of tours, talks, and breakout sessions. Note that the dates are conveniently on a Friday and Saturday for those who want to limit time away from the office…and spend the weekend in a fun city like Richmond.

Established in 1977, the Association for Community Design (ACD) is a network of individuals, organizations, and institutions committed to increasing the capacity of planning and design professions to better serve communities. ACD serves and supports practitioners, educators, and organizations engaged in community-based design and planning.co

Registration closes June 12th. Register here.