Social Designs CIC is a multi-disciplinary community of practice based in Cornwall, brought together by a common interest in the future of rural areas - most pertinently the one we live in.
We work across design, construction, research and education - focusing on climate resilience, community wealth, and public health within architectural development.
Community Architecture
We design architecture to tell stories of community endeavour, local culture, local industry and material landscapes.
We predominantly work with community groups and occasionally with private clients - all of the profit generated working for the latter stays in the company to fund pro-bono work for the former.
Low carbon materials are non-negotiable. We are more interested in local materials as catalysts for local industry and inspiration for current and future makers.
See More…
→ Goonown Growers Community Barn
St Agnes, Cornwall
→ Expressions of Resilience Pavilions
Shoreditch, London
→ ColdFrame Brewery @ Innovation Nursery
St Austell, Cornwall
Social Constructs
Under a different trading name; Social Constructs is a female-led, eco-feminist building and making collective, attending to the relationships between natural materials, craft and human health through live construction projects.
Social Constructs works at varied scales and in varied roles; from furniture making to deep retrofit to new builds, we fulfil roles from Main Contractor through to self-build facilitators.
We also regularly integrate education with our construction sites, providing introductory courses to natural materials, plus longer-term apprenticeships and training for womxn who want to get into construction and making.
See More…
→ Goonown Growers Community Barn
St Agnes, Cornwall
→ Upcycle Kernow: Community Workshop Retrofit
Portreath, Cornwall
→ Black Females in Architecture: MA Exhibition
NOW Gallery, London
PAR-LAB
We specialise in participatory design, in architecture but also outside of it, managing broader engagement programmes for systems design, network building, environmental campaigns and business consultancy.
We view participatory processes as micro-political environments, where we can build the ‘soft’ architecture of community, improve public trust through inclusive decision making and imbue built outputs with the identity of people involved.
See More…
→ Loveland Community Farm / Falmouth Food Coop
Falmouth & Penryn, Cornwall
→ Assembly Space: Towards a Bioregional Construction Industry
Cornwall, Devon, South-West UK
→ Sustainable Food Cornwall
Cornwall, County-Wide
Education
We integrate education with design and construction processes, providing skills and knowledge training in fields related to the localisation and decarbonisation of construction, and modes of regenerative land management.
See More…
→ Building with Natural Materials - Green Skills Workshops
→ Integrated Education: Skills Training via Live Build
