Design Studio for Social Intervention

The Design Studio for Social Intervention, known as DS4SI, is a Dorchester-based studio working at the intersection of design, social justice, public art and civic engagement. It partners with communities, artists and social justice practitioners to imagine, design and collectively rehearse new ways of living together, with a particular focus on engaging BIPOC communities as co-designers of community infrastructure. Its guiding idea is that alternative futures require rehearsing alternative presents.

Over 20 years the studio has developed embodied design practices such as Public Kitchen, Dance Court, Design Gym, inPUBLIC and Social Emergency Response Centers, along with its Ideas, Arrangements, Effects framework. In Upham’s Corner it runs the Design Gym, a free civic space where neighbors, artists, youth, organizers and merchants can work out ideas and learn skills ranging from civic design and participatory research to woodworking, videography and sewing.

What to Know

• The Prototype Lab is a DS4SI testing space for experimenting with new ways of being together in public life.
• Recent projects include The People’s Late Night at the Strand Theatre and a Dance Court design team at Mary Hannon Park.
• The Design Gym is supported by the Barr, Kresge, Luce and Surdna foundations, among others.
• The studio also publishes writing on social justice, public space, culture and civic imagination.