The Design School

Highlights from 2020-21

Sustainability solutions

ASU students in the Innovation Space program, a partnership of The Design School in the Herberger Institute, Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering, the W. P. Carey School of Business and the Global Institute of Sustainability and Innovation, worked with Burt’s Bees to propose solutions for sustainability packaging concepts for small products such as lip balms and lipstick tubes.

“The more we can address the problems of our planet and factor that into our long-term plans for how to manage our business, [the better the business will be].” – Paula Alexander, Burt’s Bees senior director of sustainability

Indigenous architecture

Tammy Eagle Bull, an alumna from The Design School and president and co-founder of the firm Encompass Architects based in Lincoln, Nebraska, spoke with Architect about America’s perception of Indigenous architecture. Bull is a member of the Oglala Lakota Nation of Pine Ridge, South Dakota. Read the conversation.

A new face mask

An interdisciplinary team from ASU’s Luminosity Lab that included graphic design student Jerina Gabriel won $500,00 for designing a more comfortable, functional and affordable face mask. The team earned the top spot in the XPRIZE Next-Gen Mask Challenge to redesign the face masks used to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Equitable urban cooling

In November 2020, the City of Tempe Office of Sustainability was awarded a grant by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to accelerate its climate action toward cooler, more equitable and healthier futures. The grant supports the Cool Kids, Cool Places, Cool Futures: Youth-driven, Arts-enhanced and Community-based approach for equitable urban cooling and emergency management project, a partnership between Tempe and The Design School. This project fosters meaningful resilience to extreme heat by empowering youth to evolve from kids to catalysts with the assistance of a broad community-of-support network through transformational positions. Several faculty from The Design School are participating in the project, including Paul Coseo, associate professor in landscape architecture and sustainability scientist, and Institute Professors Maria Rosario Jackson and Wanda Dalla Costa.

Educator of the Year

Elena Rocchi, a clinical assistant professor of architecture in The Design School, was recognized as the 2020 Educator of the Year by the Arizona component of the American Institute of Architects at their annual awards gala.

Ingenious architecture photo courtesy of Encompass Architects.

A new face mask photo courtesy of Luminosity Lab.

Educator of the Year photo courtesy of Elena Rocchi.

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