About SEED Network

SEED Network

The SEED Network is part of a global movement that believes design can support a community from the ground up. The mission of SEED is that every person should be able to live in a socially, economically and environmentally healthy community. We promote ideas, methods and design projects that demonstrate progress towards achieving this goal across the globe. We share processes that demonstrate how designers are playing creative and innovative roles to implement these projects and measure their positive impact.

SEED is a principle-based network of individuals and organizations dedicated to building and supporting a culture of civic responsibility and engagement in the built environment and the public realm. By sharing best practices and case studies, we create a community of knowledge for professionals and the public based on a set of shared principles. SEED facilitates action by providing tools such as the SEED Evaluator, which provides guidelines for pursuing a design process informed by inclusivity and participation that can lead to SEED Certification.

The SEED Network members promote and celebrate the idea that design matters and all people can shape their world for the better through design.

SEED Network logo

Networking exhibition nominees

Exterior view of the African Leadership University with the lights on at night

Photo Credit: Iwan Baan

African Leadership University

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Group of people constructing a building in a rural area

Agbogbloshie Makerspace Platform

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Alternative Shelter & Village Building

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Living Rooms at the Border

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Children gathered watching a presentation

Vertical University Project

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Join this network

The SEED Network

The SEED Network is made of SEED members-individuals, groups and organizations that have elected to support the SEED Principles through their own practices.

The SEED principles are:

  • Advocate with those who have a limited voice in public life
  • Build structures for inclusion that engage stakeholders and allow communities to make decisions
  • Promote social equality through discourse that reflects a range of values and social identities
  • Generate ideas that grow from pace and build local capacity
  • Design to help conserve resources and eliminate waste

Founding networks

DesignBuildXchange logo

DesignBuildXchange

a platform that engages people to actively participate in building a better world by connecting professional education with practice, scientific research and social engagement

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Live Projects Network logo

Live Projects Network

an online resource to share practice and connect students, educators, clients, practitioners and researchers involved in live projects

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Pacific Rim Community Design Network logo

Pacific Rim Community Design Network

provides a vehicle for collaboration and mutual support for a comparative understanding of community design in the fast-changing political and social context of the Pacific Rim

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