Budapest 2023
Design for the Common Good International Exhibition logo

2023 Budapest Exhibition

Agency, empowerment, impact: these characteristics distinguish the work featured in the Design for the Common Good International Exhibition. In its first international venue outside of the United States, the Design for the Common Good Network, Metropolitan State University of Denver, and Budapest Metropolitan University Faculty of Art and Creative Industries are pleased to present this curated collection of thirty-two projects from six continents and twenty-three countries. Established by the Design for the Common Good Network in Denver, Colorado (2022) as the parent exhibition, today the exhibition travels with added peer-reviewed or curator-invited projects that build the collection.

Please see the exhibition catalog presented below for project narratives and related texts translated into Hungarian.

HOST: Budapest Metropolitan University Faculty of Art and Creative Industries

DATE: October 4–19, 2023

LOCATION: Artus Contemporary Art Studio, Budapest, Hungary

Video Credit: David Kovacs & Budapest Metropolitan University Faculty of Art and Creative Industries

curated works

  • Exhibition Location

  • Exhibition Theme

Photo Credit: Iwan Baan

African Leadership University

SEED Network

Kigali, Rwanda

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Agbogbloshie Makerspace Platform

SEED Network

Accra, Ghana

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Photo Credit: Ria Tan

Ah Ma Drink Stall

Pacific Rim Community Design Network

Singapore

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Test Caption

Alternative Shelter & Village Building

SEED Network

Portland, United States

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Photo Credit: Kurt Hoerbst

Anandaloy

Curry Stone Foundation

Bangladesh

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Photo Credit: Jesse Kuroiwa

Auraria Bike Pavilions

Design Build Xchange

Denver, United States

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Photo Credit: JC Buck Gallery

Beloved Community Village

Curator Invited Regional Project Selection

Denver, United States

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Photo Credit: Günter R.Wett

bilding

Design Build Xchange

Innsbruck, Austria

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Photo Credit: Clint Abrahams

Bong’s Place Macassar’s Storytelling Shack

Live Projects Network

Cape Town, South Africa

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Photo Credit: Santiago Oviedo

Chamanga Cultural Center

Design Build Xchange

Chamanga, Ecuador

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Photo Credit: Tanulni FOX

Collaborations in Design + Architecture Education

Curator Invited Regional Project Selection: Emerging Voices in Education

Tolcsva, Hungary

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Photo Credit: ISAU/PBSA/RWTH

Ecole Primaire Santiguyah

Design Build Xchange

Guinea

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Photo Credit: William Ti, Jr.

Emergency Quarantine Facilities

Pacific Rim Community Design Network

Manila, Philippines

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Photo Credit: Joti Weijers-Coghlan

Fish River Rangers Accommodation

Live Projects Network

Tipperary, Australia

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Photo Credit: Vicenzo Floramo

Gaw La Heh Primary School

Curry Stone Foundation

Myanmar (Burma)

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Photo Credit: Rural Urban Framework

Ger Innovation Hub

Curry Stone Foundation

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

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Photo Credit: Kyle Pearce

Grange Pavilion

Live Projects Network

Cardiff, United Kingdom

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Housing in Historic Rural Palestine

Curry Stone Foundation

Nablus

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Photo Credit: University of Sheffield, School of Architecture

Imagine Castlegate

Live Projects Network

Sheffield, United Kingdom

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Photo Credit: Leon Klassen

Infozentrale auf dem Vollgut

Design Build Xchange

Berlin, Germany

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Photo Credit: InterACTION Labs Team

InterACTION Labs

Pacific Rim Community Design Network

Iquitos, Peru

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International District Urban Agriculture Plan

Curator Invited Regional Project Selection

Albuquerque, United States

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Living Rooms at the Border

SEED Network

San Diego, United States

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Photo Credit: Sanrok Studio

Microlibraries

Pacific Rim Community Design Network

Indonesia

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Photo Credit: Katie Edwards

Naidi Community Hall

Pacific Rim Community Design Network

Naidi, Fiji

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Photo Credit: Community Design Agency

Niramay Place

Curry Stone Foundation

Shevgaon, India

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Photo Credit: Markus Fattinger

OBENauf Bed-and-Breakfast

Design Build Xchange

Unternalb, Austria

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Photo Credit: Chad Kraus

Passerine Pavilion

Live Projects Network

Lawrence, United States

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Renewal of Déri Miksa Street

Regional Project Selection

Budapest, Hungary

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Photo Credit: Jason Henry for Alta Magazine

Restore Oakland

Curry Stone Foundation

Oakland, United States

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Vertical University Project

SEED Network

Nepal

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Photo Credit: Dr. Péter Paári

We All Need a Home

Regional Project Selection

Pécs, Hungary

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Thank You

Organizers: Design for the Common Good Network, Metropolitan State University of Denver, and the Budapest Metropolitan University Faculty of Art and Creative Industries

Traveling Exhibition Sponsors: Budapest Metropolitan University Faculty of Art and Creative Industries; Center for Public Interest Design, Portland State University; Community Development Partners; Design for the Common Good Network; Metropolitan State University of Denver; National Endowment for the Arts

Exhibition Logo Design: Emily Douglas and Allie Fabrizio

National Endowment for the Arts logo graphic

This project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Budapest Exhibition Catalog

The traveling expression of the Design for the Common Good International Exhibition presented in Budapest, Hungary significantly includes three Hungarian projects new to the collection. This work exemplifies the ways communities, organizations, and design teams are creating positive change from the ground up. Often localized and scale-appropriate, these efforts are transformative in the places where they matter most.

First edition, Denver 2022, exhibition catalog designed by MSU Denver Communication Design students; Second edition, Budapest 2023, exhibition catalog editing and revision by Veronika Kovács; cover design by Erzsébet Bachmann.

Catalog cover art depicting a collage of three images showing public interest design projects

Special thanks to Zsuzsanna Pörczi and Budapest Metropolitan University for making this catalog and its Hungarian translation possible.

View the Budapest Exhibition Catalog

Executive Committee

Black and white photo of Lisa Abendroth
Curator

Lisa M. Abendroth

Metropolitan State University of Denver

Lisa M. Abendroth is the curator and organizer of the Design for the Common Good International Exhibition (Denver 2022, Budapest 2023). Her research focuses on public interest design and the social, economic, and environmental impacts created with, and within, the contexts of underserved people, places, and problems. Lisa is a Professor in Communication Design at Metropolitan State University of Denver where her pedagogy is committed to community-led design practices that embolden access and equity. She is a SEED Network co-founder, a Design for the Common Good Network executive committee member, and a co-editor/co-author of two books in Routledge’s Public Interest Design Guidebook series. She holds degrees from Virginia Commonwealth University and Rhode Island School of Design and is an AIGA Fellow. Lisa lectures, exhibits, and publishes her work nationally and internationally.

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Committee Representatives 

While each network has a unique focus, we acknowledge our mutuality in supporting the growth of design for the common good. In this we seek to scale our effectiveness through our existing network affiliations, the inclusion of new networks, and the promotion of relationships that share new knowledge and critical PID approaches to working, teaching, and learning.

Ursula Hartig

Ursula Hartig

DesignBuildXchange

Nina Pawlicki

Nina Pawlicki

DesignBuildXchange

Simon Colwill

Simon Colwill

DesignBuildXchange

Jane Anderson

Jane Anderson

Live Projects Network

Colin Priest

Colin Priest

Live Projects Network

Jeff Hou

Jeff Hou

Pacific Rim Community

Bryan Bell

Bryan Bell

SEED Network

Sergio Palleroni

Sergio Palleroni

SEED Network

LOCATION INFO

Budapest Metropolitan University

Budapest Metropolitan University (METU) is the largest private university in Hungary, offering programs in two faculties in the areas of communication, business, tourism, visual arts, and creative industries. Our prospective students can choose from a constantly growing selection of Hungarian and English language bachelor’s and master’s programs, postgraduate specialist training, adult education, and higher-level vocational training courses. We devote particular attention to practical training adjusted to current labour market needs, the personalized support of our students’ individual learning paths, and the development of social competencies. We treat our students as clients and work with them as partners in education.

International University

About 1,000 of our almost 7,000 students are international students coming from over 100 different countries. Our institution is an important and dynamically developing player in Hungarian higher education and even in the Central Eastern European region. We have active partnerships with over 200 international institutions across five continents.

University of Creativeness

METU focuses on learning through creativity and applies an operational approach open to the outside world, embedding the university in the economic, social, innovation, and cultural ecosystem. This international, cooperative environment supports our students in discovering their strengths and achieving their best in all areas of life. We help students gain actual practical knowledge built on real-life challenges, which will give them a true competitive advantage at the start of their careers. After all, the university is all about laying the foundations of students’ future.

Faculty of Art and Creative Industries

Our institution has the widest arts education portfolio in Hungary, and a uniquely diverse range of programs. Besides teaching creative thinking and practical and technical skills, the arts programs of METU focus on providing an environment that supports creativity, where our creative students can learn from outstanding professionals recognized in their fields. This gives our university’s artists great motivation, allowing them not only to gain relevant, applicable knowledge and important skills but to feel that they have a calling in their chosen field. Students studying media and motion picture or applied arts can learn about each other’s fields through shared projects. Our top students have the opportunity to conduct visual experiments in our scientific art studio, which are also useful in the creative industries, and to prove themselves at national and international competitions and festivals.

Learn more

Upwards shot of Budapest Metropolitan University sign in front of a building
Wall of artwork in foreground with door looking into classroom in the background