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The recent exchange between Bruce Nussbaum and Emily Pilloton on humanitarian design frustrates me to no end. It reminds me of the age-old duel between the generations, the older one (Nussbaum) with preconceived notions of humanitarian design and cultural imperialism versus the new generation (Pilloton), which is bravely venturing forth to right the world their elders have wronged for so long. While Nussbaum plays into the design community’s (and their followers’) paralyzing cynicism, Pilloton opens up new doors, finds friendships, makes things happen, and uses design as a conversation about place, object, life, usefulness, and human worth. Read more…

Last fall we wrote about the architecture firm Anshen + Allen’s Green Patient Lab, a traveling mock-up of a hospital room stocked with the latest and best in sustainable health-care technology and design. Today the firm let us know that it has also begun working with Containers to Clinics (C2C), a Dover, Massachusetts-based nonprofit that’s developing a prototype portable health clinic constructed from industrial shipping containers. C2C was founded in 2008 by a Boston-area physician’s assistant named Elizabeth Sheehan; it aims to deliver routine preventive care to underserved areas of the developing world. (Right now, it’s working to deploy its first prototype in Haiti.) Sheehan estimates that one C2C unit will cost approximately $100,000, but that figure includes transport, equipment, medications, and salaries for seven local staff members. You can watch the retrofit process in the video above; read more at containerstoclinics.org.

After the jump, Anshen + Allen’s renderings of the prototype clinic provide a better idea of the distribution of medical facilities within the 8-by-20-foot steel containers. Read more…

Photo: the Design Revolution Road Show on Flickr

Last night, in San Francisco, Emily Pilloton and her merry band of  humanitarian-design crusaders hosted the official send-off for their Design Revolution Road Show, which will be touring the country in a vintage Airstream trailer between now and April. I am very sorry I wasn’t able to attend—the invite to the “parking lot party” touted a tantalizing trifecta of mobile food vendors: one taco truck, one pizza truck, and one cupcake truck. Fortunately, even if you can’t make it to any of the tour stops, Pilloton and company are posting copious photos and videos on their blog. In fact, the Road Show has already made three pre-kickoff stops, including one at Pilloton’s alma mater, Redwood High School.

One other piece of related news: Pilloton’s nonprofit, Project H Design, is in the running for a $50,000 grant from Pepsi to help launch Studio H, a design-build program in the poorest county in North Carolina. It’s a terrific idea, so be sure to take a moment to vote for Studio H here.

You can also watch a video about Studio H, “the country’s first design, vocation, and community-service program in a public high school,” after the jump. Read more…

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Last night, Project H Design founder and Design Revolution author Emily Pilloton appeared on the Colbert Report to talk about humanitarian design, the Spider Boot, Adaptive Eyecare, the “triple bottom line,” and more. Watch the complete interview above (or click here to see a larger-sized video).

Related: At the 2008 Metropolis conference at the ICFF, Pilloton spoke about social-minded product design. Click here to watch a video of her presentation.