Parsons Design for Social Innovation and Sustainability Lab (DESIS Lab) is an action research laboratory founded in 2009 at The New School in New York City. The lab explores how designing, as a form of critical praxis, can act in both critical and affirmative
ways to challenge existing systems and foster regenerative, equitable ways of living.
Approach
DESIS Lab critically re-examines the structures that shape contemporary life. Through situated, collaborative, and experimental practices, the lab—grounded in care, interdependence, and an ethics of responsibility—engages with the social, ecological,
and political dimensions.
Design, for us, is not a tool for solving problems or optimizing systems. Instead, it is a practice of relational world making, reshaping the way we engage with one another, our environments, and material conditions. It draws on multiple disciplines and
knowledge traditions to imagine and create alternative ways of living. In a similar way, social innovation is not driven by economic efficiency or the outsourcing of public responsibility. For us, it is a collective and situated process rooted in
reciprocity, community knowledge, and diverse ways of knowing and acting.
Commitments in Practice
Amid global crises such as environmental degradation, mass displacement, political instability, rising inequalities, and rapid technological change, DESIS Lab reaffirms its commitment to democratic values, planetary interdependence, and the preservation
of cultural and biological diversity as essential to collective well-being. Our practice focuses on the spaces that exist in the interstices of established disciplines, societal structures, and cultural norms—fluid and transitional zones where
new possibilities emerge. Inspired by Hannah Arendt’s notion of living "between past and future," we view these in-between spaces as catalysts for political action and regenerative ways of living, confronting injustices while cultivating the commons
as a foundation for shared futures.
Local and Global Collaborations
We collaborate with local partners in New York City and allies around the world, engaging in both small- and large-scale research projects. Parsons DESIS Lab was part of the founding group of the DESIS Network in 2010, which now comprises more than 60 university-based design labs worldwide, all dedicated to advancing social innovation and sustainability through research and education.
DESIS Network initiatives include:
- Documenting and sharing social innovation practices
- Facilitating cross-lab collaborations and academic exchanges
- Co-developing and co-teaching courses across universities
- Carrying out comparative research programs