About the Design Gym Online
our Origin story
The Design Gym and Design Gym Online were imagined and built by the Design Studio for Social Intervention (DS4SI), in collaboration with Radical Imagination for Racial Justice (RIRJ).
DS4SI is an artistic research and development outfit for the improvement of civil society and everyday life. DS4SI partners with communities, artists, and social justice practitioners to imagine, demonstrate, and collectively rebuild places to be more just and vibrant.
RIRJ invites Boston-based artists and creatives of color to imagine and co-create racial justice with their communities.
In 2022, RIRJ and DS4SI launched a series of Civic Design Courses for BIPoC artists and organizers in Boston in the Design Gym.
2022 Civic Design cohort
What is the Design Gym?
The Design Gym is a place where you can come and work on the design of your neighborhood, city, and public life.
It’s a new community infrastructure, a mashup, a place to work out new ideas, stretch the muscles of imagination, meet neighborhood artists and organizers, imagine and prototype new solutions, learn design techniques, and collectively rebuild our communities to be more just and vibrant.
The first Design Gym is located in Uphams Corner, Dorchester, MA. We would love for you to come visit us!
What is the Design Gym Online?
The Design Gym Online is an extension of the Design Gym. It is digital public resource to practice designing for social change. Our site is organized into three learning spaces—why study everyday life?, ideas-arrangements-effects, and social intervention design—and a resource library.
Imagination work is best done alongside others. So we recommend using this site with a friend, team, or ideally someone who thinks wildly different from you.
Look around, question assumptions, and test your ideas. Then come back to the Design Gym Online whenever you feel stuck or need some new tools or inspiration.