MIT-D Lab Tour & Design Thinking

Marisol Consuegra Prado
Oct 24, 2019
3 min read

With my interest in site planning and design thinking, I went to the MIT calendar page and found out that the MIT D-Lab was giving a free community tour the following day. I fought the urge of going to the lab's website right away. Instead, today I learned all about their work through a dialogue with their tour guide.

Background:

Turns out, the Founding Director of the MIT D-Lab is Amy Smith. The D-Lab actually began with the name "The Haiti Class" and it was focused on development efforts in Haiti. They quickly realized their work could expand to others areas of the globe and renamed it the "D-Lab". Technically speaking, the "D" stands for their first ever tagline "development through dialogue, design, and dissemination". However, according to the student leading today's tour, some students joke that it stands for "derailment" because, after students take their classes, they all change their majors to better align to the work they partake in during their time at the D-Lab. The tour guide herself also changed her major after taking her first ever class there and has collaborated with them for the past three years. The D-Lab is now an academic department that offers project-based classes, opportunities for local and global fieldwork, and a makers space.

Space:

Bicilavadora- a structured, powered by a bike, that washes clothes

A Community

While walking throughout the tour, I noticed little details about their space that I'd like to share with you. Their space is divided by narrow hallways and adjacent offices. Along the hallways, they have poster boards of the work current and past students work on/have completed. It showed a sense of community and pride towards their work.

"I was worried about what I could achieve for other people, but by the end, I realized that what was much more important was what I could show people they could achieve themselves."

A Dialogue

The bulletin boards also shared quotes from MIT alumni about their past fieldwork such as "This gave me hope again, I believe I can make things and solve problems" and "I was worried about what I could achieve for other people, but by the end, I realized that what was much more important was what I could show people they could achieve themselves." It almost felt like the walls could talk to you. Through their quotes, I could hear empathy, curiosity, and hope.

A Live Show

Throughout their space, they also have live prototypes and installations of completed projects. A popular project loved by many is their corn sheller tool. As the tour guide explained the context and usability of the tool, she encouraged us to use the tool with the corn provided in the table. As I tried using the corn sheller, I suddenly felt transported miles away next to other workers getting the corn of the day ready. It's interactive installations like these that allow people to connect to others and be inspired to create more and impact the world.

If you want to learn more about the corn sheller, click here.

Design Thinking

There is a lot more to love about the MIT D-Lab, from the tiny colorful couches, to the large bookcase in a corner, to the massive workshop studio. I believe what I admire the most is their continuous effort to co-design. Through the frameworks of design thinking and lean user research, they partner with community leaders and co-design solutions for the communities' needs. The MIT D-Lab members are addressing global needs one design at a time and through the power of community. They have previously partnered with MIT Legatum, MIT Sandbox, Harvard School of Design, and Tufts Fletcher School. Moreover, they currently have partners all around the globe through onsite work at different countries like Colombia, Uganda and Greece. Click here to see how they describe their impact approach.

See below how they share their work and values throughout their physical space!