EP 45: Designing for Inclusivity | Pinar Guvenc

Design Lab with Bon Ku

Pinar Guvenc is a partner of SOUR, an international, award-winning architecture and design studio with the mission to address social and urban problems through sustainable, adaptive and inclusive methodologies. In addition to managing the business operations, she also leads strategic planning, research and partnerships of the studio. Prior to SOUR, Pinar co-founded various ventures where she helped set-up company infrastructure and grow them through funding or incubation, achieving international recognition and awards. New York Functional Furniture – an e-commerce platform for functional furniture designed in NYC, was acquired by Lazzoni USA after its showroom opening in 2015 and Sponge Inc. - a clean-tech startup - won three international awards, and has been accepted to EU’s Climate KIC Accelerator in Netherlands and Plug and Play Incubator in California, USA. Pinar is also part-time faculty at Parsons School of Design, School of Design Strategies and serves on the Board of Directors of Open Style Lab, a nonprofit organization initiated at MIT, with the purpose of making style accessible to people of all abilities. She created and teaches a strategic collaborations workshop series for Pratt Center for Community Development and Made in NYC initiative. Pinar is a frequent public speaker and a guest lecturer, and hosts the panels and podcasts of What's Wrong With, a series of discussions with progress makers and experts to diagnose real problems, ideate solutions and raise awareness to the general public. Pinar has a BSc in Industrial Engineering and MSc in Economics & Finance. Bon and Pinar talk about why inclusive design is better design, diagnostic ideation, and the broadening definition of health.