From micro-irrigation systems in Afghanistan, to weatherizing informal dwellings in Argentina, MIT D-Lab students, staff, and local partners around the world continue to practice co-design with creativity, empathy, and rigor. Why co-design? Because D-Lab understands that designing hand-in-hand with community members is critical to developing durable solutions to the complex, interconnected challenges of poverty, climate change, and social inequality.
In Academic Year 2025, across the three pillars of our work — academics, research, and practice — D-Lab pursued work in 23 countries with international collaborators, such as local nongovernmental organizations and social enterprises, to shape student projects, produce research, design technologies, host summits and trainings, and more.
As our students and staff traveled the world, D-Lab moved its MIT home from the Office of the Vice Chancellor to the MIT Morningside Academy for Design (MAD) within the School of Architecture and Planning. Though not a physical move (D-Lab is still in its iconic and colorful suite of classrooms, workshops, and offices in N51), joining MAD’s ecosystem strengthens our connections to the MIT design and academic communities, setting the stage for productive collaborations on campus and abroad.
While shifts in the global landscape of international development have been less positive, with reductions in vital resources affecting millions of people (including our programs and partners), D-Lab remains a vibrant hub of hands-on experiential learning. Throughout the year, students and staff engaged in dozens of projects with low-resource communities around the world.
We invite you to explore this 2024-2025 D-Brief, to read some highlights and milestones, and to visit the D-Lab website for more stories that inspire us every day.
Contact
Nancy Adams, MIT D-Lab Communications Officer