EP 45: Designing for Inclusivity | Pinar Guvenc

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.