Indigenous Public Interest Design Institute
December 2026 | Article by Ron Acob
The Public Interest Design Institute of Design Corps is facilitating “Continuing the Conversation: Everything in Interrelated on January 30, 2025, 9-10 PM PST. This is an ongoing dialogue that continues the discussion begun at the Indigenous Public Interest Design Institute held on October 24, 2025.
The Director of the Center for Public Interest Design will be presenting 40 years of work in the field, offering case studies/audience Q&A. In this 1 hour Deep Dive – The topic will cover the notion that everything is interrelated as a designer. Key elements will be: Learning to Apply a Relational Worldview Based on Cultural Values of those you Serve; Using locally sourced natural materials in ways that build on cultural values; Discovering Country; The importance of recognizing the four directions, while Honoring Water, Earth, Light, Air, Seasons, and the other species on the Land on which you will build, presented by Sergio Palleroni.
Sergio Palleroni is a faculty member in the School of Architecture and the Director and Co-founder of the Center for Public Interest Design (CPID) at Portland State University. Professor Palleroni’s research and fieldwork for more than four decades has been in the development and implementation of practices, protocols and methods of public interest design practices that have the potential improve the lives of communities worldwide typically underserved by architecture.
In 1988, to serve the needs of these communities he co-founded an academic outreach program that would later become the BaSiC Initiative (https://www.spatialagency.net/database/basic.initiative), a service-learning fieldwork program focused on advancing design-build pedagogy as a collaborative model and framework with communities in need for social impact and systemic change. This is reflected in BaSiC projects and more recent work through the Center for Public Interest Design (http://www.centerforpublicinterestdesign.org), which are expanding the engagement opportunities, skill, and capacity of students and professionals in the architecture and design field to engage the complex needs of communities in the U.S. and abroad.
In service of addressing this need, he helped create the Graduate Certificate in Public Interest Design at PSU in 2012, the first public interest design degree in the Americas. He is also Co-founder of the American Indian Housing Initiative, Yaqui Housing Initiative, and asset based community design based housing programs in collaboration with First Nations in the U.S. and abroad as well.
To learn more visit: Continuing the Conversation: Everything is Interrelated
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