Designers Sergio Palleroni and Bryan Bell discuss the relevance and potential for design to solve critical issues in the world. They describe projects being executed internationally with their college students to foster civic environmentalism and address issues such as hunger, community, and unemployment.

Many families are still crowded into one-bedroom FEMA trailers even 2 years after Hurricane Katrina devastated the US Gulf Coast. The Building Goodness Foundation has been providing relief to these cramped conditions building extra rooms for storage or a living room, even an extra bedroom. Over 150 of these extra rooms have been built in...